The most common words used in conversations

J. Commtukation

Dis. 1 (1967) 201-214 Q North-Holland

MQN

Publ. Co., Amsterdam

WORDS WSEED

W3’WETJ-l BERGER Kent State Univwsity, Kerrt, Ohio Unguarded informal conversational vocabulary from a general adult population was sampled in the northeastern Ohio area. The sample produced 25000 words of which there acre 2507 different words. A limited vocabulary usage and simple words as reflected in words of small-syllable length were found for conversation as compared with more formal speech and with printed English. The words found in the present study are presented in an appendix. The Appendix gives al! of the words found, in alphabetical order, and includes variants of the base word where syilable length does not change. The usefulness and app!ication of oral *Iocabulary as opposed to written vo,abulary, and of conversational vocabulary as opposed to more formal speech vocabulary are briefly discussed. Further samplings of conversational speech, in spite of the difficulty as contrasted to printed materials, are recommended, particularly to determine consisteacy and variabi!ity based on geographical areas.

The frequency of occurrence of words in various types of printed and oral language samples has long been of interest. As early as 900 A.D. the Talmudists counted and categorized the words of the Torah (Miller 1951, page 88). Beginning in the 1920’s reading speciahsts found use for word frequency counts from assorted printed materials; the best known of these undoubtedly being those of Dewey (1923) and Thorndike (193 I). Dale and Reichert (1957) list many of the word count studies, practically ah of which are with printed English materials. Word counts of spoken English are not plentiful. The rxsons for this lack are understandable. Printed words are readily avaiEabIe in abundance in assorted text materials for tabulation and categorization. Spoken material, however, presents more difficulties in sampling, collecting, transcribing, and tabtilating. Though oral speech vocabulary is more difficult to sample than the printed form, the quantification of these data under assorted conditions is obviously important. Oral vocabulary studies have useful clinical and educational appkxtiun. Certainly we do not speak in the same manner that we read from the printed page. The first major effort te tabulate oral speech vocabulary in this country was made by French et al. (1930), who sampled telephone conversations in New York City. Each day Hords were tabulated which fell within a specific grammatical class. In so doing a total of 79390 words was accumulated, of

202

KENNETH

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which there were 2240 different words. The materials obtained by French et al. from spoken English and by Dewey and by Thorndike for printed English have been the basis for most of the vocabulary applications in the area of speech since. A larger tabulation of speech vocabulary was made by Black and Ausherman (1955). They sampled 607 extemporaneous but planned classroom speeches given by 274 male students in premeteorology training in a wartime program. Speeches ranged in length from 3+ to 5 minutes. A total of 288 I52 words was counted, which yielded 6826 different words. A more recent study by Jones and Wepman (1966) elicited speech from fifty-four adult subjects by asking them to comment on twenty cards of the Thematic Apperception Test. The interviewer’s remarks were kept at a minimum and the sessions were tape recorded. The fifty-four speakers used a total of 136450 words, with individual subject outputs ranging from 1032 to 5276 words. This study produced 1102 different words occurring at a frequency of at least .4 per 10000 words. Our purpose was to accumulate a sizable sample of unguarded conversational English vocabulary from many individuals. It was our belief that since one normally spends more time in conversational exchange than either speaking or listening under more formal circumstances - and certainly much more time in conversation than in reading or writing - we should know more about conversation. Furthermore, greater knowledge of conversational speech matters has practical and clinical considerations, such as in the teaching of English to the deaf and to the foreign born, as well as in speech therapy and speech audiometry. If in speech discrimination testing, for instance, such factors as phonetic balance and wo:d frequency are important, then certainly these should be based not upon printed English but on spoken English, and preferably on conversational English. The present study is an outgrowth of work on vocabulary, phonetic content. and parts of speech which were tabulated from an original pool of 3418 words of university student conversations (Berger 1967). The present study increases our word sample to a total of 25000. METHOD

The subjects, who presumably were unknowingly subjects, were a general adult population in northeastern Ohio, primarily in and near Kent, Ohio. Although we avoided taking samples where students typically congregate it is quite likely that many of the conversrltions transcribed were of students. From the conversational content we observed that the conversationalists seetimedto be primarily businessmen, white collar workers, and skilled Iaborers. The subject population seemed to include a minimum from professional,

MOST COMMON WORDS IN CONVERSATIONS

203

farm, and unskilled laborer classes, and was made up primarily of Caucasians. Our Operational definition of a sentence was a modification of that which is commonly used to include both a full Sentence and a r&or sentence. We accepted as sentences only those conversational bits consisting of at least a two-word utterance, not including interjections, which either included a predicate (e.g., ‘Get out’ or ‘Let’s get out’) or consisted of a completive response of two or more words to an inquiry (e.g., ‘In here’). Procedures in sampling, transcribing, and tabulating followed those given in our previous report (Berger 1967). Briefly these were: no platform speech was accepted, no sentences were collected in classroc-ns, nor was foreign accent included. The first and second of these proscriptions were designed to rule out other than unguarded conversation. Slang, curse words, mispronunciations, and ungrammatical statements were accepted. No more than four sentences were accepted from any single conversational group, so as to insure variety in conversational content. A majority of the samples were obtained while eavesdropping in restaurants, in which case we avoided collecting data while the ordering of food was in progress. The samples were collected occasionally and irregularly over a period of approximately two years. The present study, then, presents 25000 words from assorted adult conversational situations of an informal and unguarded nature. In the Appendix which follows, which constitutes the bulk of this report, family names, names of local products and businesses, and names of towns likely to be unknown away from the area sampled, are combined as miscellaneous proper nouns and are included at the end of the list. Names of nationally known products, large cities, and Christian names of individuals are listed separately in the main body of the list. Utterances, such as O.K., A.M., and T.V., were counted as two words and are listed by their respective alphabet letters. An improved way of categorizing such utterances might be to consider each as an individual two-syllable word. We include some forms or variants under a single heading. We did not follow the procedures of Thorndike (who included with base words changes in verb tense, adverbs formed by adding ly, etc.), but rather we tabulated words under a single heading unless the forms or variants added a syllable. For instance, we list separately ‘difference* and ‘differences’ because of the added syllable in the latter, but ‘dog’ and ‘dogs’ are under a single entry because no change in number of syllables occurs. The reason for this type of combining is SO tht;: lists can be used as raw data by researchers undrr several conditions, including syllable counts. If one wishes to include variants or forms with a word base (for instance, ‘define’ with ‘defining’ and ‘de& nition’, etc.) he nia.y easily do this. Or he may wish to include homophonous

