Difference between revisions of "English word frequencies (general)"
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==Top 100s== | ==Top 100s== | ||
− | These lists are | + | These lists are based on the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Corpus Oxford English Corpus]. |
===Top 100 words altogether=== | ===Top 100 words altogether=== | ||
Line 427: | Line 427: | ||
# cultural | # cultural | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===Top 100 function words=== | ||
+ | Function words include minor lexical categories like prepositions, conjunctions, minor adverbs, copular and auxiliary verbs, determiners, and other minor words. The following list is drawn from data from the British National Corpus, and includes some morphemes as well. | ||
+ | |||
+ | {| class="wikitable sortable" | ||
+ | ! Rank !! Word !! Word class | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1 || the || Det | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 2 || of* || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 3 || and || Conj | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 4 || a || Det | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 5 || in || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 6 || to || Inf | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 7 || to || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 8 || was || Verb | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 9 || it || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 10 || for || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 11 || with || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 12 || he || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 13 || be || Verb | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 14 || on || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 15 || I || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 16 || by || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 17 || 's || Gen | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 18 || at || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 19 || you || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 20 || had || Verb | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 21 || his || Det | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 22 || this || DetP | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 23 || have* || Verb | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 24 || but || Conj | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 25 || from || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 26 || which || DetP | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 27 || she || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 28 || they || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 29 || or || Conj | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 30 || an || Det | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 31 || were || Verb | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 32 || as || Conj | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 33 || we || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 34 || their || Det | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 35 || been || Verb | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 36 || has || Verb | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 37 || that || DetP | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 38 || will || VMod | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 39 || would || VMod | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 40 || her* || Det | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 41 || there || Ex | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 42 || n't || Neg | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 43 || all || DetP | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 44 || can || VMod | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 45 || if || Conj | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 46 || who || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 47 || what || DetP | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 48 || as || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 49 || 's || Verb | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 50 || one || Num | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 51 || its || Det | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 52 || into || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 53 || him || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 54 || some || DetP | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 55 || up || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 56 || could || VMod | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 57 || when || Conj | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 58 || them || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 59 || so || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 60 || out || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 61 || my || Det | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 62 || two || Num | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 63 || about || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 64 || then || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 65 || no || Det | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 66 || more || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 67 || also || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 68 || only || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 69 || me || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 70 || first || Ord | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 71 || your || Det | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 72 || may || VMod | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 73 || now || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 74 || new || Adj | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 75 || any || DetP | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 76 || her || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 77 || than || Conj | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 78 || like || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 79 || just || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 80 || after || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 81 || between || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 82 || many || DetP | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 83 || how || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 84 || our || Det | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 85 || being || Verb | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 86 || those || DetP | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 87 || such || DetP | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 88 || down || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 89 || one || Pron | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 90 || through || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 91 || over || Prep | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 92 || even || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 93 || must || VMod | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 94 || own || DetP | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 95 || because* || Conj | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 96 || three || Num | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 97 || last || Ord | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 98 || more || DetP | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 99 || however || Adv | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 100 || on || Adv | ||
+ | |} | ||
+ | |||
==Academic word list== | ==Academic word list== | ||
− | These are the most frequent, general academic words that all university students should know. This table contains the top 570 academic words in use across various fields. This is actually a list for word groups, not just the words themselves. For example, | + | These are the most frequent, general academic words that all university students should know. This table contains the top 570 academic words in use across various fields. This is actually a list for word groups, not just the words themselves. For example, the term ''abstract'' would include derived words that one should also know, such as ''abstraction, abstractly''; for ''access'', one should know, e.g., ''accessibility, accessible, accessing, inaccessible'', etc. This list is from http://www.lextutor.ca (where other word list files are also available, including a list of the 3000 top academic words in the 570 word groups). |
<div style="column-count:6;-moz-column-count:6;-webkit-column-count:6;"> | <div style="column-count:6;-moz-column-count:6;-webkit-column-count:6;"> | ||
Line 1,008: | Line 1,217: | ||
+ | ==See also== | ||
+ | <categorytree mode=pages>Lexical frequency lists</categorytree> | ||
− | + | ===External sites and reference=== | |
− | + | * [https://www.sketchengine.eu/oxford-english-corpus/ Oxford English Corpus] | |
− | + | * [http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/ British National Corpus] | |
+ | * [http://www.kilgarriff.co.uk/bnc-readme.html BNC database and word frequency lists] | ||
+ | * [https://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/bncfreq/flists.html BNC frequency lists] | ||
+ | * [https://www.lextutor.ca/ Lextutor] | ||
[[Category:Vocabulary]] [[Category:Lexical frequency lists]] | [[Category:Vocabulary]] [[Category:Lexical frequency lists]] |
Latest revision as of 09:06, 18 August 2022
Below are various basic word frequency lists for English, which can be helpful for beginning and intermediate learners of English, or for teachers.
