Word list

Most common English words

The 1,000 words people say most in English, ranked by how often they turn up in film and TV dialogue. The first ten make up 22% of everything said, the first hundred 54%.

Top 100 · Words 101 to 1,000 · Where the numbers come from

Which word is more common?

Put these five words in order, most common at the top. Drag a row, or use the arrows.

The 100 most common English words

"Per million" is how many times the word appears in every million words of dialogue. A level links to our study list where the word has a definition and an example.

Rank	Word	Per million	Level
1	you	39,179	·
2	I	36,863	·
3	the	30,978	·
4	to	23,272	·
5	a	19,713	·
6	it	18,552	·
7	and	14,389	A1
8	that	13,887	·
9	of	12,133	·
10	is	10,072	·
11	in	9,985	A1
12	what	9,391	A1
13	we	9,194	·
14	me	8,771	·
15	this	7,812	·
16	he	7,508	·
17	for	7,042	A1
18	my	6,722	·
19	on	6,562	·
20	have	6,484	A1
21	your	6,275	·
22	do	6,015	·
23	was	5,990	·
24	no	5,954	·
25	not	5,801	·
26	be	5,731	·
27	are	5,721	·
28	know	5,297	·
29	can	5,207	A2
30	with	5,181	·
31	but	4,942	·
32	all	4,824	·
33	so	4,674	A1
34	just	4,538	·
35	there	4,285	·
36	here	4,272	A1
37	they	4,165	·
38	like	4,060	B1
39	get	3,924	·
40	she	3,781	A1
41	go	3,727	B1
42	if	3,580	·
43	right	3,507	·
44	out	3,416	·
45	about	3,385	·
46	up	3,348	·
47	at	3,309	·
48	him	3,309	A1
49	now	3,129	·
50	oh	3,128	·
51	one	3,081	·
52	come	2,999	·
53	well	2,940	·
54	her	2,933	·
55	how	2,913	·
56	yeah	2,723	·
57	will	2,681	·
58	got	2,679	·
59	want	2,655	A1
60	think	2,503	A1
61	as	2,439	·
62	see	2,425	·
63	did	2,372	·
64	good	2,370	·
65	who	2,361	·
66	why	2,345	A1
67	from	2,327	·
68	let	2,321	·
69	his	2,268	A1
70	yes	2,224	A1
71	when	2,085	·
72	going	2,070	·
73	time	1,978	·
74	an	1,972	·
75	okay	1,945	·
76	back	1,912	A2
77	look	1,835	A2
78	us	1,833	·
79	would	1,824	·
80	them	1,807	·
81	where	1,800	·
82	were	1,791	·
83	take	1,786	·
84	then	1,736	A1
85	had	1,735	·
86	or	1,725	·
87	been	1,722	·
88	our	1,622	·
89	gonna	1,617	·
90	tell	1,601	·
91	really	1,599	·
92	man	1,597	·
93	some	1,588	·
94	say	1,570	·
95	hey	1,564	·
96	could	1,513	·
97	by	1,484	·
98	need	1,416	A2
99	something	1,414	·
100	has	1,409	·

Words 101 to 1,000

Each block is in rank order. Together with the top 100, these 1,000 words cover 76% of the dialogue in the source.

101 to 200

too, more, way, down, make, very, never, only, people, over, because, little, please, love, should, mean, said, sorry, give, off, am, thank, any, two, even, much, doing, sure, thing, these, help, first, into, anything, still, find, life, nothing, sir, day, work, their, again, maybe, must, before, other, wait, stop, call, after, talk, away, than, thought, home, night, put, great, those, last, better, everything, told, new, things, always, keep, long, years, leave, does, money, around, name, place, ever, feel, guys, father, guy, made, old, which, big, lot, done, hello, nice, believe, girl, someone, fine, thanks, wanted, kind, coming, house, every, through

201 to 300

being, course, stay, left, dad, enough, happened, came, may, mother, wrong, world, bad, might, three, today, listen, another, understand, hear, remember, ask, own, same, show, else, kill, talking, found, next, getting, care, car, looking, son, try, woman, went, hi, dead, many, mind, friend, best, mom, hell, morning, trying, boy, together, yourself, job, saw, family, real, without, baby, room, already, move, most, seen, live, miss, actually, both, heard, once, ready, head, called, used, idea, knew, hold, happy, door, such, brother, also, pretty, bit, took, yet, men, whole, start, use, while, since, wife, days, guess, tomorrow, matter, meet, bring, tonight, everyone, run

301 to 400

wanna, hard, alone, myself, school, gone, end, saying, phone, play, looks, problem, few, friends, gotta, ago, open, anyone, killed, hope, face, until, lost, police, excuse, turn, business, case, wants, says, true, die, heart, soon, each, worry, later, year, watch, music, hand, having, probably, beautiful, doctor, sit, eat, thinking, young, second, working, water, person, part, kids, late, stuff, exactly, under, death, minute, pay, crazy, forget, everybody, kid, change, gave, happen, five, drink, far, knows, its, whatever, eyes, shut, hit, taking, easy, times, check, hands, minutes, deal, different, means, point, inside, makes, asked, somebody, mine, making, body, afraid, sleep, chance, dear, quite

