About Us

Hi,

Thanks for taking an interest in MostUsedWords.com.

 

Our Mission:

 

MostUsedWords strives to enable everyone to learn a language as quickly and efficiently as possible.

 

We offer frequency dictionaries and bilingual books. You can get the paperbacks from Amazon or the e-books from our website.

 

Origins of MostUsedWords

 

Being obsessed with efficiency and obtaining maximum results from minimal input, I set out to decipher the language learning process.

 

Soon I stumbled upon how much vocabulary you need to know for fluency. In pretty much any language, you only need to know a relatively small amount of words to understand and be understood. 

 

 

The most common 2500 words account for 95% of daily use in any language. To increase your fluency from 95% to 99%, you need to know another 97.500 words!

 

According to research, the practical cutoff for input vs. output is around 10.000 words. By knowing the most used 10.000 words in a language, you can understand 98% of all spoken language and 97% of all written language. Enough to learn the meaning of unknown vocabulary through context.

 

 

Frequency Dictionaries

 

A frequency dictioanary contains the most common words in a language, lsited by how often you use them.They are an excellent method to expand your practical vocabulary in a foreign language.

 

The frequency lists I encountered were non-existent, incomplete, or not up to modern standards.

 

   I wanted the following in a frequency dictionary.

• A thorough, modern, up-to-date frequency list.
• Practical for both spoken and written texts.
• Phonetic transcriptions. This is especially useful for languages pronounced very differently from how they are written. In English, think of Pear, prayer, sear, and seer.  
• Parallel text showing word usage in context. You learn vocabulary in chunks, not from a static list. 
• A sublist of the most common nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.

 

 Of course, the principles above have scientific backing. Expanding a bit on the inner workings of the frequency dictionary: 

 

• Using a proper scientific basis for efficient language learning methods, we strive to give you the needed vocabulary in an orderly manner.
• A large source of subtitle data to analyze will present us with the most used vocabulary.
• Subtitle frequency amount to both spoken and written language. Two birds, one stone.
• We show you the most used words in descending order, with example sentences. This way, you master your language as soon as possible.
• Our products can be used as a standalone product for self-study or as a handy supplement to any other language program.
• Language teachers who use the MostUsedWords books to teach their students vocabulary reported rapid improvements.

 

 

Bilingual Books

 

The bilingual book series consists of classic stories in parallel text. The texts are given side-by-side. 

 

This is how a bilingual book looks like. | Voici à quoi ressemble un livre bilingue.

 

Books published in this format provide the language learner with a method to quickly look up unknown vocabulary instead of reaching for a dictionary. It allows learners to read above their level and lessens the need to stick to graded readers. 

 

Some of our bilingual books are the original story and its translation as it was published at the time. Since most of our classics are now well over 100 years old, some were archaic in word usage and quite difficult in sentence structure. That is why some books have been rewritten into simple, modern English. Learners from all levels can benefit from reading bilingual books to expand and solidify their vocabulary.

 

The future

 

At the time of writing, it has been almost three years since I started the first book. Over 40 books have been published, updated, or republished. Many more will follow. The team has grown from just me, to nine people in nine different countries. We all love language learning, and the science behind it. 

 

We want to bring these practical frequency dictionaries and bilingual books to the world, in all major languages. So that everyone can learn languages fast and efficiently, and we can all understand each other a bit better.

 

We have received user feedback that they would like to see an e-learning environment. We are currently focusing on that, too. 

 

If you have any further questions or would like to offer your feedback, you can contact me by e-mail here. 

 

We hope we are helping you to achieve your dreams.

 

Thank you for reading.

 

Edmond @ MostUsedWords