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)
Word | Parts of speech | OEC rank | COCA rank |
---|---|---|---|
the | Article | 1 | 1 |
be | Verb | 2 | 2 |
to | Preposition | 3 | 7, 9 |
of | Preposition | 4 | 4 |
and | Conjunction | 5 | 3 |
a | Article | 6 | 5 |
in | Preposition | 7 | 6, 128, 3038 |
that | Conjunction et al. | 8 | 12, 27, 903 |
have | Verb | 9 | 8 |
I | Pronoun | 10 | 11 |
it | Pronoun | 11 | 10 |
for | Preposition | 12 | 13, 2339 |
not | Adverb et al. | 13 | 28, 2929 |
on | Preposition | 14 | 17, 155 |
with | Preposition | 15 | 16 |
he | Pronoun | 16 | 15 |
as | Adverb, conjunction, et al. | 17 | 33, 49, 129 |
you | Pronoun | 18 | 14 |
do | Verb, noun | 19 | 18 |
at | Preposition | 20 | 22 |
this | Determiner, adverb, noun | 21 | 20, 4665 |
but | Preposition, adverb, conjunction | 22 | 23, 1715 |
his | Possessive pronoun | 23 | 25, 1887 |
by | Preposition | 24 | 30, 1190 |
from | Preposition | 25 | 26 |
they | Pronoun | 26 | 21 |
we | Pronoun | 27 | 24 |
say | Verb et al. | 28 | 19 |
her | Possessive pronoun | 29, 106 | 42 |
she | Pronoun | 30 | 31 |
or | Conjunction | 31 | 32 |
an | Article | 32 | (a) |
will | Verb, noun | 33 | 48, 1506 |
my | Possessive pronoun | 34 | 44 |
one | Noun, adjective, et al. | 35 | 51, 104, 839 |
all | Adjective | 36 | 43, 222 |
would | Verb | 37 | 41 |
there | Adverb, pronoun, et al. | 38 | 53, 116 |
their | Possessive pronoun | 39 | 36 |
what | Pronoun, adverb, et al. | 40 | 34 |
so | Conjunction, adverb, et al. | 41 | 55, 196 |
up | Adverb, preposition, et al. | 42 | 50, 456 |
out | Preposition | 43 | 64, 149 |
if | Conjunction | 44 | 40 |
about | Preposition, adverb, et al. | 45 | 46, 179 |
who | Pronoun, noun | 46 | 38 |
get | Verb | 47 | 39 |
which | 48 | 58 | |
go | Verb, noun | 49 | 35 |
me | Pronoun | 50 | 61 |
when | 51 | 57, 136 | |
make | Verb, noun | 52 | 45 |
can | 53 | 37, 2973 | |
like | 54 | 74, 208, 1123, 1684, 2702 | |
time | 55 | 52 | |
no | 56 | 93, 699, 916, 1111, 4555 | |
just | Adjective | 57 | 66, 1823 |
him | Pronoun | 58 | 68 |
know | Verb, noun | 59 | 47 |
take | Verb, noun | 60 | 63 |
people | Noun | 61 | 62 |
into | 62 | 65 | |
year | Noun | 63 | 54 |
your | Possessive pronoun | 64 | 69 |
good | Adjective | 65 | 110, 2280 |
some | 66 | 60 | |
could | Verb | 67 | 71 |
them | 68 | 59 | |
see | Verb | 69 | 67 |
other | adjective, pronoun | 70 | 75, 715, 2355 |
than | conjunction, preposition | 71 | 73, 712 |
then | adverb | 72 | 77 |
now | preposition | 73 | 72, 1906 |
look | Verb | 74 | 85, 604 |
only | adverb | 75 | 101, 329 |
come | Verb | 76 | 70 |
its | Possessive pronoun | 77 | 78 |
over | Preposition | 78 | 124, 182 |
think | verb | 79 | 56 |
also | adverb | 80 | 87 |
back | noun, adverb | 81 | 108, 323, 1877 |
after | Preposition | 82 | 120, 260 |
use | Verb, noun | 83 | 92, 429 |
two | noun | 84 | 80 |
how | adverb | 85 | 76 |
our | Possessive pronoun | 86 | 79 |
work | Verb, noun | 87 | 117, 199 |
first | adjective | 88 | 86, 2064 |
well | Adverb | 89 | 100, 644 |
way | noun, adverb | 90 | 84, 4090 |
even | adjective | 91 | 107, 484 |
new | Adjective et al. | 92 | 88 |
want | verb | 93 | 83 |
because | conjunction | 94 | 89, 509 |
any | pronoun | 95 | 109, 4720 |
these | pronoun | 96 | 82 |
give | Verb | 97 | 98 |
day | noun | 98 | 90 |
most | adverb | 99 | 144, 187 |
us | Pronoun | 100 | 113 |
The following is the same list subdivided by part of speech
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