KENNETH

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BERGER

words in one group (such as ‘there’ and ‘their”, and in conversation usually ‘they’re’), or other such combinations. It was felt that the grouping we maintained would allow the user greater freedom in combining certain word types or classifications as he wishes. There are two exceptions to our combining word forms by syllables. The first exception concerns those words of like syllable length which could have been combined but were not because one of the forms was seldom used in relation to the other. For instance, we did not combine ‘nine’ and ‘ninth’ ‘or ‘will’ and ‘willed’, although each pair contains the same syllable length, because in each instance the first of the pairs was used much more frequently than the second. The other exception to our combining words in the lists by syllable length concerns words which had a frequency count of one. I-Iere we often combined two words of varying syllable length. If the user wishes to consider syllable length in these caces it is of course obvious that where two forms appear with a count of two that one word accounts for each form. Examples of this are ‘crowd’ and ‘crowding’, and ‘embarrassed’ and ‘embarrassing’. The purist may object to the inclusion of vocalized pauses such as ‘er’ and ‘uh’, or even the typica! conversational affirmative ‘uh-huh’. That these sound units are words might be debated but that they are common to conversation is obvious. Furthermore, words such as ‘well’, ‘so’, and ‘now’ often serve in a similar capacity in conversations.* RESULTS

AND

DISCUWON

The continuation of our sampling of conversational English, as stated above, consisted of transcribing sentence units. Table 1 presents the sentence lengths encountered in the 2418 sentences transcribed. The mean sentence length for these sentences was 6.7 words. Note that the mean, median, and mode all fall betwee; 6 and 7. This differs from our earlier report of 450 sentences where a mean length of 7.8 words per sentence was found. This difference may reflect the different samples (university students vs. a general adult gopulation) but just as likely represents the result of the difficulty in determining sentence length in conversational English, where there is no period or other punctuation mark to make this task simple. The words found in the present sampling of conversations are presented in the Appendix. The Appendix presents, in alphabetical order, all of the words Clund. Next to each word is a number indicating how many times it appeared out of the total count of 25000. Also included, in parentheses, are th,: various forms of a word that go into the total for that particular word. * French et al. (1930) ~vocabularycount.

omitted vocalizedpauses,inter@ions, and profanity from their

MOST COMMON WORDS IN CONVERSATtONS

205

TABL.E 1

Length of conversational sentences Word length 51 185 333 333 369

2.1 7.7 130.8 13.8 15.3

9 10 11

313 228 156 128 90

:2.9 9.4 6.5 5.3 3.7

12 13 14 15 16

65 50 37 28 17

2.7 2.1 I.5 1.2 0.7

17 18 19 20 22

13 8 d 1 3

0.5 0.3 0.3 0.04 0.01

24 25

1

0.004 0.004

7 8

.

1

2418 M = 6.7 words per sentence

Our 25000 conversational word vocabulary count produced 2507 different words. Note that almost half of the different words are accounted for by words appearing only once. It should also be noted that our method of grouping word variations by syllable length inflates to some degree the different words as compared with most other vocabulary count studies. Little manipulation of the collected data has been done. The results are designed primarily to furnish raw material for researchers and clinicians. It may be stated, however, that on gross examination the present lists and those obtained by French et al. (1930) bear considerable resemblance, and these in turn show some basic differences with the more formal speech samples by Black and Ausherman (1955), and to the several printed word counts previously mentioned. As might be predicted, conversation is more personal than any other form

