Common Word Play

Here is a nice wordy nerdy post.

The website World English lists the 500 most commonly used words in the English language.

There are a number of sites that do this but I like this one because it isn't centric to one particular country. Rather it combined results of British English, American English and Australian English surveys of contemporary sources in English: newspapers, magazines, books, TV, radio and real life conversations - the language as it is written and spoken today.

Here is a sample of the list and some observations:

The #1 most used word in the English language is 'the' (too exciting isn't it!)

'You' (#9) comes before 'I' (#18) but is before 'they' (#20)

Does it give insight into people's priorities that 'friend' (#284) comes before 'love' (#387) but after 'eat' (#282) and surprisingly 'sex' doesn't make the list at all.

Interestingly 'cry' (#409) comes before 'laugh'(#479) but after 'music' (#265)

Here is where I can't help myself at having a dig at the Canucks. I notice they weren't included in the collection sample.

Perhaps this is a good thing as suddenly the word 'awesome' would have been on the list. It appears the English, Australians and Americans aren't struck with awe as often as my dear Canadians. Not to mention 'anyways'. I will never understand why Canadians make it plural.

However to stop this appearing like a 'be mean to Canadians' post I will concede that 'like' being at #64 may have a lot to do with teen-aged girls in California; 'Class' being at #329 is most likely due to the English; and 'travel' at #373 the fault of the Australians.