Learn Top 100, 500, 1000+
Most Frequent English Words

Research on language understanding shows that learning English efficiently is not about memorizing as many words as possible, but about learning the most frequent words first. In our large-scale study on how understanding grows with vocabulary size, we measured how much real English learners can comprehend at different stages of learning.

According to the research, learning the top 100 English words already gives you about 49% language understanding, the top 500 words about 65%, and the top 1000 words over 70% of real-world English. This page focuses on the very first step: the Top 100 most frequent English words, which form the core of everyday comprehension.

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Top 100 Most Frequent English Words

Below is a representative list of the Top 100 most frequent English words, ordered by real-world usage frequency.

#	Word	#	Word	#	Word	#	Word
1	be	26	but	51	just	76	tell
2	to	27	what	52	about	77	man
3	and	28	can	53	who	78	think
4	of	29	me	54	when	79	over
5	a	30	my	55	which	80	good
6	I	31	they	56	them	81	where
7	you	32	from	57	now	82	two
8	in	33	all	58	here	83	oh
9	it	34	by	59	make	84	down
10	have	35	no	60	their	85	only
11	that	36	will	61	see	86	first
12	not	37	get	62	then	87	after
13	he	38	him	63	look	88	let
14	do	39	there	64	right	89	say
15	for	40	so	65	time	90	other
16	on	41	know	66	well	91	our
17	with	42	one	67	us	92	way
18	his	43	your	68	into	93	thing
19	are	44	out	69	take	94	than
20	as	45	up	70	how	95	yeah
21	she	46	if	71	come	96	why
22	this	47	like	72	back	97	year
23	we	48	said	73	more	98	very
24	her	49	go	74	some	99	before
25	at	50	or	75	want	100	little

What to Do Next

The top 100 words give you the foundation. Most of the remaining gains come from expanding to the top 300 and 500 words, where understanding grows rapidly, and then to 1000+ words, where English becomes comfortable to read and listen to.

WRD is built on the same research and tracks language understanding precisely as each word is learned, guiding you from the top 100 to higher levels in the most efficient way possible.

If you want a clear, structured path forward, the WRD app helps you learn the top 100, 500, 1000 words and beyond — with progress measured by real comprehension, not guesswork.

→ Download WRD and start learning today

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