Contents
1 Top 100s
These lists are based on the Oxford English Corpus.
1.1 Top 100 words altogether
- the
- be
- to
- of
- and
- a
- in
- that
- have
- I
- it
- for
- not
- on
- with
- he
- as
- you
- do
- at
- this
- but
- his
- by
- from
- they
- we
- say
- her
- she
- or
- an
- will
- my
- one
- all
- would
- there
- their
- what
- so
- up
- out
- if
- about
- who
- get
- which
- go
- me
- when
- make
- can
- like
- time
- no
- just
- him
- know
- take
- people
- into
- year
- your
- good
- some
- could
- them
- see
- other
- than
- then
- now
- look
- only
- come
- its
- over
- think
- also
- back
- after
- use
- two
- how
- our
- work
- first
- well
- way
- even
- new
- want
- because
- any
- these
- give
- day
- most
- us
1.2 100 Most common verbs
- be
- have
- do
- say
- go
- can
- get
- would
- make
- know
- will
- think
- take
- see
- come
- could
- want
- look
- use
- find
- give
- tell
- work
- may
- should
- call
- try
- ask
- need
- feel
- become
- leave
- put
- mean
- keep
- let
- begin
- seem
- help
- talk
- turn
- start
- might
- show
- hear
- play
- run
- move
- like
- live
- believe
- hold
- bring
- happen
- must
- write
- provide
- sit
- stand
- lose
- pay
- meet
- include
- continue
- set
- learn
- change
- lead
- understand
- watch
- follow
- stop
- create
- speak
- read
- allow
- add
- spend
- grow
- open
- walk
- win
- offer
- remember
- love
- consider
- appear
- buy
- wait
- serve
- die
- send
- expect
- build
- stay
- fall
- cut
- reach
- kill
- remain
1.3 100 Most common nouns
- time
- year
- people
- way
- day
- man
- thing
- woman
- life
- child
- world
- school
- state
- family
- student
- group
- country
- problem
- hand
- part
- place
- case
- week
- company
- system
- program
- question
- work
- government
- number
- night
- point
- home
- water
- room
- mother
- area
- money
- story
- fact
- month
- lot
- right
- study
- book
- eye
- job
- word
- business
- issue
- side
- kind
- head
- house
- service
- friend
- father
- power
- hour
- game
- line
- end
- member
- law
- car
- city
- community
- name
- president
- team
- minute
- idea
- kid
- body
- information
- back
- parent
- face
- others
- level
- office
- door
- health
- person
- art
- war
- history
- party
- result
- change
- morning
- reason
- research
- girl
- guy
- moment
- air
- teacher
- force
- education
1.4 100 Most common adjectives
- other
- new
- good
- high
- old
- great
- big
- American
- small
- large
- national
- young
- different
- black
- long
- little
- important
- political
- bad
- white
- real
- best
- right
- social
- only
- public
- sure
- low
- early
- able
- human
- local
- late
- hard
- major
- better
- economic
- strong
- possible
- whole
- free
- military
- true
- federal
- international
- full
- special
- easy
- clear
- recent
- certain
- personal
- open
- red
- difficult
- available
- likely
- short
- single
- medical
- current
- wrong
- private
- past
- foreign
- fine
- common
- poor
- natural
- significant
- similar
- hot
- dead
- central
- happy
- serious
- ready
- simple
- left
- physical
- general
- environmental
- financial
- blue
- democratic
- dark
- various
- entire
- close
- legal
- religious
- cold
- final
- main
- green
- nice
- huge
- popular
- traditional
- cultural
1.5 Top 100 function words
Function words include minor lexical categories like prepositions, conjunctions, minor adverbs, copular and auxiliary verbs, determiners, and other minor words. The following list is drawn from data from the British National Corpus, and includes some morphemes as well.