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KENNE’IH BERGER

of language. Note that ‘I’ and ‘you’ are the most frequent words in the study and the study by French et al. (1930), followed fairly closely by other personal pronouns. This should not be unexpected, for what is conversation except a dialog between ‘you’ and ‘I’? Second, note the relatively small number of nouns. Their abcence is due to the fact that in conversation, probably more than in other speech, once the noun has been spoken it is thereafter usually referred to as “it’ or ‘that’ or some other neuter pronoun. Third, note the simplicity of conversational speech, both in syllable length and in vocabulary usage. Regarding syllable length it may be mentioned that of the 2507 different words we found, the twenty-two most frequently used words are monosyllables, and the second word to have two syllables is not met until the 52nd word is reached. A three-syllable word is finally found as the 108th word and the next one as the 157th word. A four-syllable word is not reached until the 265th, and a five-syllable word until the 303rd. Only one six-syllable word (‘responsibility’) appeared in the total count. Other examples of simplified words in conversation are such abbreviated words as: flu, lab, math, mono, phone, and manyshortened proper names. Vocabulary simplicity may be seen in the comparison of different words ts total words. This comparison is customarily referred to as Type-Token Ratio. Groups of variant words by various researchers does not allow an exact comparison, but in more formal speaking Black and Ausherman’s( 1955) study suggests a ratio just under 1: 42 ; French et al. (1930) with a large number of business telephone conversations found a ratio of appro,ximately 1: 35. Our unguarded conversational vocabulary produced a ratio of 1: 10. The reader is cautioned that these lists present words only, not word usage. Several examples will suffice. The word ‘right’ appears rather frequently. In looking at this word in context we found that seldom was it used for direction (Le., left vs. right) or in the sense of a prerogative, but rather in place of ‘yes’ or ‘I agree’. ‘Bug’ did not refer to an insect in its several appearances but as a slang expression meaning bother (‘Don’t bug me’). Nor was the word ‘God’ usually used SO as to suggest the speaker had a meaningful relationship with Him! Several words were difficult to categorize in context, and impossible to do so in isolation. ‘Shup’ might appear to be Jabberwocky for ‘shut up’ but in fact MS one individual’s onomatopoetic description (and the author’s phonemization) of a faucet dripping. A similar example was ‘kazooki’, which seemed to be a slang interjection of surprise. One bit of Jabberwocky could not be broken down further, ‘hiya’, evidently for ‘hi, how are you?’ Admittedly 25ooO words is not a large sample as word couuts go. The Thorndike (193 1) count of printed materials gives 30000 d@erenl words out of a count of over a milhon words. Black and Ausherman’s (1955) count is

present

MOST COMMON WORDS IN CONVERSATIONS

207

based on approximately 300000 words and yielded almost 7000 different words. But since we are dealing here with conversational English - which seems to use an extremely limited proportion of the individual’s total vocabulary - rather than platform speech, our count appears to be adequate. In our opinion to find ?3000 different conversational words, PS Thorndike did with printed EnQsh, would be a herculean if not impossible task. To check sGequacy of sample size we separately tabulated our twenty-fifth thousand 3.!ords, i.e., the last 1000 counted. This final 1000 words produced 31 additions to our list. Of these, 11 were variants of previously counted words but of different syllable length. Five of these additional words appeared twice in the final 1000 count. Of the added 31 words 5 were monosyllables, 14 were of two syllables, 7 were of three syllables, and 5 were of four syllables. This suggests that conversational word counts of perhaps 20000 to 25000 (or even less) will account for all but the rarer words used in conversation. Other checks for sample size adeLluacy might be to consider (a) whether the number of words within variou:, frequency categories increases toward the lower frequencies, and (b) whether the syllable lengths tend to increase in proportion as one goes to the lesser used words. Table 2 r resents a summary of this information. As may be seen from this table the number of words TABLE

2

Word syllable length vs. word frequency Frequency per 25000 74-998 30-73 20-29 14-19 11-13 9-10 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

12

65 57 42 39 39 29 15 27 29 46 54 97 186 350

3456

3 IO ;Jo 23 18 16 19 14 20 22 55 64 146 481

1

2 1 7 5 2 1 5 4 14 18 61 198

1

I

2 1 1 2 4 7 17 76

1 6 16 Total

68 68 64 63 66 52 37 42 55 7i 128 186 416 1121 2440 *

* The 67 miscellaneous proper nouns, most with a frequency count of one, bring the total to 2507 different words.

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KENNETH RERGER

toward the low-frequency range. And, with minor exceptions, the proportion of multi-syllable words likewise increases. We speculate that (I) conversational vocabulary varies more from place to place than printed English or even formal speech, (2) conversation varies more depending upon the season and news events than does printed English other than perhaps newspapers, and (3) conversation changes more rapidly with the passage of time (days, months, years) than does printed English. If this greater variability in conversational English is determined to be true it will mean that where conversational vocabulary and other similar matters are of concern that some recent sampling will need to be done. It is quite probable, of course, that the printed words counts of Dewey and Thorndike, for instance, dating from 1923 and 1931 respectively, are out of date also, although their frequent unqualified use might lead the reader of many studies to assume their accuracy as contemporary. Even more regrettable is the use of printed word counts for speech audiometry word lists and similar applications. It is recommended that conversational samples, similar to those obtained in the present study, be taken in assorted geographical locations and with more circumscribed populations to describe oral vocabulary and to determine its consistency and variability.

increases in the categories

Appendix * a(A) 588, abide, ability, able 2, about 98, above 2, absence (absent) 2, absolutely, academic, accept 3, accepted (acceptance) 2, accident, acid, act 2, acted (acting) 3, action(s) 4, actually 3, Adam, add, address, adjust, administration 2, admit (admitting) 2, adult, advised, affect, affirmative, afford 2, afraid 2, after 18, afternoon 4, again 24, against 8, age, agenda, agents, ago 9, agree (agreeable) 2, ah 7. ahead 12, aid, aim, ain’t 7, air 7, aisle, alarm, album 2, alcohol, ale, alike, alive 2, all 159, alley, alliance, allowed (allows) 2, almost 7, alone 2, along 9, already 13, also 5, although, always 14, am 66, amazed, amazing 2, ambiguous, American, an 47, ancestors, and 335, angry 2,‘animals 2, animations, animosity, Ann 3, another 22, answer 3, anticipated, any 43, anybody(%) 13, anyhow 3, anymore 2, anyone 4, anyplace 2, anything 38, anyway I I, anywhere, apologizing, appartment 5, appeared, appetite, appliance, application, applying, appointment 4, approach, are 250, aren’t 11, arguing 3, arguments, arise, arm 5, army, around 23, arresting, arrive(d) 2, artistic, arts, as 56, ask(s) (asked) 16, asking 2, asleep 2, aspect(s) 3, aspirin, ass(ed) 3, assembly, assignment(s) 3, assistant, at 118, ate 3, attacks, attendance, attention, attribute, auction, audience, auditorium, auditory, aunt, Australia, authority, average 3, aw 9, aware, away 17, awful 5, awfully, awhile 4, ax. B 2~ babe(s) 2, babyc’s) 8, babysat, back(s) (backed) 73, bad 31, bag, bake(d) 3, bal! 4, baloney 2, bananas, band 2, bank 5, bar 2, Barb[ara], bard, barely, barge, Barry, barstool, bartender, based 4, basement, bashful, basic(s) 3, basically 4, basis, basketball, bass, bassett, bastard 2~ bathe (bathing) 2, bathroom, Batman, bazaars, be 140, beans 3, beard, beats, beautiful 9~beauty, became 2, because (‘cause) 29, bed 10, beef, been 33, beeped, beer 5, before 22, beg 3, beginning 2, begorrah, behave 2, behavior, behind 2, being 16, belching, * Words not followed by a numeral had a frequency count of one.

