Thread: Native words
View Single Post
  #3 (permalink)  
Old 11-Sep-2003, 06:38
RonBee's Avatar
RonBee RonBee is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Country: USA
Posts: 13,775
Current Location: North Carolina
First Language: English
Member Type: Other
Thanks: 77
Thanked 996 Times in 883 Posts
RonBee is a splendid one to beholdRonBee is a splendid one to beholdRonBee is a splendid one to beholdRonBee is a splendid one to beholdRonBee is a splendid one to beholdRonBee is a splendid one to beholdRonBee is a splendid one to beholdRonBee is a splendid one to behold
Default Re: Native words

Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelwilliams2
My daughter's homework assignment has a question that reads, "...there are ten little words in our English language that make up about one fifth of every one hundred word paragraph. These words are called native English words. List these ten little words:"

So far, she has: is, the, it, a, you, in

Which ones are we missing?
Probably the most dependable list is from the Brown Corpus (which contains 1,015,945 words). Here is the top ten: the, of, and, to, a, in, that, is, was, he. The second ten: for, it, with, as, his, on, be, at, by, I. For some word lists, go here: http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/vi...+english+words

:)
Reply With Quote