Most popular words in English
Teachers:
What are the most popular words in the English language—in other words, the words used most often? How many of the top 100 words can you guess?
The interactive quiz at http://quizicon.com/100-Most-Common-English-Words-Quiz.html is fun to take and takes only five minutes. (It's timed.) Give it a try yourself, and have your students try it online, working in pairs or small groups. (Type a word into the box at the upper left. If it is in the top 100, it will pop into the grid and disappear at the top. If it isn't, the word will stay and you have to delete it in order to put in the next word.)
If it's not possible for kids to take the test online, you can have them get into small groups and list the words they think will be on the list. (See below for answers—after you've tried it yourself.)
A hint you can give the students: the list includes many prepositions, articles, pronouns, helping verbs, and conjunctions. (Ahhh...review possibilities!)
See how everyone does. (Here in the office, the scores ranged from 26 to 54%. It's not easy!) These 100 words make up roughly half of all written language. *
Next discuss with students why they think these words are the words on the top 100 list. What do the words have in common? Are the words generally interesting words? Why not? Why are most of them so short? Discuss.
Finally, have students work in groups to use all 100 words listed in the shortest possible written work. They might write a letter, a short story, a newspaper account, a rant, an essay—whatever works for them. When all have completed their work, have students read some of the works aloud.
If students have really managed to write short pieces, they will likely not be very interesting. That can lead to a discussion of what makes writing interesting. One important component is using interesting words and details. The words from the top 100 list certainly don't qualify as attention grabbers! They are useful and necessary. However, they aren't what you need to make something interesting or compelling.
*Sources vary on which are the top 100 words, though they tend to be quite similar. (Some will lump all forms of "be" under "be," for example, while others will list "is," "be," "am," etc., separately.)
100 Most Frequently Used Words in English
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 |
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