MOST COMMON WORDS IN CONVERSATIONS

209

belief(s) 4, believe(d) 23, belly, below, belt, bench, benediction, bent, Bermuda, Bernie, besides, best 5, bet 5, better 21, between 5, beyond, biasbed) 2, Bible, bicycles 2, bike, big 14, bigamist, bigger 2. Bill (bills) 6, Billy (Billie) 2, biology, bird 2, birthday 3, bit I 1, bitch(ing) 5, bite, black 3, blackjack, blah, blame, blast, bless, block(s) 3, blood, blouse 2, blow 3, blue 2, board 3, boat(ing) 2, Bob 3, body, boil(s) (boiled) 4, boiling, bomb(ing) 2, book(s) 11, bookstore, boots, booze, bored (boring) 2, borrow 9, boss, both 5, bother(s) (bothered) 8, bothering, bottle 3, bottom, bought 7, bourbon, bow, bowl, bowling 3, box 2, boxes 3, boy(s) 20, boyfriend, bragging, brakes, brand, break(s) 5, breaking, breakfast 3, breath, breathe(d) 2, Brian, bridge, bright 2, brilliant 2, bring 12, bringing 2. British, broad 3. broadside, broke 3, broken, brother 2, brought 7, brown (Brown) 4, buck(s) 2, buckle. Budweiser, bug 3, bugging, building 2, built 2, bull 2, bulling, bumblebees 2, bunch 4 bureau, burger, burglar. burlesque, burned (burns) 3, bus 3, business 3, busted, busy 4. but 125, butter 2, buy 6, buying, by 25. C 2, cable, cafeteria, cake 5, calculus, calf, call(s) (called) 37, calling, came 14, campus 2, can 114, canal, canary, cancer, candle(s) 2, candy 4. cane, cannot 3, can’t 60, Cap, capsule, car(s) 26, card(s) 6, care IS, careful 4, caressed, carpet, carried (carry) 4, case 6, cases, cash 2, cat, catch 6, Catholic, catsup, caught 4, cause(d) 4, cedar, celebrate 2, celery, cent(s) 3, center 2, certain 8, chair 7, challenge, chance 3, change(d) 9, changing 2, chaos, character (characterized) 2, charge 2, Charlie 2, Charlotte, cheap(er) 2. cheims) 4, cheating 6, check(ed) 7, cheer, cheese, chef, chemistry 3, cherry, Cheryl, chess, chest, Chevrolet (Chevy) 2, chew, Chicago 2, chicken, child 2, children 4, chimes, Chinese, chip, chocolate, choice, choir, chop 2, Chris, Christ, christened, Christmas, Chuck, chunks, church (Church) 6, cigarette(s) 13, cigars, Cincy, clams, clarification 2, clarify 2, clarinet, class 25, classes 6, classroom, clean(ed) 3, cleaning, cleanliness, clear(ed) 8, Cleveland 2, Clifford, Cliffy, clinic, clock 4, close(d) 8, cioser, clothes 3, cloudy, club 3, coa.ch, coat, code, coffee 1 I coke 4, cold 8, collect, college 3, color(s) 4, colt, Columbus, comb 4, come(s) 51, coming 21, comfortable, comment, commit, committee, common, commotion, commuters, company 4, comparative, compartment, complain, complete 2, completed, completely 2, complicated 2, complimem, v,omrade, concept 4, concerned 5, concert, condemn 2, condescendingly, condition, conlerences, confirm, conflict, conforming, confused 3, consciousness, consider(ed) 5, considerate, consideration(s) 2, considering 2, consistant, consists, contacts, contemplatinl!,, contribute (contributing) 2, control, convenient, convention 2, convince, ccok(ed) 3, cooking. cool 3, cops, copy 3, corn 2, corner 2, corps, correct, corridor, cost 4, costume, could 59, couldn’t IX count 2, counter, counting, countries (country) 2, couple 3, course 5, courses 3, cowboys, cracker, craft, crap, crate 2, crawled, crazy 7, cream 3, create, creek, creep, crinkley, Crissy, criticism, croak, crops, cross 2, crowd(ing) 2, crucibles, crumb, crumby (crummy) 4, cube, culture, cup 3, cupboard 2, curl, custom(s) 4, cut(s) 14, cute 4, cymbals. dad 2, daddy 2, daily, Dale 2, damn(ed) 26, Dan, dance 3, dandruff, danger, dark 3, darn, date(d) 2, daughter 2, day(s) 22, dead 2, deaf 2, deal 4, dealers, Dean 2, dear 3, Debbie, decal, decide 4, decided 4, decision 4, deeper, defend, define, defining 2, definitely, definition 5, deformity, degree, delighted, delivered, deluxe, den, dental, Denver, department 2, depend(s) 3, depending, deposit, depressed 2, depriving, deserve, desk 3, despise, desserts, Detroit 2, develop, devoted, diamonds, Diane 2, Dick 2, dictate 2, dictation, dictator 2, dictionary, did 147, didn’t 52, die, diet(s) 3, difference 6, differences, different IO, digging 2, diluted, dinner 8, dip, dirt, dirty 5, disc, discourage, discussed, discussing (discussion) 2, disease, dish, dishes 2, dishwasher, dislike 4, disorganized, distance, do 264, doctor(‘s) 3, does 34, doesn’t 20, dog(s) IO, doing 38, doll, dollar(s) 14, Don, donation, done 30, don’t 190, door 8, doped, dorm, Dorothy 3, Dot, double(d) 3, doubt 3, down 47, down%as 5, downtown 6, dozen 2, draft(ed) 2, drafting, drank 2, draw(n) 2, drawing, dream, dress(ed) 10, drink 6, drinking 2, drive(s) 2, driving 2, drool, drop(ped) 4, drove, drug&ore) 2, drum, drunk 2, dry 3, dryer 2, due 4, Duke, dull, dumb 5, during 5, duty, dying 2, dynamic(s) 2.

