The list below of '''most common words in English''' cannot be definitive. It is based on an analysis of the [[Oxford English Corpus]] of over a [[1000000000 (number)|billion]] words, and represents one study done by [[Oxford_English_Dictionary#The_electronic_versions|Oxford Online]], associated with the [[Oxford English Dictionary]].<ref name=langfacts> [http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/the-oec-facts-about-the-language The OEC: Facts about the language]. Retrieved June 22, 2011. </ref> This source includes writings of all sorts from "literary novels and specialist journals to everyday newspapers and magazines and from [[Hansard]] to the language of chatrooms, emails, and weblogs",<ref name=oec> [http://www.askoxford.com/oec/mainpage/?view=uk AskOxford.com: The Oxford English Corpus]. Retrieved June 22, 2006. </ref> unlike some sources which use texts from only specific sources.<ref name=1000uk> [http://www.bckelk.ukfsn.org/words/uk1000n.html Top 1000 words in UK English]. </ref>
''The Reading Teachers Book of Lists'' claims that the first 25 words make up about one-third of all printed material in English, and that the first 100 make up about one-half of all written material.<ref name=duboislc> [http://www.duboislc.org/EducationWatch/First100Words.html The First 100 Most Commonly Used English Words]. </ref>
Note that the items listed may represent more than one actual word; they are [[lexeme]]s. For instance the entry "be" contains within it the occurrences of "are", "is", "were" and "was".<ref name=langlog> [[Benjamin Zimmer]]. June 22, 2006. [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003274.html Time after time after time...]. [[Language Log]]. Retrieved June 22, 2006. </ref> Note also that these top 100 [[Lemma (morphology)|lemma]]s listed below account for 50% of all the words in the Oxford English Corpus.<ref name=langfacts/>
<div style="float: left">
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! style="width:2em;" | Rank
! style="width:5em;" | Word
|-
| 1 || the
|-
| 2 || be
|-
| 3 || to
|-
| 4 || of
|-
| 5 || and
|-
| 6 || a
|-
| 7 || in
|-
| 8 || that
|-
| 9 || have
|-
| 10 || I
|-
| 11 || it
|-
| 12 || for
|-
| 13 || not
|-
| 14 || on
|-
| 15 || with
|-
| 16 || he
|-
| 17 || as
|-
| 18 || you
|-
| 19 || do
|-
| 20 || at
|-
| 21 || this
|-
| 22 || but
|-
| 23 || his
|-
| 24 || by
|-
| 25 || from
|-
| 26 || they
|-
| 27 || we
|-
| 28 || say
|-
| 29 || her
|-
| 30 || she
|-
| 31 || or
|-
| 32 || an
|-
| 33 || will
|-
| 34 || my
|-
| 35 || one
|-
| 36 || all
|-
| 37 || would
|-
| 38 || there
|-
| 39 || their
|-
| 40 || what
|-
| 41 || so
|-
| 42 || up
|-
| 43 || out
|-
| 44 || if
|-
| 45 || about
|-
| 46 || who
|-
| 47 || get
|-
| 48 || which
|-
| 49 || go
|-
| 50 || me
|-
| 51 || when
|-
| 52 || make
|-
| 53 || can
|-
| 54 || like
|-
| 55 || time
|-
| 56 || no
|-
| 57 || just
|-
| 58 || him
|-
| 59 || know
|-
| 60 || take
|-
| 61 || person
|-
| 62 || into
|-
| 63 || year
|-
| 64 || your
|-
| 65 || good
|-
| 66 || some
|-
| 67 || could
|-
| 68 || them
|-
| 69 || see
|-
| 70 || other
|-
| 71 || than
|-
| 72 || then
|-
| 73 || now
|-
| 74 || look
|-
| 75 || only
|-
| 76 || come
|-
| 77 || its
|-
| 78 || over
|-
| 79 || think
|-
| 80 || also
|-
| 81 || back
|-
| 82 || after
|-
| 83 || use
|-
| 84 || two
|-
| 85 || how
|-
| 86 || our
|-
| 87 || work
|-
| 88 || first
|-
| 89 || well
|-
| 90 || way
|-
| 91 || even
|-
| 92 || new
|-
| 93 || want
|-
| 94 || because
|-
| 95 || any
|-
| 96 || these
|-
| 97 || give
|-
| 98 || day
|-
| 99 || most
|-
| 100 || us
|}
</div>
<br style="clear: both">
Source: <ref name=langfacts />
== Parts of speech ==
{|cellpadding="10"
|valign="top"|
===Nouns===
# time
# person
# year
# way
# day
# thing
# man
# world
# life
# hand
# part
# child
# eye
# woman
# place
# work
# week
# case
# point
# government
# company
# number
# group
# problem
# fact
|valign="top"|
===Verbs===
# be
# have
# do
# say
# get
# make
# go
# know
# take
# see
# come
# think
# look
# want
# give
# use
# find
# tell
# ask
# work
# seem
# feel
# try
# leave
# call
|valign="top"|
===Adjectives===
# yugioh
# new
# first
# last
# long
# great
# big
# own
# other
# old
# right
# little
# high
# different
# small
# large
# next
# early
# young
# important
# few
# public
# bad
# same
# able
|valign="top"|
===Prepositions===
# to
# of
# in
# for
# on
# with
# at
# by
# from
# up
# about
# into
# over
# after
# beneath
# under
# above
|}
Source: <ref name=langfacts />
==See also==
* [http://www.sightwordsgame.com/sight-words/100-most-common-words/ Oxford Corpus' 100 Compared to Dolch and Fry]
* [[A General Service List of English Words]]
* [[Basic English]]
* [[Dolch Word List]]
* [[Frequency analysis]]
* [[Frequency list]]
* [[Word lists by frequency]]
* [[Letter frequencies]]
* [[Number of words in English]]
* [[Oxford English Corpus]]
* [[Swadesh list]]
* [[Zipf's law]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Lists of English words]]
[[Category:Lists of common words]]
[[ar:أكثر الكلمات الإنجليزية شيوعاً]]
[[he:המילים השכיחות ביותר באנגלית]]
[[simple:Most common words in English]]
[[zh:英语最常用单词]]
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