The letter “e” is the most commonly used letter in English, but “t” is the most common consonant and starts the most words. The five most common letters that start words are “t”, “o”, “a”, “w”, and “b”. About half of English words end in “e”, “t”, “d”, or “s”, with “e” being the most common. Only three of the top twenty most frequently written English words have an “e”.
The most commonly used letter in the English language is the letter “e”. This is the case in general language, fiction and non-fiction writings, journalism, religious works such as the Bible, and even Morse code. The most common consonant in English is “t”.
With the “e” so common in the English language, one would think it would start the most words. Actually “t” starts with the most words, followed by “o”. “E” is the third most commonly occurring letter in a word and is the third second most common letter in a word. The second most common letter of a word in English is h.
In fact, “and” is at the bottom of the beginners list of English words and comes in 15th place. The five most common letters that start words are “t”, “o”, “a”, “w” and “b”.
About half of words in the English language end in the letters “e”, “t”, “d” and “s” with the majority of words ending in “e”. Also, there are four letters most likely to follow the “e” in a word. These are “r”, “s”, “n” and “d”.
Ironically, of the most common two-letter words in the English language, only three words actually have an “e.” They are being, we and me. Also, in the top twenty most frequently written English words, only three words have an “e.” These are “the”, the most frequently used word in the English language, and “he” and “be”. However, when analyzing the most frequently used three-letter words, “and” gets a fairer share.
When teaching children spelling, it can be fun to play a game with them where they only say words that don’t contain an “e.” It’s pretty hard to get through more than a few sentences without slipping. The “e” is quite essential. For example, this article alone contains 193. I also used the most common diphthong “th” 63 times and the most common consonant “t” 151 times.
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