The 100 Most Common English Words

These are the 100 most common English words, ranked by how often they appear in real English text and speech, drawn from published word-frequency research. Frequency-first learning works: a small core of high-frequency words does most of the work in everyday sentences, so mastering this list with spaced repetition gives you the fastest possible start.

#	Word	Pronunciation	English meaning
1	the	thuh	the (definite article)
2	of	uhv	of
3	and	and	and
4	a	uh	a (indefinite article)
5	to	too	to
6	in	in	in
7	is	iz	is
8	you	yoo	you
9	that	that	that
10	it	it	it
11	he	hee	he
12	was	wuhz	was
13	for	for	for
14	on	on	on
15	are	ar	are
16	as	az	as
17	with	with	with
18	I	eye	I
19	his	hiz	his
20	they	thay	they
21	be	bee	be
22	at	at	at
23	one	wuhn	one
24	have	hav	have
25	this	this	this
26	from	fruhm	from
27	or	or	or
28	had	had	had
29	by	bye	by
30	but	buht	but
31	some	suhm	some
32	what	wuht	what
33	there	thair	there
34	we	wee	we
35	can	kan	can
36	out	owt	out
37	other	UH-ther	other
38	were	wur	were
39	all	awl	all
40	your	yor	your
41	when	wen	when
42	up	uhp	up
43	use	yooz	use
44	word	wurd	word
45	how	how	how
46	said	sed	said
47	name	naym	name
48	each	eech	each
49	she	shee	she
50	which	wich	which
51	long	lawng	long (length / duration)
52	make	mayk	make (create)
53	thing	thing	thing (object)
54	see	see	see
55	him	him	him (object form of he)
56	two	too	two (number 2)
57	has	haz	has (present form of have)
58	look	luuk	look (direct one's gaze)
59	more	mor	more (greater amount)
60	day	day	day
61	could	kuud	could (past of can)
62	go	goh	go
63	come	kuhm	come
64	did	did	did (past form of do)
65	my	mye	my (possessive of I)
66	sound	sownd	sound (noise)
67	no	noh	no (negation)
68	most	mohst	most (greatest amount)
69	number	NUHM-ber	number (numeric quantity)
70	who	hoo	who (question word)
71	over	OH-ver	over (above)
72	know	noh	know (be aware of facts)
73	water	WAW-ter	water
74	than	than	than (comparison)
75	call	kawl	call (name / summon)
76	first	furst	first (ordinal)
77	people	PEE-puhl	people (persons)
78	may	may	may (possibility / permission)
79	down	down	down (downward)
80	side	side	side (left / right side)
81	been	bin	been (past participle of be)
82	now	now	now (at this moment)
83	find	fynd	find (discover)
84	any	EN-ee	any (no matter which)
85	new	noo	new
86	work	wurk	work (labor / job)
87	part	part	part (portion)
88	take	tayk	take
89	get	get	get (obtain)
90	place	plays	place (location)
91	made	mayd	made (past form of make)
92	live	liv	live (be alive / reside)
93	where	wair	where (question word)
94	after	AF-ter	after (following)
95	back	bak	back (to a previous place)
96	little	LIT-uhl	little (small)
97	only	OHN-lee	only (no more than)
98	round	rownd	round (circular)
99	man	man	man (adult male)
100	year	yeer	year

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Ranked by lemma frequency in published English corpus research; proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Pronunciation is a respelling guide, not phonetic notation.

Turn this list into flashcards Learn English online How spaced repetition works

Frequently asked questions about English words

How many English words do you need for a basic conversation?

Frequency research shows the 1,000 most common words cover roughly 85 percent of everyday speech, and the top 100 alone appear in almost every sentence. You can manage simple exchanges with a few hundred words; this list is the foundation to build on.

What is the fastest way to memorize these 100 words?

Spaced repetition: review each word just before you would forget it, at growing intervals. It moves vocabulary into long-term memory far faster than rereading a list. Turn the 100 words into flashcards and review a small batch daily; the whole list fits into two to three weeks.

Are 100 words enough to speak English?

No. One hundred words let you recognize the skeleton of most sentences, but not hold a real conversation. They are the right starting point: after this list, grow toward the most common 1,000 words and start speaking practice early, even with simple phrases.

Where does this English word list come from?

From published English word-frequency research: lemma-ranked corpus lists cleaned for learners, with proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Rankings are approximate, since real usage varies by region and register, but the core is stable across corpora.