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Which Words Do You Use Most? Learn These First In Your New Language!
by Nathalie V. Fairbanks
If you're going to learn a language fast, why would you start by learning words that you're hardly ever going to use? It makes more sense to start learning the words that are used most frequently. Once you have your groundwork done, you can add vocabulary at your leisure. Meanwhile, you can function in your new language.
Depending on how you are planning to use that new language, you'll be interested either in words that are most used in writing, and/or those most used in speaking.
Let's look at a list of the 100 words most frequently found in English print (Source: Fry, Edward Bernard et. al., The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists, 4th Edition. Paramus, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000.):
1. the
2. of
3. and
4. a
5. to
6. in
7. is
8. you
9. that
10. it
11. he
12. was
13. for
14. on
15. are
16. as
17. with
18. his
19. they
20. I
21. at
22. be
23. this
24. have
25. from
26. or
27. one
28. had
29. by
30. word
31. but
32. not
33. what
34. all
35. were
36. we
37. when
38. your
39. can
40. said
41. there
42. use
43. an
44. each
45. which
46. she
47. do
48. how
49. their
50. if
51. will
52. up
53. there
54. about
55. out
56. many
57. then
58. them
59. these
60. so
61. some
62. her
63. would
64. make
65. like
66. him
67. into
68. time
69. has
70. look
71. two
72. more
73. write
74. go
75. see
76. number
77. no
78. way
79. could
80. people
81. my
82. than
83. first
84. water
85. been
86. call
87. who
88. oil
89. its
90. now
91. find
92. long
93. down
94. day
95. did
96. get
97. come
98. made
99. may
100 part
What do you notice?
This list will vary according to which texts were analyzed, when they were written, etc., but you get the idea.
Now let's look at a list of the 100 words most frequently used in English speech, sorted alphabetically (Source: Timothy Ferriss, 2007: "How To Learn Any Language In 3 Months"):
1. a, an
2. after
3. again
4. all
5. almost
6. also
7. always
8. and
9. because
10. before
11. big
12. but
13. (I) can
14. (I) come
15. either/or
16. (I) find
17. first
18. for
19. friend
20. from
21. (I) go
22. good
23. goodbye
24. happy
25. (I) have
26. he
27. hello
28. here
29. how
30. I
31. (I) am
32. if
33. in
34. (I) know
35. last
36. (I) like
37. little
38. (I) love
39. (I) make
40. many
41. one
42. more
43. most
44. much
45. my
46. new
47. no
48. not
49. now
50. of
51. often
52. on
53. one
54. only
55. or
56. other
57. our
58. out
59. over
60. people
61. place
62. please
63. same
64. (I) see
65. she
66. so
67. some
68. sometimes
69. still
70. such
71. (I) tell
72. thank you
73. that
74. the
75. their
76. them
77. then
78. there is
79. they
80. thing
81. (I) think
82. this
83. time
84. to
85. under
86. up
87. us
88. (I) use
89. very
90. we
91. what
92. when
93. where
94. which
95. who
96. why
97. with
98. yes
99. you
100. your
What's the point of studying these lists? If your goal is to read in your new language, knowing the first 25 words of the first list above will help you to get through about one-third of all printed material in English. If you go on to study the first 300 words, you'll have 65% of all written materials covered. Pretty neat!
You might wonder if the most frequently used words will be the same in your new language as they are in English. The answer is that the list will vary somewhat, but not enough for you to worry about. If you want to be sure, you can always do a search online for the most frequently used words in your language.
Obviously, we won't encourage you to learn each word separately. We consider this about the least efficient approach to learning a language.
What we'll ask you to do is to write a little story containing all of the 100 most frequently used words, to have a native speaker record it for you and to use the SpeakEZ Steps to learn it (if you need a refresher on the SpeakEZ Steps, download your free report at http://www.SpeakEZLanguages.com).
Since you get to write the story yourself, you can add vocabulary that's interesting to you, words that you'll actually need to use in your conversations.
If your focus is on speaking, write a dialog. As usual, the more outrageous the story, the easier it is to remember!
© 2008 Nathalie V. Fairbanks
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