;210

KENNETH BERGER

leach13, eagle,ear 3, early

4, easy 7, easier (easily) 3, eat 11, eating, economical, Ed 2, IEddie, Edna, Edwin, educated, education 5, effect, effort, egg(S) 2, egotist, eight(s) 12, ieighth3, eighteen(th) 4, eighty 2, Eileen 4, either 8, elevator, eleven 7, eke 19, eke’s, ,ambarassed (embarassing) 2, encourage, end 11, energy, enforcement, engine 2, English 3, (enjoyed (enjoying) 2, enlightening, enough 20, entering, entire&) 2, environment 4, equipIment, er 11, eraser, Erie, especially 2, evaluate(s) 3, evaluations, Eve, even 22, evening 2, lever 25, every 14, everybody 9, everyone 8, everything 9, evidence, evidently 2, evils, exam, example 12, excellent1, except 4, excited, excuse 8, exert 2, exhausted, exists, expense i(expensive) 2, experience 4, experiences, experiment, explain 3, explaining, explanation, explicit, exposed, expression, expressway, extent, extinct, eye(s) 6. F 2, face(s) 8, facilities 2, fact(s) 6, factor, fall 4, familiar, famiIy(‘s) 3, fan 3, far 6, farm, ifast 5, faster, fat 3, father 4, fault 2, favor, favorite 2, fee(s) 4, feel(s) 20, feeling(s) 6, feet 6, fell 2, fellow 3, felt, fern, fever, few 10, field 2, fifteen 4, fifth, fifty 6, fighting, tfigure(d) 7, file, filet, fill(ed) 5, finagle, final(s) 2, finally 3, find 16, fine 6, finger(s) 3, finish 4, fink 2, fire 2, firmly,_first 27, fishcing) 2, fit(s) 4, fitness, five 21, fix 3, Flash, flat 2, flew, flick, IRoodCs)2. floor 4, floozq Florida 4, flower(s) 5, flu 3, flunk 2, flyaway, follow 5, following 2, Ifood 6, fool, foot, football, for 174, force 2, forces, forehead, forget 12, forgot 7, form, Iformulates, forty 5, forward 2, fouled, found 6, four(th) 16, fourteen, frame, Fran, Frank 3, IFranklin, Fred, free 3. French, frenzy, freshman, Friday(s) 7, friend(s) 11, fries, from 35, lfront 7, fruit 2, fruity, fruitfully, full, function 2, funny 4, furnish, further, fuss, fuzzy. gain(s) 2, gallons, game(s) 9, garage 2, Gary, gas 4, gather, gave 12, gears, gee 4, general 3, generally 2., gently, George 5, Georgia, German, get(s) 178, getting 21, gift, gin, girdle, girl(s) 31, give(s) 3 1, giving 4, glad 7, glasses, Glenna, gloves, go 122, goal, goes 8, God 13, going 167, gold, golf 2, golfing, gone 5, good 71, goodbye 3, goof(y) 2, goofing 2, Gordon, gorgeous, got 94, gotten 5, grab, grace, grad, grade(s) 9, graders, graduate 2, graduation, grammar, grand, grandchild, grand-dad, grandma 2, gmndmother’s, grandparents, grape, grass 2, grave, gray, great 8, greatest, green 5, groaning, ground, group(s) 6, grown, grunting, guess 15, guest, guide, guitar, gum 2, guns, guts, guy(s) 24. I-l, ha 2, had 59, hadn’t 2, haggy-baggy, hair 22, haircut 2, haired, half 9, hall 3, hamburger(s) 2, hamster, hand(s) 3, handle, hang 2, hanger, hanging 2, happen(s) (happened) 18, happening(s) 2, happy, hard 11, harder, hardly, has 28, hasn’t 6, hat 3, hate 13, haul, have 308, haven’t 9, having 11, he 152, he’d 2, he’ll 2, he’s 18, head 5, headache., heading, hear 12, heard 16, hearing 4, heart(s) 4, heat 2, heavens, heck 4, hell 32, hello 3, help(ed) 18, helping, heris) 65, here 100. here’s 4, hey 19, hiding 2, Hi(gh) 16, higher, highest 2, highway, hill 3, him, (‘ml 74, himself, his 30, historical, history 4, hit(s) 8, hiya 2, hm see: unr, hobbies, hold 4, holding, holes, hollered, holy (Holy) 3, home 28, homecoming, homework, honest, hon[eyl2, hrpey 17, honor, hop, hope 10, hoping, horses, horsey, hospital 2, hot 7, hounds, hour(s) 10, house 8, how 121, however 12, how’d 3, how’s 5, hue, huh 9, humph 2, hu&ed 14, hunger, hungry 5, hunt(ing) 2, hurricane 2, hurry 3, hurrying, hurt(s) 6, husband, hydrochloric, hypothetical. 1 998, I’d 22, I’ll 58, l’m 109, I’ve 19, ice 3, idea(s) 9, idealistic, identify, idiot, idly, if 112, i,gelorant, iguana, ill, illicum, imagine (.imagination) 2, imitates, important 5, impossible 2, iimpress 2, improvement, in 196, inches, Indiana, Indians, indicate, indigestion, indi\lidual(s) 11, indoctrinate 2, industrial, inferior, influence(d) 10, influences (influencing) 2, iuzr\ale,initialcly) 2, innocent, innocuous, inside, instance 8, instead 4, institution, instructions, insult, insurance, intelligent, interest 4, interested (interesting) 6, interjected, interpretive, interview 2, interviewing, into 14, introduce, invest, involvement (involving) 2, Irish, iron(s) 3, irrelevant, is 478, isn’t 31, issue(s) 7, it 535, it’d 2, it’ll 2, its (it’s) 93, Italian. J, Jack 3, jacks, Jackie 3, jacket, jackpot, jail, jammed, Jane (Janie’s) 2, Janet, January, jau 3, Jednne, jelly, Jerry, Jesus, Jill, Jim 2, jiminy, Joan, Joanne 2, job(s) 8, jobby, Jo,

