英语词汇the commonest english words的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

the commonest English words. According to a count made by the World Almanac (1950) of 240,000 words from books, magazines, and newspapers, the 12 most commonly used writ- ten English words are: 1) the 2) of 3) and 4) to 5) a 6) in 7) that 8) is 9) I 10) it 11) for 12) as. This is seconded by a Guinness Book of World Records study (1998), which adds that the com- monest word used in conversations is I. But the American Her- itage Word Frequency Book (1971) doesn’t agree, listing the 12 most commonly written words as: the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, be, and for—in that order. Stuart Berg Flexner, in I Hear America Talking (1976), says that the four most common spo- ken English words are I, you (these two account for 10 percent of all “informal conversation”), the, and a. The rest of his top 50 spoken words (in no special order) are: he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, them, what, an, on, to, of, in, for, with, out, from, over, and, about, now, just, that, not, this, is, get, was, will, have, don’t, do, are, want, can, would, go, think, say, be, see, know, tell, and thing. Flexner points out that 10 basic words account for 25 percent of all English speech, 50 simple words account for about 60 percent, and just 1,500–2,000 words account for 99 percent of all we say. Seventy words make up 50 percent of our written language. Amazing statistics, considering that the En- glish language contains about 800,000 words (including tech- nical terms). Today the average American uses something like 2,000 words in everyday speech, while extremely learned per- sons use as many as 60,000 of the 800,000 or so words in English, which has the largest vocabulary of any language. Shakespeare possessed a large vocabulary for his or any time, using 22,000 different words in his plays, only 6,000 having been used in the entire Old Testament.

词汇	the commonest english words
词源	the commonest English words. According to a count made by the World Almanac (1950) of 240,000 words from books, magazines, and newspapers, the 12 most commonly used writ- ten English words are: 1) the 2) of 3) and 4) to 5) a 6) in 7) that 8) is 9) I 10) it 11) for 12) as. This is seconded by a Guinness Book of World Records study (1998), which adds that the com- monest word used in conversations is I. But the American Her- itage Word Frequency Book (1971) doesn’t agree, listing the 12 most commonly written words as: the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, be, and for—in that order. Stuart Berg Flexner, in I Hear America Talking (1976), says that the four most common spo- ken English words are I, you (these two account for 10 percent of all “informal conversation”), the, and a. The rest of his top 50 spoken words (in no special order) are: he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, them, what, an, on, to, of, in, for, with, out, from, over, and, about, now, just, that, not, this, is, get, was, will, have, don’t, do, are, want, can, would, go, think, say, be, see, know, tell, and thing. Flexner points out that 10 basic words account for 25 percent of all English speech, 50 simple words account for about 60 percent, and just 1,500–2,000 words account for 99 percent of all we say. Seventy words make up 50 percent of our written language. Amazing statistics, considering that the En- glish language contains about 800,000 words (including tech- nical terms). Today the average American uses something like 2,000 words in everyday speech, while extremely learned per- sons use as many as 60,000 of the 800,000 or so words in English, which has the largest vocabulary of any language. Shakespeare possessed a large vocabulary for his or any time, using 22,000 different words in his plays, only 6,000 having been used in the entire Old Testament.
随便看	you never miss the water till the well runs dry youngberry young folk of the pear garden young in at heart young turk young whippersnapper you pays your money and you take your choice your all-s your epitaph your majesty yourself youse you should see the other guy you-uns you want it bad you get it bad you’re darn tootin’ you’re not the only pebble on the beach you’re pulling my leg yo-yo ypocras ypres ytterbium yttria yucatán yucca