401 to 500

four, anyway, close, party, fun, against, word, comes, important, set, shall, story, number, daughter, least, waiting, hurt, wish, moment, fight, week, husband, girls, rest, married, fire, game, nobody, children, side, stand, read, though, cut, started, sister, supposed, between, child, goes, hours, speak, women, behind, almost, truth, blood, able, lady, anymore, gets, shot, reason, trouble, break, war, city, walk, town, trust, met, office, question, brought, yours, welcome, high, wow, couple, half, died, cool, free, either, seems, power, bye, buy, telling, honey, tried, front, team, answer, gun, boys, line, send, news, stupid, bed, hurry, full, months, save, sometimes, become, along, hate, food

501 to 600

outside, light, needs, dog, country, clear, order, fact, lord, captain, six, hot, funny, black, alive, pick, feeling, living, cause, ahead, lose, king, plan, dinner, sort, leaving, running, boss, alright, promise, taken, safe, ma, book, sent, white, hour, anybody, small, perfect, lives, special, parents, himself, perhaps, sounds, serious, sick, company, scared, uncle, poor, red, past, earth, possible, shoot, touch, sound, top, cannot, asking, win, glad, control, human, drive, hair, jack, luck, murder, happens, air, ten, daddy, finally, fast, cold, seem, words, hospital, street, hang, dance, meeting, till, others, catch, follow, sense, lie, evening, master, known, dream, write, million, voice, sweet, rather

601 to 700

felt, sign, lucky, somewhere, bet, longer, calling, worked, quiet, looked, less, pull, beat, careful, coffee, return, secret, weeks, date, seeing, fall, given, fault, straight, takes, song, future, gentlemen, loved, changed, road, calm, wonderful, mad, turned, drop, ladies, learn, step, absolutely, early, explain, clean, piece, yesterday, throw, picture, land, feet, wonder, questions, worth, darling, dude, giving, president, eye, quick, moving, figure, state, strong, sam, none, amazing, ones, works, act, needed, weird, law, worried, report, goodbye, missing, choice, happening, chief, wedding, strange, general, pain, kidding, decided, pass, tired, class, officer, kept, wake, worse, busy, mistake, kiss, court, building, finish, during, age, ship

701 to 800

caught, marry, meant, sell, dark, watching, system, suppose, evidence, movie, ride, completely, mouth, totally, birthday, tv, forgive, born, imagine, information, instead, definitely, security, certainly, film, month, lying, unless, train, seven, wear, clothes, hotel, attack, round, expect, sing, terrible, bag, history, blue, near, broke, station, seriously, forever, frank, except, thinks, message, entire, joe, table, talked, across, rock, lovely, handle, middle, buddy, paid, protect, using, floor, ran, swear, spend, situation, ring, anywhere, dangerous, bill, york, army, lead, bought, finished, fair, sun, letter, fool, attention, club, simple, interesting, space, test, box, group, single, sitting, marriage, join, fear, peace, forgot, force, short, normal, present

801 to 900

enjoy, mike, crime, horse, ground, count, area, charge, honor, lunch, miles, radio, ball, surprise, paper, key, boat, quickly, gold, bar, fish, mark, wearing, crying, accident, government, eight, fell, cover, certain, interested, deep, star, sea, agree, problems, detective, prison, major, stick, offer, difficult, smart, personal, record, stopped, hide, whether, bank, trip, relax, public, list, afternoon, brain, fix, proud, tea, service, forward, angry, park, soul, fighting, peter, rich, agent, blow, dress, mary, missed, scene, killing, standing, saved, respect, killer, ice, mess, tough, feels, church, sad, cell, drunk, share, camera, within, card, fly, ben, girlfriend, laugh, smell, broken, mum, honest, often, starting, calls

901 to 1,000

spent, third, visit, judge, window, hungry, dare, relationship, moved, prove, private, wall, seat, position, lieutenant, realize, especially, machine, walking, art, pleasure, bloody, college, involved, cry, became, lived, impossible, obviously, neither, accept, boyfriend, besides, queen, teacher, cops, sake, loves, carry, teach, apartment, upset, green, la, liked, cute, evil, professor, contact, joke, cop, huge, holy, store, jail, likes, lawyer, doubt, continue, appreciate, cat, shop, driving, congratulations, wrote, village, quit, field, james, wine, decision, south, sleeping, slow, laughter, island, glass, beginning, cash, dying, hundred, whose, difference, plane, push, singing, eating, north, tree, madam, gift, truck, putting, bear, board, grab, beer, stuck, magic, support

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What is the most common word in English?

It depends on whether people are talking or writing. In dialogue the winner is you, with I right behind it, because conversation is mostly two people addressing each other. Counts of written English put the first. Here it comes third.

How many words do you need to follow a conversation?

Fewer than most learners expect, and more than a list can promise. The 1,000 words on this page account for 76% of the words spoken in the source, so roughly one word in four is still outside the list. Those rarer words carry most of the meaning: knowing "the" and "of" tells you little about what a sentence is about. Use the list to check for gaps, then build outwards with the word lists by level.

Where the numbers come from

The counts come from the 2018 English word frequency list in FrequencyWords by Hermit Dave, built from the OpenSubtitles 2018 collection: about 735 million words of subtitles. The source list is published under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this ranked list is shared under the same licence.

Subtitles are scripted speech, so the ranking leans towards drama: expect more "kill" and "sir" than in a chat over coffee. The list counts word forms as written, so "go", "going" and "went" are separate entries. We removed pieces of contractions that the source splits off ("don", "'ll"), sound effects and caption words ("uh", "sighs"), first names and place names, and offensive words.