Here's a handy list that's not so easy to find online: the top 50 most frequent words of spoken North American English according to the Cambridge International Corpus.
- I
- and
- the
- you
- uh
- to
- a
- that
- it
- of
- yeah
- know
- in
- like
- they
- have
- so
- was
- but
- is
- it's
- we
- huh
- just
- oh
- do
- don't
- that's
- well
- for
- what
- on
- think
- right
- not
- um
- or
- my
- be
- really
- with
- he
- one
- are
- this
- there
- I'm
- all
- if
- no
Comparing this list to the 500 or so I came up with in my last post on essential English vocabulary, I noticed a handful of words present in this list and not in the other.
- don't
- huh
- I'm
- it's
- oh
- really
- that's
- uh
- um
- yeah
Contractions seem to have been systematically excluded from the other lists, and some of these are really particular to conversation, but I was kind of surprised to see `really` and `yeah` show up here. They're definitely less common in the written language but still essential any way you look at it.
Sifting through my list of the 100 or so most common words in recent Hollywood movies, I found these gems, which somehow didn't appear in any of the other lists! I guess that's why it pays to have multiple sources.
- guy
- hello
- hey
- hi
- maybe
- Mr.
- Mrs.
- Ms.
- OK
- sorry
- yes