up .mess, .after, .act, site, help., try., .waste, .environment, kitchen, .pollution out .closet, .desk, .locker, .garage, .refrigerator, .attic, .barn, .gutter 17226 | 0.96
score v
noun run, .touchdown, .goal, student., team., .victory, player., .hit, average, second, participant., record, measure, .success, play misc .high, .low, each, .significantly, lead, .above, .point, .twice
18663 | 0.88 N
bond n
adj municipal, strong, corporate, common, social, short-term, special, emotional, foreign noun .fund, stock., .market, junk., treasury., government., .issue verb buy., sell, form, hold, break, create, .yield, forge, strengthen., .mature 18437 | 0.89 N
plus i
cup., year, tablespoon, hour, million, cost, minute, per, .shipping, percent, .additional, tax, four, five
17513 | 0.94 M
debt n
adj national, foreign, bad, external, federal, long-term, total, public noun credit, card., interest, payment, .relief, .service, .crisis verb pay., owe, reduce., repay., incur, increase, forgive, carry, rise, accumulate 17687 | 0.93
smart j
noun people, guy, card, thing, man, kid, woman, move, way, money, girl, bomb misc very, enough, too, funny, pretty, tough, beautiful, figure
17271 | 0.95
English n
adj fluent, standard, plain, broken, perfect, accented, limited noun language, professor., school, word, teacher, math, degree. verb speak., learn., teach., write., translate., read, understand., convey
17256 | 0.95
terrible j
noun thing, mistake, time, tragedy, day, problem, situation, accident, pain, idea, loss, crime misc something, happen, feel, such, suffer, sound, awful, horrible
17473 | 0.94 S
witness n
adj key, potential, credible, hostile, Christian, silent, live, independent noun .stand, expert., prosecution, testimony, star., list, evidence, .protection, .program verb call, .testify, bear., hear, interview, describe, present, question, identify, tamper 17726 | 0.92 S
reference n
adj specific, explicit, historical, direct, future, particular, personal, sexual, numerous, passing noun point, frame., .book, .material, .group, ·image(s), case, letter, library verb make, include, provide, contain., check, cite, incorporate., define 18000 | 0.91 A
account v
noun factor., .difference, variance, model., change, variable, effect, industry., data, amount, cost, population., theory., practice, behavior misc .for, which., .about, .more, .only, .nearly, billion
18009 | 0.91 A
separate v
noun .entity, parent, wall., line., wife, husband, distance, fence., space, glass, twin, difference., month, .birth, layer misc .from, two, each, .himself, ·themselves, difficult.
out .from, can., .those, difficult., .effect, .fact, ·different, .any 16925 | 0.97
mean j
noun score, age, difference, time, value, rating, number, response, street, length misc I, between, standard, yeah, low, significant, total, significantly
18386 | 0.89 S A
vice j
noun president, chairman, candidate, director, presidency, chair, nominee, principal, chancellor, minister, debate, president-elect misc senior, presidential, former, general, corporate, serve, assistant, chief 18027 | 0.91 N
black n
adj young, poor, free, southern, African, likely, racial, middle-class, civil, urban noun white, .Hispanics, .sea, percent, woman, south, number., minority, .Asian, pitch. verb .vote, .move, .represent, exclude, hire, compare, .tend, admit, treat, register 17531 | 0.93
16. The vocabulary of spoken English
The nearly 80 million words of spoken English in the Corpus of Contemporary American English come from transcripts of unscripted conversation on radio and television programs such as Oprah, Geraldo, The Today Show, 20/20, All Things Considered, and so on. Searches for phrases such as I guess that, how do you, do you think, I mean, ... you know ....... well..., and ... sure ... do show that the frequency of
these phrases in the spoken portion of Corpus of Contemporary American English is much higher than in the other genres, and so these transcripts do reflect spoken English quite well. However, as can be seen in the following lists, there is still an orientation toward the vocabulary of "media English," which is not perfectly representative of everyday, informal, conversational English.
The following tables show the most frequent words (grouped by part of speech) that are at least three times as common (per million words) in the transcripts of spoken English as in the other four genres, along with the frequency of each lemma (or headword).
[noun] lot 82640, news 53355, thanks 27123, vote 17955, bit 16994, troop 14793, jury 13266, murder 12079, poll 11787, witness 7808, terrorism 5840
[verb] think 375655, know 372469, talk 107174, mean 105485, happen 78171, thank 62590, join 34746, guess 22431, vote i6394, testify 4943, convict 3432, excuse 3393, tune 3156, campaign 2256, rape 2084, bomb 2053, prosecute 1998, jail 1533, indict 1422, veto 1376
[adjective] interesting 15884, Iraqi 11738, correct 8920, guilty 7452, OK 5501, rigid 3103, terrific 2885, unbelievable 1637, partisan 1505, undercover 1307, convicted 1044, pro-life 644, teen-age 539, anti-war 463
[adverb] well 223269, very 192068, here 174620, really 130202, right 106598, today 79677, all 74992, actually 48585, OK 45211, tonight 30209, certainly 26699, absolutely 23671, pretty 21702, ahead 17819, obviously 15837, basically 14907, tomorrow 14593, yesterday 13648, like 8675, frankly 5338,
rest v
noun hand, head, arm, eye, minute, .peace, chin, back, elbow, .second, table, side, body, soul, floor misc .against, put., .upon, .assured up while, before, week., need., .tomorrow
17411 | 0.94 F
hero n
adj national, local, unsung, super, tragic, unlikely, greatest, romantic, genuine, revolutionary noun war, action., sport., folk., .heroine, role, ·journey, .worship, status verb become., honor, hail., celebrate, welcome, regard., rescue, depict., cheer., ·stride 16967 | 0.96