MOST COMMON WORDS IN CONVERSATIONS

211

Joe 4, Joey, John(%) (john) 9, Johnny 2, join 4, joke(s) 3, judge 7, judgement, judo, Judy, July, June, junk, just 141. K (Kay) 28, Karen 3, Kathy, kazooki 2, keel, keep(s) 18, Keith, kept 3, key 2, kid(s) 22. kidding 15, kiddo, kill(s) (killed) 7, kind 19, kindergarteners, king, kiss(ing) 2, Kit, Kitty, knack, knee 2, knew 5, knitting, knock, know(s) 142, known. labtoratoryl, ladder, ladies (lady) 2, Lafayette, lake 3, lamb, lamp, lane, language, large, Larry(%) 3, last (las’) 31, late 15, lately, later 6,laugh(s) 2, laughing 3, laundromat (laundry) 2, Laura, law 3, lawn, lawyer, lay 3, leading, leak, learn(ed) 7, learning, least 3, leave(s) 24, leaving, lecture, Lee, left 20, legs, Lent, leprachaun, less(er) 2, lesson 4, let(s) (let’s) 72, letter(s) 9, lettuce, level(s) 2, Libby(%) 2,library(‘s) 5, lie 3, life (Life) 4,light(s) 7, lightening, lightly, like(s) (liked) 135, limb, limit 2, limp, linament, Linda 2, line(d) 6, liners, lipstick, liquor, list 5, listen 6, literature, little 29,live(s) (lived) 7, living 4, loan, lobby, locked, logical 2,long25, longer 2,look(s) (looked) 66, looking 10, loops, loose(r) 2. lose 3, losing 3, lost 11, lot 23, louder, Louis, Louise, lounge, love(s) 11, lovely 4, low, lowdown, luck(ed) 2. lucky, Bunch 4, lying 2, Lynn 2. M 4, macaroni, machine 2, mad 4, made 15, madhouse, magazine(s) 3, maid, mail 4, mailbox 3, main 2, Maine 2, major, majority 2, make(s) 27, making 6, male, mall, malt, mam, man 14, manager, Manchester, mandatory, manner, many 16, Marcia, Maria, Marianne, marine, Mark(‘s) 2, Marlene, marry (marriage, married) 8, Mary 2, mascot, Mass, master, match 2, matches, math 3, matter(s) 11, may (May) 24, maybe 20, me 144, mean(s) 34, meant 5, meat 2, medicine 2, medium, meet 9, meeting 4, member(s) 2, memories, memorize, me&s), mentioned 4, mess(ed) 5, message, messy, met, Methodist, Mexico, Michael(s) 2, Mickey, midway, middle 2, mid-term, might 19, Mike, mile, military, milk, million 3, Iv?imi, mince, mind 9, mine 7, minstrel, minute(s) 19, mirth, miscellaneous, misfortune, miss(ed) (Miss) 8, Mrs. 3, mistake(s) 4, mister, mix(ed) 2, moist, mom 3, moment, Monday 3, money 11, mono[nucleosis], monster, mood 3, mops, moral(s) 10, morally 2, morality, more 43, mores, morning 18, mornings, most 7, mother(s) 14, motor 3, mouth 5, move(s) (moved) 7, moving, movie 2, much 30, mud 2, murdered 2, murderer, mushrooms, music, must 20, my 127, myself 7. nails, naked, name(s) 13, Nancy (Nanc[y]) 2, narrow, nasty, natural 2, nazi, near(ly) 2, neat 4, necessary, necessity, neck 2, need 23, needs, negative, negro 4, neighbor(s) 4, neighborhood, neither, nerve(s), 3, nervous 3, never 28, new (New) 15, newspapers, next 16, nice 21, nickle 5, night(s) 33, nine 7, nineteen, ninety, ninth, no 82, nobody 2, nope, nowhere, noise 3, nominating, none, nonsense, normal 3, Norman 2, norms 2, nose, not 158, notebook 2, notes 3, nothing 11, notice(d) 4, noticeable, notion, now 68, nowadays,number 12, nurse. 0 25, oaks, oboe, observe 2, obser ?r (observing) 2, observation, obvious 2, occupy, ocean, o’clock 12, odd 2, of 299, off 29, or. -ted) 2, office 2, officer, often, oh 66, Ohio 4, old 12, older (oldest) 2, Omaha, on 181, once 8, I .-I :(s) 132, only 40, open(ed) 12, opening, operate, opinion 4, opportunity 2, opposite, or 66, o;ange, order(s) (ordered) 6, other(s) 42, ouch 2, ought 9, our(s) 49, out 102, outfit 2, outlook, outside 5, outspoken, outweigh, over 37, overnight, overplayed, oversleep, owe 2, own 20. P 6, pack 2, package, page(s) 2, paid, pain 2, paint 2, pair, pajamas, pan, pants 2, papa, paper(s) 12, paradox, pardon 4, parents 4, park(ed) 5, parking 4, part 8, participate 2, particular 2, parting, party 8, pass 2, passive 2, passively 3, past 10, pastor, pasture, pat, Pat’s 2, Patricia, Patty, patriotic, pattern, Paul, Paula, pay 7, peanut, peasants, peek, peel, Peggy 2, pen, pencil 4, penny, penthouse, people(‘s) 24, pepper(s) 3, peppermint, per, percentage, perhays 3, person(s) 19, personal 6, perturbed 2, pets, Phi, Phil 4, philosophy 2, phone 4. photostrt, Phyllis, physical, piano, pick(ed) 10, picketing (pickets) 2, picnic 2, picture(s) 8, pie, pitxe 3, piled, pill, pin(ned) 2, pinching, pinpoint 2, pinpointing, pink 2,

