The 100 Most Commonly Used Words in English

Listed here, according to the 100-million-word British National Corpus, are the 100 most commonly used words in English. Many of these words are function words: they glue pieces of sentences together into longer syntactic units.   Where needed, the part of speech is identified to distinguish different grammatical uses of the same word.   thebeofandain (preposition: in the old days)to (infinitive marker: to sing)haveitto (preposition: to the country)for (preposition: for you)Ithat (relative pronoun: the book that I read)youheon (preposition: on the beach)with (preposition: with pleasure)do (verb: I do)at (preposition: at school)by (preposition: by midnight)notthis (determiner: this page)butfrom (preposition: from home)theyhis (determiner: his job)that (determiner: that song)sheorwhich (determiner: which book)as (conjunction: as we agreed)weansay (verb: say a prayer)will (auxiliary verb: I will try)wouldcan (auxiliary verb: I can go)iftheirgo (verb: go now)what (determiner: what time)thereall (determiner: all people)get (verb: get busy)her (determiner: her job)make (verb: make money)whoas (preposition: as a child)out (adverb: go out)up (adverb: go up)see (verb: see the sky)know (verb: know a place)time (time: a time to laugh)take (verb: take a break)themsome (determiner: some money)couldso (adverb: I said so)himyearint o (preposition: into the room)itsthenthink (verb: think hard)mycome (verb: come early)thanmore (adverb: more quickly)about (preposition: about you)nowlast (adjective: last call)yourmeno (determiner: no time)other (adjective: other people)givejust (adverb: just try)shouldthese (determiner: these days)peoplealsowell (adverb: well written)any (determiner: any day)onlynew (adjective: new friend)verywhen (conjunction: when you go)may (auxiliary verb: you may go)waylook (verb: look here)like (preposition: like a boat)use (verb: use your head)her (pronoun: give her)such (determiner: such problems)how (adverb: see how)becausewhen (adverb: know when)as (adverb: as good)good (adjective: good time)find (verb: find time)