Native words

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?

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?

what about : no, he,or,to,us?

[RonBee]

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

:)

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by lucyarliwu

what about : no, he,or,to,us?

Very good! Both he and to are in the top ten. Only us (at #128) is not in the top hundred.

:)

Originally Posted by RonBee

Very good! Both he and to are in the top ten. Only us (at #128) is not in the top hundred.

:)

Thanks Ron for encouragment! :D hehe....

[Sue Blank]

Originally Posted by lucyarliwu

what about : no, he,or,to,us?

that, and, an, was ... ?