212

KENNETH BERGER

pipes, pitching,

pith, Pittsburgh 3, pizza 5, place 23, placement, Places 2, plagiarizing 2, plain, plan(s) 3, planning 2, plane, plant(s) 2, planted, plastic, play(edI22, player, playhow, playing 6, pleasant, please(d) 12, pledge 3, Plug(s) 2, Plus 2, Pneumonia, pocket 4, poem, poetic, point(s) 12, Polack, Poland, police, Polish, polka-dot, ~011,pow, poochie, poodle, pool, pooper, poor, pop (Pop) 3, popping, porch 2, position, positive 2, possibly, posted, pot 2, potatoe(s) 3, potential, pound(s) 6, pours, practice 5, Practicing, PrayCer) 2, pre-conferences, precocious, prefer, preferable (preference) 2, pregnant 2, prejudice 4, preptared, pre-rehearsed, pre-set, present(s) 4, presentable, preservation, president, pretend, pretty 21, prevaih, price 2, prices, printing, privileged, previous, probably 11, problem(s) 21, product, professor(s) 6, prof(essor) 4, profit, program(s) 2, progress, Proof, proud 4, prove, psychoiogy (psych) 2, psychiatrist, publication, puke 1, pull(ed) 4, pumped, punch, puppy, purpose, purse 2, put 35, putting 2. quaint, qualifications, quarter, question(s) 9, questioning 2, quick 2, quiet 2, quit 8, Iquite 5. R, race, racist, radically, radio 4, railing, rain(s) (rained) 4, raining, raise(d) 5, rake, ran 5, rat, rate 2, rather 10, rating, reach 2, react, reaction 2, read 17, reading(s) 3, ready 6, real 17, realistic, realize 4, really 74, realm, rear, reason(s) 8, reasonably, receive, reception, recognize, recommendations 2, record 4, recorded (recorder) 2, recovered, red (Red) 4, refer(ring) 2, reference 2, refreshed, refused, regardless 2, regrade, rehab[ilitation], related (relates) 2, rehearsal, religion 2, remark 2, remember 12, remind(s) 2, reminded, rent(al) 2, rephrase, report(s) 3, reproductive, reputation, reservations, reserve 2, residential, resist 2, respect, rf:sponsible, responsibility 8, rest 6, restrict, retarded, returned 2, revealing, Reverend, ribs, rich, rid 2, ride 5, riding, ridiculous 3, right 136, ring, ripe, road(s) 5, Robert, rode, rollers (rolling) 2, Ron[ald], worn(s) 11, roommate(s) 3, root, roses 2, rotten 2, roughly, round, route, rubs, rude, Rudy, rug, rule(s) 3, run 3, running 3, ruptured, rushing, Russ[ell]. sack, said 55, saint (Saint) 2, sake 2, salad 2, salary, sale 2, salute, Sam 3, same 12, sanctuary, sandwich 3, sandy (Sandy) 8, Sartre, sat 3, satire, Saturday 6, sauce, save, saw 14, say(s) 88, saying 18, scale, scared 6, school 7, scream, scare(d) 2, scattered, school 11, scientifically, scissors, scorched, score, scotch, Scottie, scraping 2, scrambling, :scratch, screening, *jcrew
MOST COMMON WORDS IN CONVERSATIONS

