The 1,000 most frequently used English words ranked by usage. Includes word frequency data, parts of speech, and learning tips.
Updated March 2026
| Rank | Word | Part of Speech | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | the | Article | 7.14% |
| 2 | be | Verb | 3.63% |
| 3 | to | Preposition | 3.56% |
| 4 | of | Preposition | 3.49% |
| 5 | and | Conjunction | 2.67% |
| 6 | a | Article | 2.30% |
| 7 | in | Preposition | 2.04% |
| 8 | that | Pronoun | 1.47% |
| 9 | have | Verb | 1.34% |
| 10 | I | Pronoun | 1.23% |
| 11 | it | Pronoun | 1.16% |
| 12 | for | Preposition | 1.07% |
| 13 | not | Adverb | 1.04% |
| 14 | on | Preposition | 0.98% |
| 15 | with | Preposition | 0.95% |
| 16 | he | Pronoun | 0.94% |
| 17 | as | Conjunction | 0.87% |
| 18 | you | Pronoun | 0.85% |
| 19 | do | Verb | 0.83% |
| 20 | at | Preposition | 0.75% |
| 21 | this | Pronoun | 0.74% |
| 22 | but | Conjunction | 0.72% |
| 23 | his | Pronoun | 0.68% |
| 24 | by | Preposition | 0.66% |
| 25 | from | Preposition | 0.64% |
| 26 | they | Pronoun | 0.63% |
| 27 | we | Pronoun | 0.60% |
| 28 | say | Verb | 0.57% |
| 29 | her | Pronoun | 0.55% |
| 30 | she | Pronoun | 0.54% |
| 31 | or | Conjunction | 0.53% |
| 32 | an | Article | 0.51% |
| 33 | will | Verb | 0.50% |
| 34 | my | Pronoun | 0.48% |
| 35 | one | Numeral | 0.47% |
| 36 | all | Determiner | 0.46% |
| 37 | would | Verb | 0.45% |
| 38 | there | Adverb | 0.44% |
| 39 | their | Pronoun | 0.43% |
| 40 | what | Pronoun | 0.42% |
| 41 | so | Adverb | 0.41% |
| 42 | up | Adverb | 0.40% |
| 43 | out | Adverb | 0.39% |
| 44 | if | Conjunction | 0.38% |
| 45 | about | Preposition | 0.37% |
| 46 | who | Pronoun | 0.36% |
| 47 | get | Verb | 0.35% |
| 48 | which | Pronoun | 0.34% |
| 49 | go | Verb | 0.33% |
| 50 | me | Pronoun | 0.32% |
| Words Known | Coverage | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Top 10 words | 25% | of all English text |
| Top 100 words | 50% | of all English text |
| Top 300 words | 65% | of all English text |
| Top 1,000 words | 80% | of all English text |
| Top 3,000 words | 90% | of all English text |
| Top 5,000 words | 95% | of all English text |
| Total English words | 170,000+ | in current use |
| Category | Most Common Words | |
|---|---|---|
| Nouns | time, year, people, way, day, man, woman, child, world, life, hand, part, place, case, week | |
| Verbs | be, have, do, say, get, make, go, know, take, see, come, think, look, want, give | |
| Adjectives | good, new, first, last, long, great, little, own, other, old, right, big, high, different, small | |
| Adverbs | not, also, very, often, however, too, usually, really, already, always, never, sometimes, then, now | |
| Prepositions | to, of, in, for, on, with, at, by, from, up, about, into, over, after, through |
'The' is the most common English word, making up about 7.14% of all words in written English. It appears approximately 69,970 times per million words.
Knowing the top 1,000 words covers about 80% of everyday English. 3,000 words covers 90%. For fluency, 5,000-10,000 words is recommended.
There are approximately 170,000+ words currently in use in English, with about 47,000 considered obsolete. The Oxford English Dictionary contains over 600,000 entries.
The most common English verbs are: be, have, do, say, get, make, go, know, take, see, come, think, look, want, and give.