most often used letters

[Anonymous]

What are the most often used letters in the English language? Please give numbers from A to Z. Thank You, Geoffs.

 

[MikeNewYork]

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

 

[MikeNewYork]

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/LintonT/classes/spring01/cryptography/letterfreq.html

 

[Tdol]

'C' is apparently the most common letter at the beginning of words. ;-)

 

[MikeNewYork]

'C' is apparently the most common letter at the beginning of words. ;-)

Both of the sources I posted claim that it is "t". :wink:

 

[Tdol]

Is it? I'll go check my source. ;-)

 

[MikeNewYork]

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:

 

[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.

 

[MikeNewYork]

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:

 

[Tdol]

It's getting clear as mud. ;-)

 

[MikeNewYork]

It's getting clear as mud. ;-)

Indeed. Part of the problem is whether one is speaking of possible words or used words. :wink:

 

[RonBee]

There are more possible beginning combinations with s than with any other letter: s-a, s-c, s-e, s-h, s-i, s-l, s-m, s-n, s-o, s-p, s-q, s-t, s-u, s-y. (There is even s-f (sforzando) and s-r (sri.)