First 100: The 100 most important English words. (With example sentences)

by Philip Gibson

The first 25 most commonly used words make up about one-third of all printed material in English. The first 100 make up about one-half of all written material, and the first 300 make up about sixty-five percent of all written material in English.During thirty-five years of teaching English, I have been constantly reminded that one of the major constraints students face in achieving competent comprehension of the spoken and written language has been lack of sufficient vocabulary.The 'Most Useful English Words' presents students and teachers with vocabulary that has been graded and ordered according to a combined scientific analysis of the words native speakers actually use in their speaking and writing. This list, with example sentences, has drawn on extensive research carried out by Wellington University of New Zealand, the Oxford University 'British National Corpus' and a Google search and analysis of the words used on every page on the Worldwide Web; plus some words (names, etc.) needed to construct meaningful sentences and stories. This means that teachers and parents can be sure that students are learning the most important and useful words before the less important, less useful words enabling much more rapid progress in learning the language and learning to read.

23 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 15, 2013

About the author

I am a retired teacher of English, having taught and lived in (in order): England, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and Laos.

I came to Laos 22 years ago, married a Lao lady and now live with my wife and two teenage boys on our small farm on the forested banks of the Nam Ngum River (tributary of the Mekong) about 25 miles from the capital city of Vientiane.