Rank | Word | Word class |
---|---|---|
1 | the | Det |
2 | of* | Prep |
3 | and | Conj |
4 | a | Det |
5 | in | Prep |
6 | to | Inf |
7 | to | Prep |
8 | was | Verb |
9 | it | Pron |
10 | for | Prep |
11 | with | Prep |
12 | he | Pron |
13 | be | Verb |
14 | on | Prep |
15 | I | Pron |
16 | by | Prep |
17 | 's | Gen |
18 | at | Prep |
19 | you | Pron |
20 | had | Verb |
21 | his | Det |
22 | this | DetP |
23 | have* | Verb |
24 | but | Conj |
25 | from | Prep |
26 | which | DetP |
27 | she | Pron |
28 | they | Pron |
29 | or | Conj |
30 | an | Det |
31 | were | Verb |
32 | as | Conj |
33 | we | Pron |
34 | their | Det |
35 | been | Verb |
36 | has | Verb |
37 | that | DetP |
38 | will | VMod |
39 | would | VMod |
40 | her* | Det |
41 | there | Ex |
42 | n't | Neg |
43 | all | DetP |
44 | can | VMod |
45 | if | Conj |
46 | who | Pron |
47 | what | DetP |
48 | as | Prep |
49 | 's | Verb |
50 | one | Num |
51 | its | Det |
52 | into | Prep |
53 | him | Pron |
54 | some | DetP |
55 | up | Adv |
56 | could | VMod |
57 | when | Conj |
58 | them | Pron |
59 | so | Adv |
60 | out | Adv |
61 | my | Det |
62 | two | Num |
63 | about | Prep |
64 | then | Adv |
65 | no | Det |
66 | more | Adv |
67 | also | Adv |
68 | only | Adv |
69 | me | Pron |
70 | first | Ord |
71 | your | Det |
72 | may | VMod |
73 | now | Adv |
74 | new | Adj |
75 | any | DetP |
76 | her | Pron |
77 | than | Conj |
78 | like | Prep |
79 | just | Adv |
80 | after | Prep |
81 | between | Prep |
82 | many | DetP |
83 | how | Adv |
84 | our | Det |
85 | being | Verb |
86 | those | DetP |
87 | such | DetP |
88 | down | Adv |
89 | one | Pron |
90 | through | Prep |
91 | over | Prep |
92 | even | Adv |
93 | must | VMod |
94 | own | DetP |
95 | because* | Conj |
96 | three | Num |
97 | last | Ord |
98 | more | DetP |
99 | however | Adv |
100 | on | Adv |
2 Academic word list
These are the most frequent, general academic words that all university students should know. This table contains the top 570 academic words in use across various fields. This is actually a list for word groups, not just the words themselves. For example, the term abstract would include derived words that one should also know, such as abstraction, abstractly; for access, one should know, e.g., accessibility, accessible, accessing, inaccessible, etc. This list is from http://www.lextutor.ca (where other word list files are also available, including a list of the 3000 top academic words in the 570 word groups).
- abandon
- abstract
- academy
- access
- accommodate
- accompany
- accumulate
- accurate
- achieve
- acknowledge
- acquire
- adapt
- adequate
- adjacent
- adjust
- administrate
- adult
- advocate
- affect
- aggregate
- aid
- albeit
- allocate
- alter
- alternative
- ambiguous
- amend
- analogy
- analyze
- annual
- anticipate
- apparent
- append
- appreciate
- approach
- appropriate
- approximate
- arbitrary
- area
- aspect
- assemble
- assess
- assign
- assist
- assume
- assure
- attach
- attain
- attitude
- attribute
- author
- authority
- automate
- available
- aware
- behalf
- benefit
- bias
- bond
- brief
- bulk
- capable
- capacity
- category
- cease
- challenge
- channel
- chapter
- chart
- chemical
- circumstance
- cite
- civil
- clarify
- classic
- clause
- code
- coherent
- coincide
- collapse
- colleague
- commence
- comment
- commission
- commit
- commodity
- communicate
- community
- compatible
- compensate
- compile
- complement
- complex
- component
- compound
- comprehensive
- comprise
- compute
- conceive
- concentrate
- concept
- conclude
- concurrent
- conduct
- confer
- confine
- confirm
- conflict
- conform
- consent
- consequent
- considerable
- consist
- constant
- constitute
- constrain
- construct
- consult
- consume
- contact
- contemporary
- context
- contract
- contradict
- contrary
- contrast
- contribute
- controversy
- convene
- converse
- convert
- convince
- cooperate
- coordinate
- core
- corporate
- correspond
- couple
- create
- credit
- criteria
- crucial
- culture
- currency
- cycle
- data
- debate
- decade
- decline
- deduce
- define
- definite
- demonstrate
- denote
- deny
- depress
- derive
- design
- despite
- detect
- deviate
