Fun With Words: Word Frequencies

The most commonly used word in written English, by pretty much any reliable standard, is the, appearing nearly twice as often as the next most common word. The most commonly used word in spoken English, however, is I, followed, in order, by you, the, and a.

The following lists are the most commonly used words in written English by a number of different sources:

American Heritage Word Frequency Book

By John B. Carroll

Guinness Book of World Records

Frequency Analysis of English Vocabulary and Grammar

Based on the LOB Corpus by Stig Johansson and Knut Hofland

Words In the Works of Shakespeare

the
of
and
a
to
in
is
you
that
it
he
for
was
on
are
as
with
his
they
at
be
this
from
I
have
or
by
one
had
not
but
what
all
were
when
we
there
can
an
your
which
their
said
if
do
will
each
about
how
up
out
them
then
she
many
some
so
these
would
other
into
has
more
her
two
like
him
see
time
could
no
make
than
first
been
its
who
now
people
my
made
over
did
down
only
way
find
use
may
water
long
little
very
after
words
called
just
where
most
know

the
of
and
to
a
in
that
is
I
it
for
as

the
of
and
to
a
in
that
is
was
it
for
he
as
with
be
on
I
his

the
and
I
to
of
a
you
my
that
in
is
not
with
as
for
it
me
his
be
he

8598 words are used only once.

The next hundred are: get, through, back, much, before, go, good, new, write, our, used, me, man, too, any, day, same, right, look, think, also, around, another, came, come, work, three, word, must, because, does, part, even, place, well, such, here, take, why, things, help, put, years, different, away, again, off, went, old, number, great, tell, men, say, small, every, found, still, between, name, should, Mr, home, big, give, air, line, set, own, under, read, last, never, us, left, end, along, while, might, next, sound, below, saw, something, thought, both, few, those, always.