Forum newsfeeds 
|  | | Notices | You are welcome to answer questions posted in the Ask a Teacher forum as long as your suggestions, help, and advice reflect a good understanding of the English language. If you are not a teacher, you will need to state that clearly at the top of your post. Please note, all posts are moderated by our in-house language experts, so make sure your suggestions, help, and advice house the kind of information an international language teacher would offer. If not, and your posts do not contribute to the topic in a positive way, they will be subject to deletion. | 
21-Apr-2004, 00:52
| | |  most often used letters
What are the most often used letters in the English language? Please give numbers from A to Z. Thank You, Geoffs. |
21-Apr-2004, 01:14
|  | VIP Member | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Country: USA
Posts: 6,094
Current Location: New York First Language: American English Member Type: Academic Thanks: 0
Thanked 12 Times in 12 Posts
| | Re: most often used letters
Quote: |
Originally Posted by Geoff What are the most often used letters in the English language? Please give numbers from A to Z. Thank You, Geoffs. | This depends, to a great extent, on the sample size and the type of text that is analyzed. Here is one result:
Letter Frequency in the English Language
e t a o i n s r h l d c u m f p g w y b v k x j q z
More here: http://deafandblind.com/word_frequency.htm |
21-Apr-2004, 01:17
| | VIP Member | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Country: USA
Posts: 6,094
Current Location: New York First Language: American English Member Type: Academic Thanks: 0
Thanked 12 Times in 12 Posts
| | Re: most often used letters
Quote: |
Originally Posted by Geoff What are the most often used letters in the English language? Please give numbers from A to Z. Thank You, Geoffs. | This is slightly different, from another source:
General Letter Frequencies
e 0.124167
t 0.0969225
a 0.0820011
i 0.0768052
n 0.0764055
o 0.0714095
s 0.0706768
r 0.0668132
l 0.0448308
d 0.0363709
h 0.0350386
c 0.0344391
u 0.028777
m 0.0281775
f 0.0235145
p 0.0203171
y 0.0189182
g 0.0181188
w 0.0135225
v 0.0124567
b 0.0106581
k 0.00393019
x 0.00219824
j 0.0019984
q 0.0009325
z 0.000599 http://www.central.edu/homepages/Lin...etterfreq.html |
21-Apr-2004, 01:35
| | Editor, UsingEnglish.com | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Country: UK
Posts: 25,657
Current Location: Phnom Penh First Language: English Member Type: English Teacher Thanks: 6
Thanked 534 Times in 470 Posts
| |
'C' is apparently the most common letter at the beginning of words.  |
21-Apr-2004, 01:49
| | VIP Member | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Country: USA
Posts: 6,094
Current Location: New York First Language: American English Member Type: Academic Thanks: 0
Thanked 12 Times in 12 Posts
| |
Quote: |
Originally Posted by tdol 'C' is apparently the most common letter at the beginning of words. | Both of the sources I posted claim that it is "t". :wink: |
21-Apr-2004, 09:21
| | Editor, UsingEnglish.com | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Country: UK
Posts: 25,657
Current Location: Phnom Penh First Language: English Member Type: English Teacher Thanks: 6
Thanked 534 Times in 470 Posts
| |
Is it? I'll go check my source. |
21-Apr-2004, 17:48
| | VIP Member | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Country: USA
Posts: 6,094
Current Location: New York First Language: American English Member Type: Academic Thanks: 0
Thanked 12 Times in 12 Posts
| |
Quote: |
Originally Posted by tdol Is it? I'll go check my source. | I don't have any independent data. My Webster's has more "c" pages than "t" pages, but that is very crude. :wink: |
21-Apr-2004, 22:29
|  | Moderator | | Join Date: Feb 2003 Country: USA
Posts: 13,775
Current Location: North Carolina First Language: English Member Type: Other Thanks: 76
Thanked 995 Times in 883 Posts
| |
Interesting. I thought the top five were E T A O N, but perhaps it has changed a bit (or I was mistaken). I believe the letter most often used to start a word is s.
:)
__________________
~R |
22-Apr-2004, 19:34
| | VIP Member | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Country: USA
Posts: 6,094
Current Location: New York First Language: American English Member Type: Academic Thanks: 0
Thanked 12 Times in 12 Posts
| |
Quote: |
Originally Posted by RonBee Interesting. I thought the top five were E T A O N, but perhaps it has changed a bit (or I was mistaken). I believe the letter most often used to start a word is s.
:) | Hmmm. Webster's has more "s" pages than "c" or "t" pages. :wink: |
23-Apr-2004, 00:20
| | Editor, UsingEnglish.com | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Country: UK
Posts: 25,657
Current Location: Phnom Penh First Language: English Member Type: English Teacher Thanks: 6
Thanked 534 Times in 470 Posts
| |
It's getting clear as mud. | | Thread Tools | | | | Display Modes |  Linear Mode | 
Posting Rules
| You may post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off | | | All times are GMT. The time now is 10:33. | |