213

story 3, straight 6, strange, straw, street(s) 4, strenuous, stretch, strike 2, string, stripper, strong(ly) 2, stuck, student(s) 9, studied, study 12, studying 8, stuff 13, stupid 4, sub 2, subject 2, subproblems, substance, substandards 2, subtle, such 4, sudden 2, Sue 2, suey, sugar, suicide, suit 2, sulfa, sum, summer(s) 8, summertime, sumlight) 2, sunbird, Sunday 6, sundry, supper 3, suppose(d) 10, sure 21, surface, surprize(d) 6, survive, Susie, suspended, svelte, swallow, swear 2, sweat 3, sweater, sweetie 3, swing 2, Swiss, syphillis, system 4. T 6, table(s) 7, tacks, tag, tail, take(s) 54, taking9, tale, talk(s) (talked) 23, talker, talking 13, tall, tan 2, tap, tape, Tareytons, taste(s) 6, tasteless 2, tattletale, tatooed, taught 2, tea 3, teach 5, teacher(s) 9, teaching 2, team 2, teasing, teeny, telephone 2, televised, television 3, tell 49, telling, temperature 2, ten 1 I, tend, term(s) 5, terrible 6, terrier, test(s) 17, than 26, thank(s) 7, that(s) (that@ 508, that’d 3, the 612, their 12, them (tern) 74, themselves 2, theme 2, then 46, theory.. there(%) 130, these 33, they 130, they’ll 2, they’re 12, they’ve 2, thick 2, thinlned) 2, thing(s) (thing’s) 63, think(s) 136, thinker, thinking 6, third 5, thirteen 2, thirty 8, this 246, Thomas, thoroughly, those 27, though 9, thought(s) 30, thoughtful, thous’and 4, threatened, thirty 7, three 23, threw 5, ihrives, through 1I, throw 9, throwing 2, Thursday 3, tickert(s) 2, tickle, tie, tight 2, till (‘til) 16, time(s) (Time) 79, tiny 2, tire(d) 14, to 692, toads, toast, tobacco, today 36, together 6, toilet, told 18, tolerant, Tom 7, tomato, tomorrow 24, ton, tongue, tonight 29, Tony, too 45, took 12, top 3, topcoat, tossed, total, touch 3, touching (touchy) 2, tough, toward 2, town, traction, traffic 2, trailer, training, tranquilizers, tray 3, treasure, treat, treating 3, trees, trend, triangle, trick 2, tried 3, trip, trophies, trouble(s) 5, trucks, true 3, truism, trumpet, truth, try 10, trying 14, tube, Tuesday 4, tuning, turban, turn(s) (turned) 25, turning 2, turnpike, twelve 3, twenty I I, twice 2, twisting, two 44, two’s, type 3, typewriter 2, typing 3. ugly 4, uh 79, urn-hm (uh-huh) 18, urn 5, umbrella, unbelievable 2, uncle, under 10, undergraduate, underneath, underpants, understand 15, understanding 3, underwear, unforexen, ungracious, unique, university 4, unless 5, unlucky, until 8, unto 2, unwed, up 93, upcn 7, upstairs 4, uptown, uppity, upset, urge, urine, us 42, use(d) 33, using 5, usually 4. V 5, vacation 2, vaguest, value(s) 16, various, vase, vernal, very 17, veterinarian, Vietnamese, view(s) 4, violate, violated (violating) 3, violent, vision, visit(ing) 2, voice, voluptuous, vote 3, voted, vowel. wait 32, waiting 5, wake 2, walk(ed) 7, walking 2, Wally, want(s) 99, wanted 10, war 2, warm 5, was 170, wasn’t 10, wash(ed) 2, washers, wasp, waste 4, watch 13, watching, water 10, watermelon 2, way 40, Wayne, we 263, we’d 2, we’ll 12, we’re 9, we’ve, wear(s) 10, wearing 4, weather 6, wedding 3, Wednesday 4, wee 2, week(s) 19, weekend 21, weigh(t) 2, weird, weld, welfare, well 86, Wendy’s, went 28, were 45, weren’t 4, west, wet 2, wetness, what 316, whatever 2, what’s 14, wheels 2, when 79, where 60, whereas 3, where’d (where’s) 2, whether 6, which 17, whiffs, while 5, white 3, who 32, who’d 2, who’s 4, whole 16, whose 5, why 55, wide 2, widespread, wield, wife, wiggle, wild 4, will 59, willed, Willie, win 2, wind, window(s) 6, wine, wink 1, winner, Winstons, wire(s) 2, wish(ed) 12, witch(y) 2,, with 93, without 2, witness 2, wizard, woke, woman (women) 7, wonder(ed) 19, wondering 2, won’t 18, word(s) 24, work(s) (worked) 22, working 13, world 2, worms, worn, worried, worry 5, worse (worst) 5, worth(while) 2, would 74, wouldn’t 16, wrench, write 11, writing 3, wrong 40. Yankees, yarn, yea 2, yeah 31, yep 5, year(s) (year’s) 18, yell(s) 2, yelling, yellow 4, yes 29, yesterday 10, yet 21, York 2, you 754, you’d 15, \ 0~1’116,you’ve 2, youngcer) 2, YOungsterS, your(s) 157, you’re 33, you’ve 5, yourself 8, yourh. Zero, zip. Miscellaneous proper nouns 67.

214

KENNETHBERGER

References BERGER,K. W., 1967, Conversational English of university students. ,Cpeech Adron. 34, 65-73. BLACK,J. W. and M. AUSHERMAN, 1955, Vocabidary of college students in classroom speeches. U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine, Joint Project Report No. 613. DALE,E. and D. REICHERT, 1957, Bibliography of vocabulary studies. Columbus,, Ohio, Bureau of Education Research, Ohio State University (revised ed.). DEWEY, G., 1923, The relative frequency of English speech sounds. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. FRENCH, N.R., C.W. CARTER, JR. and W. KOENIG, JR., 1930, The words and sounds of telephone conversation. Bell System Tech. J. 9, 290-324. JONES, L. V. and J. M. WEPMAN, 1966, A spoken word count. Chicago, Language Research Associates. MILLER, G.A., 1951, Language and communication. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company. THORNDIKE,E, L., 1931, A teacher’s word book of twenty thousand words found most j+equently and widely in general readingfor cG.iren and young people. New York, Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University. See also the enlarged revised version with 8. Lorge, 1944, The teacher’s word book of 30,000 words, same publisher.