Most 100 common words in English

November 11, 2019

A list of 100 words that occur most frequently in written English is given below, based on an analysis of the Oxford English Corpus (a collection of texts in the English language, comprising over 2 billion running words)

WordParts of speechOEC rankCOCA rank
theArticle11
beVerb22
toPreposition37, 9
ofPreposition44
andConjunction53
aArticle65
inPreposition76, 128, 3038
thatConjunction et al.812, 27, 903
haveVerb98
IPronoun1011
itPronoun1110
forPreposition1213, 2339
notAdverb et al.1328, 2929
onPreposition1417, 155
withPreposition1516
hePronoun1615
asAdverb, conjunction, et al.1733, 49, 129
youPronoun1814
doVerb, noun1918
atPreposition2022
thisDeterminer, adverb, noun2120, 4665
butPreposition, adverb, conjunction2223, 1715
hisPossessive pronoun2325, 1887
byPreposition2430, 1190
fromPreposition2526
theyPronoun2621
wePronoun2724
sayVerb et al.2819
herPossessive pronoun29, 10642
shePronoun3031
orConjunction3132
anArticle32(a)
willVerb, noun3348, 1506
myPossessive pronoun3444
oneNoun, adjective, et al.3551, 104, 839
allAdjective3643, 222
wouldVerb3741
thereAdverb, pronoun, et al.3853, 116
theirPossessive pronoun3936
whatPronoun, adverb, et al.4034
soConjunction, adverb, et al.4155, 196
upAdverb, preposition, et al.4250, 456
outPreposition4364, 149
ifConjunction4440
aboutPreposition, adverb, et al.4546, 179
whoPronoun, noun4638
getVerb4739
which 4858
goVerb, noun4935
mePronoun5061
when 5157, 136
makeVerb, noun5245
can 5337, 2973
like 5474, 208, 1123, 1684, 2702
time 5552
no 5693, 699, 916, 1111, 4555
justAdjective5766, 1823
himPronoun5868
knowVerb, noun5947
takeVerb, noun6063
peopleNoun6162
into 6265
yearNoun6354
yourPossessive pronoun6469
goodAdjective65110, 2280
some 6660
couldVerb6771
them 6859
seeVerb6967
otheradjective, pronoun7075, 715, 2355
thanconjunction, preposition7173, 712
thenadverb7277
nowpreposition7372, 1906
lookVerb7485, 604
onlyadverb75101, 329
comeVerb7670
itsPossessive pronoun7778
overPreposition78124, 182
thinkverb7956
alsoadverb8087
backnoun, adverb81108, 323, 1877
afterPreposition82120, 260
useVerb, noun8392, 429
twonoun8480
howadverb8576
ourPossessive pronoun8679
workVerb, noun87117, 199
firstadjective8886, 2064
wellAdverb89100, 644
waynoun, adverb9084, 4090
evenadjective91107, 484
newAdjective et al.9288
wantverb9383
becauseconjunction9489, 509
anypronoun95109, 4720
thesepronoun9682
giveVerb9798
daynoun9890
mostadverb99144, 187
usPronoun100113

Parts of speech

The following is the same list subdivided by part of speech

Nouns

  1. time
  2. person
  3. year
  4. way
  5. day
  6. thing
  7. man
  8. world
  9. life
  10. hand
  11. part
  12. child
  13. eye
  14. woman
  15. place
  16. work
  17. week
  18. case
  19. point
  20. government
  21. company
  22. number
  23. group
  24. problem
  25. fact

Verbs

  1. be
  2. have
  3. do
  4. say
  5. get
  6. make
  7. go
  8. know
  9. take
  10. see
  11. come
  12. think
  13. look
  14. want
  15. give
  16. use
  17. find
  18. tell
  19. ask
  20. work
  21. seem
  22. feel
  23. try
  24. leave
  25. call

Adjectives

  1. good
  2. new
  3. first
  4. last
  5. long
  6. great
  7. little
  8. own
  9. other
  10. old
  11. right
  12. big
  13. high
  14. different
  15. small
  16. large
  17. next
  18. early
  19. young
  20. important
  21. few
  22. public
  23. bad
  24. same
  25. able

Prepositions

  1. to
  2. of
  3. in
  4. for
  5. on
  6. with
  7. at
  8. by
  9. from
  10. up
  11. about
  12. into
  13. over
  14. after

Others

  1. the
  2. and
  3. a
  4. that
  5. I
  6. it
  7. not
  8. he
  9. as
  10. you
  11. this
  12. but
  13. his
  14. they
  15. her
  16. she
  17. or
  18. an
  19. will
  20. my
  21. one
  22. all
  23. would
  24. there
  25. their