| I cry shenanigans, based on the absence of 'a', 'am', 'let', 'run', and 'yes'. And here may be why: the list counts occurrences in Project Gutenberg, which is a) printed text, and not conversation, and b) mostly works in public domain (that is, before 1923). The top words in contemporary fiction (from the same source, Wiktionary) is a very different list: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Frequency_lists/Contemporary_fiction. Conclusion: These are not the most common words in English; the title for this quiz is misleading at best. |