Most common words in English facts for kids
This list shows the most common words in English. It was made by experts at Oxford University Press.
When we say 'words' here, we mean a main word you'd find in a dictionary. These are called lemmas. A lemma is like the basic form of a word. For example, the lemma 'be' includes words like 'is', 'are', 'was', and 'were'.
This list comes from studying over a billion (that's 1,000,000,000!) words! It's part of a big project by Oxford Online, which is linked to the famous Oxford English Dictionary.
They looked at all kinds of writing. This includes books, newspapers, magazines, and even online chats, emails, and blogs. This means the list is super accurate because it covers how people really use English every day.
Did you know? The first 25 words on this list make up about one-third of all English writing! And the first 100 words make up about half of everything written in English. That's a lot!
Contents
Top 100 English Words
This section shows the 100 most common words, or lemmas, in the English language. Remember, each word here can represent several forms. For example, 'be' covers 'is', 'are', 'was', and 'were'. These 100 words make up half of all words in the Oxford English Corpus (a huge collection of English texts).
| Rank | Word |
|---|---|
| 1 | the |
| 2 | be |
| 3 | to |
| 4 | of |
| 5 | and |
| 6 | a |
| 7 | in |
| 8 | that |
| 9 | have |
| 10 | I |
| Rank | Word |
|---|---|
| 11 | it |
| 12 | for |
| 13 | not |
| 14 | on |
| 15 | with |
| 16 | he |
| 17 | as |
| 18 | you |
| 19 | do |
| 20 | at |
| Rank | Word |
|---|---|
| 21 | this |
| 22 | but |
| 23 | his |
| 24 | by |
| 25 | from |
| 26 | they |
| 27 | we |
| 28 | say |
| 29 | her |
| 30 | she |
| Rank | Word |
|---|---|
| 31 | or |
| 32 | will |
| 33 | an |
| 34 | my |
| 35 | one |
| 36 | all |
| 37 | would |
| 38 | there |
| 39 | their |
| 40 | what |
| Rank | Word |
|---|---|
| 41 | so |
| 42 | up |
| 43 | out |
| 44 | if |
| 45 | about |
| 46 | who |
| 47 | get |
| 48 | which |
| 49 | go |
| 50 | when |
| Rank | Word |
|---|---|
| 51 | me |
| 52 | make |
| 53 | can |
| 54 | like |
| 55 | time |
| 56 | no |
| 57 | just |
| 58 | him |
| 59 | know |
| 60 | take |
| Rank | Word |
|---|---|
| 61 | person |
| 62 | into |
| 63 | year |
| 64 | your |
| 65 | good |
| 66 | some |
| 67 | could |
| 68 | them |
| 69 | see |
| 70 | other |
| Rank | Word |
|---|---|
| 71 | than |
| 72 | then |
| 73 | now |
| 74 | look |
| 75 | only |
| 76 | come |
| 77 | its |
| 78 | over |
| 79 | think |
| 80 | also |
| Rank | Word |
|---|---|
| 81 | back |
| 82 | after |
| 83 | use |
| 84 | two |
| 85 | how |
| 86 | our |
| 87 | work |
| 88 | first |
| 89 | well |
| 90 | way |
| Rank | Word |
|---|---|
| 91 | even |
| 92 | new |
| 93 | want |
| 94 | because |
| 95 | any |
| 96 | these |
| 97 | give |
| 98 | day |
| 99 | most |
| 100 | us |
Word Types: Parts of Speech
Words can be grouped by their job in a sentence. This is called their 'part of speech'. Some words are very common because they help connect other words. These are called 'function words'. Other words carry more meaning and are called 'content words'.
For example, prepositions (like 'in' or 'on') and connectives (like 'and' or 'but') are 'function words'. They are often more common than 'content words' like nouns (names of things), most verbs (action words), adjectives (describing words), and adverbs (describing actions).
Some words, like 'be', can act as both a content word and a function word. The numbers in parentheses show their rank in the overall top 100 list.
Common NounsNouns are words for people, places, things, or ideas.
Common VerbsVerbs are action words or words that describe a state of being.
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Common AdjectivesAdjectives are words that describe nouns.
Common PrepositionsPrepositions are words that show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence, often about location or time.
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