Humanities › English The 100 Most Commonly Used Words in English Share Flipboard Email Print (Rellas/Getty Images) English English Grammar An Introduction to Punctuation Writing By Richard Nordquist English and Rhetoric Professor Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester B.A., English, State University of New York Dr. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks. our editorial process Richard Nordquist Updated March 02, 2019 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")himyearinto (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") Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Nordquist, Richard. "The 100 Most Commonly Used Words in English." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/commonly-used-words-in-english-1692629. Nordquist, Richard. (2020, August 27). The 100 Most Commonly Used Words in English. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/commonly-used-words-in-english-1692629 Nordquist, Richard. "The 100 Most Commonly Used Words in English." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/commonly-used-words-in-english-1692629 (accessed January 27, 2021). copy citation Watch Now: Verbs and Adverbs