- device
- devote
- differentiate
- dimension
- diminish
- discrete
- discriminate
- displace
- display
- dispose
- distinct
- distort
- distribute
- diverse
- document
- domain
- domestic
- dominate
- draft
- drama
- duration
- dynamic
- economy
- edit
- element
- eliminate
- emerge
- emphasis
- empirical
- enable
- encounter
- energy
- enforce
- enhance
- enormous
- ensure
- entity
- environment
- equate
- equip
- equivalent
- erode
- error
- establish
- estate
- estimate
- ethic
- ethnic
- evaluate
- eventual
- evident
- evolve
- exceed
- exclude
- exhibit
- expand
- expert
- explicit
- exploit
- export
- expose
- external
- extract
- facilitate
- factor
- feature
- federal
- fee
- file
- final
- finance
- finite
- flexible
- fluctuate
- focus
- format
- formula
- forthcoming
- foundation
- founded
- framework
- function
- fund
- fundamental
- furthermore
- gender
- generate
- generation
- globe
- goal
- grade
- grant
- guarantee
- guideline
- hence
- hierarchy
- highlight
- hypothesis
- identical
- identify
- ideology
- ignorant
- illustrate
- image
- immigrate
- impact
- implement
- implicate
- implicit
- imply
- impose
- incentive
- incidence
- incline
- income
- incorporate
- index
- indicate
- individual
- induce
- inevitable
- infer
- infrastructure
- inherent
- inhibit
- initial
- initiate
- injure
- innovate
- input
- insert
- insight
- inspect
- instance
- institute
- instruct
- integral
- integrate
- integrity
- intelligence
- intense
- interact
- intermediate
- internal
- interpret
- interval
- intervene
- intrinsic
- invest
- investigate
- invoke
- involve
- isolate
- issue
- item
- job
- journal
- justify
- label
- labor
- layer
- lecture
- legal
- legislate
- levy
- liberal
- licence
- likewise
- link
- locate
- logic
- maintain
- major
- manipulate
- manual
- margin
- mature
- maximize
- mechanism
- media
- mediate
- medical
- medium
- mental
- method
- migrate
- military
- minimal
- minimize
- minimum
- ministry
- minor
- mode
- modify
- monitor
- motive
- mutual
- negate
- network
- neutral
- nevertheless
- nonetheless
- norm
- normal
- notion
- notwithstanding
- nuclear
- objective
- obtain
- obvious
- occupy
- occur
- odd
- offset
- ongoing
- option
- orient
- outcome
- output
- overall
- overlap
- overseas
- panel
- paradigm
- paragraph
- parallel
- parameter
- participate
- partner
- passive
- perceive
- percent
- period
- persist
- perspective
- phase
- phenomenon
- philosophy
- physical
- plus
- policy
- portion
- pose
- positive
- potential
- practitioner
- precede
- precise
- predict
- predominant
- preliminary
- presume
- previous
- primary
- prime
- principal
- principle
- prior
- priority
- proceed
- process
- professional
- prohibit
- project
- promote
- proportion
- prospect
- protocol
- psychology
- publication
- publish
- purchase
- pursue
- qualitative
- quote
- radical
- random
- range
- ratio
- rational
- react
- recover
- refine
- regime
- region
- register
- regulate
- reinforce
- reject
- relax
- release
- relevant
- reluctance
- rely
- remove
- require
- research
- reside
- resolve
- resource
- respond
- restore
- restrain
- restrict
- retain
- reveal
- revenue
- reverse
- revise
- revolution
- rigid
- role
- route
- scenario
- schedule
- scheme
- scope
- section
- sector
- secure
- seek
- select
- sequence
- series
- sex
- shift
- significant
- similar
- simulate
- site
- so-called
- sole
- somewhat
- source
- specific
- specify
- sphere
- stable
- statistic
- status
- straightforward
- strategy
- stress
- structure
- style
- submit
- subordinate
- subsequent
- subsidy
- substitute
- successor
- sufficient
- sum
- summary
- supplement
- survey
- survive
- suspend
- sustain
- symbol
- tape
- target
- task
- team
- technical
- technique
- technology
- temporary
- tense
- terminate
- text
- theme
- theory
- thereby
- thesis
- topic
- trace
- tradition
- transfer
- transform
- transit
- transmit
- transport
- trend
- trigger
- ultimate
- undergo
- underlie
- undertake
- uniform
- unify
- unique
- utilize
- valid
- vary
- vehicle
- version
- via
- violate
- virtual
- visible
- vision
- visual
- volume
- voluntary
- welfare
- whereas
- whereby
- widespread