What Are The Most Common Words In English? (+PDF)

If you want to learn how to hold a conversation with native English speakers, one of the first steps you need to take is build up your English vocabulary.

In this post, we are going to present to you some of the most common words in English. To get this list, we are referring to the world’s largest English language resource, the Oxford English Corpus.

The OEC is used by the makers of the Oxford English Dictionary, a very good resource if you want to English words with meanings. According to the OEC, there are 2.1 billion English words. 

The OEC also compiles and publishes a list of the 100 most common words of English. You can see all 100 words in the PDF below, ranked by most to least common, along with what part of speech they are.

 

Get your copy of the most common words of English here

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Top 10 Most Common English Words With Meanings 

Let us take a closer look at the top 10 common English words with meanings on the OEC list of most common words.

1. The

This is an article that is used to refer to a person or thing that was previously mentioned.

2 . Be

This is a verb which means that something exists or that someone is present.

3. To

This is a preposition. You use “To” when you are trying to denote motion in a certain direction. When you are moving to something you are going towards it.

4. Of

This is a preposition that is used to express a relationship between a whole and its parts.

5. And

This is a conjunction that connects two words, clauses, and sentences.

6. A

This is an article that you can use when you are referring to a person or a thing, if you are referring to them for the first time in the conversation.

7. In

This is a preposition that denotes that someone or something is currently located in an area where they are surrounded by something else. 

8. That

This is a pronoun that you use when you are trying to refer to a specific thing or person.

9. Have

This is a verb that is meant to designate possession of an object or a living being.

10. I 

This is a pronoun that you can use when you want to refer to yourself.

What are common English words used in daily life?

To build up your list of common English words used in daily life, take note of the following words according to how they are used.

Nouns

A noun is a word that can be used to refer to people, places or things. These are the most commonly used nouns.

1. Time

This is the most commonly used noun in the English language. According to Oxford English Dictionary, it is the indefinite and continued progress of existence and events.

2. Person

This is a gender-neutral word that can be used to describe a human being.

3. Year

This is a word that donates a specific time period. A year specifically refers to 365 days beginning from the month of January till the last day of December. In scientific terms, it is how long it takes for the Earth to complete a revolution around the sun

4. Way

As a noun, way means how something is done. Way can also mean the customary mode of behavior of a particular group.

5. Day

This word donates another period of time. A day is 24 hours and, scientifically, is meant to correspond to one rotation of the earth on its axis. Day can also refer to the hours when the sun is up in the sky.

6. Thing

A thing is an inanimate object.

7. Man

This is a word that is used to refer to a male person

8. World

This word refers to the earth, the planet we live on. When you refer to the world, you are also talking about the countries and people as well as the natural features that make up the earth.

9. Life

Life refers to the existence of a living organism. An organism has life if it has the capacity to act, grow, reproduce, and change.

10. Hand

This word refers to the body part. Your hand is the body part that is located at the end of your arm and includes your fingers, thumb, and palm.

Here are the 15 other commonly used nouns in English.

11. Part

12. Child

13. Eye

14. Woman

15. Place

16. Work

17. Week

18. Case

19. Point

20. Government

21. Company

22. Number

23. Group

24. Problem

25. Fact

Verbs

Verbs are known as “action words”. You use verbs when describing an action that you or someone else are doing. They also used to describe a state of being.

The 10 most common verbs that are commonly used in English are the following.

1. Be

To be means to exist or to occupy a position in space.

2. Have

This word means that you possess or hold something.

3. Do

If you do something, you are performing an unspecified action. 

4. Say

When you say something, you utter words. When you say something you are letting other people know about your feelings or intentions. It can also mean that you are imparting information to someone else verbally.

5. Get

When you get something, you are taking possession of it. It can also mean that you understand something.

6. Make

When you make something, you form or create it.

7. Go

When you go, you travel from one place to another. It means that you are moving.

8. Know

When you know something, you are aware of it. 

9. Take

When you take something, you gain possession of it.

10. See

This refers to vision. When you lay eyes on something, you see it.

Here are the 15 other most common verbs:

11. Come

12. Think

13. Look

14. Want

15. Give

16. Use

17. Find

18. Tell

19. Ask

20. Work

21. Seem

22. Feel

23. Try

24. Leave

25. Call

Adjectives 

Adjectives are words that are used to modify or describe a noun. Here are the 10 most common adjectives in the English language. 

1. Good

If something is good, it is pleasing.

2. New

If something is new, it is something that has just come into being or has just been discovered.

3. First

If something is the first, then it came before everything else. It was the initial product or effort.

4. Last

If something is the last, then it came after everything else. It is the final product.

5. Long

This adjective refers to a measure of distance. If something is long, there is a great distance from one end to the other. 

6. Great

If something is great, then it is better than average or normal.

7. Little

This is an adjective that is used to say that something is small in size.

8. Own

If you own something, then it belongs to you. It is something that you possess.

9. Other

This is meant to denote that something is distinct or different from something else.

10. Old

Something is old if it has been in existence for a long time. If you call a person or an animal old, then  it means it has been alive for a long time.

Here are the 15 other most commonly used English adjectives

11. Right

12. Big

13. High

14. Different

15. Small

16. Large

17. Next

18. Early

19. Young

20. Important

21. Few

22. Public

23. Bad

24. Same

25. Able

Conclusion

According to Stuart Webb, a professor of applied linguistics at the University of Western Ontario, native speakers of a language have a vocabulary of 15,000 to 20,000 words.

For those who are trying to learn a second language, they should pick up at least 800 to 1,000 common words and learn the ways that these words are used.

So, if we follow what Webb is saying, if you memorize and learn 800 common English words, you should be able to understand 75% of the English as it is used in daily life.

If, however, you want to understand the dialogue of movies and TV shows, you should know 3,000 common English words.

If you want to read English novels or newspapers, then you need to know 8,000 to 9,000 common words of English.

Downloading the PDF of the common English words that we discussed in this article can help you get started in building a vocabulary that will allow you to participate in and understand daily conversations held in English. 

 

Download the most common words of English here

 

Memorizing lists of daily use English words and meanings is not enough to make you fluent, however.

The only way you can really be fluent in a language is if you are able to hold a conversation in that language.

This is why it is important that, if you really want to learn to speak English, you should find and work with a good English language tutor. 

A few hours with a native language English tutor takes you beyond mere memorization; they help you learn to actually use your memorized list of English vocabulary words in conversation.

The more confident you become in your mastery of common English words, the better your ability to communicate in English will be – even if English is not your native tongue.