High Frequency Sight Word Lists

The following are a few sight word lists that I use with some of my lower level students to get their reading engines humming before they start an extensive reading session.  There are 7 high frequency word lists in all, broken down into: 1) function words I 2) function words II 3) verbs (including auxiliaries) 4) verbs inflected for past tense (when applicable) 5) nouns & adjectives 6) mixed list I 7) mixed list II.  The words are all pulled from the first 200 most frequent words according to the New General Service List developed by  Browne, Culligan and Phillips and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.  The sight word lists are (mostly) in their frequency order.

For students who are just learning to read, I sometimes will have them follow along with their finger as I read the words out one at a time.  For students who are working on their letter-sound correspondence, I have them read a list or two out loud and keep track of their time.  For students who are getting a bit more comfortable with reading, but still struggle with issues of automaticity, I give them a specific time to shoot for (under 60 seconds at first).  I realise this might seem a little at odds with the whole idea of extensive reading, but I find that quickly improving students ability to read these high frequency words actually makes extensive reading a lot more pleasurable for my lower level learners. If you have any ideas for how to use sight word lists in your language classroom, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

These word lists are also available in one spiffy PDF file right here: Sight Word Practice Lists PDF.

 

Function Words I

the	of	and	to	a
in	it	you	for	not
that	on	with	as	he
we	this	at	they	but
from	by	or	his	she
so	all	about	if	one
my	there	which	her	more
their	your	when	what	who
up	some	out	me	other

 

Function Words II

our	them	no	because	then
now	also	than	him	into
only	these	its	any	over
after	where	most	much	how
back	such	us	here	those
many	down	yes	before	through
between	too	still	something	both
each	next	why	while	never
again	around	during	off	another

 

Verbs

be	have	do	will	say
go	know	can	get	would
think	like	make	see	take
come	could	use	work	want
look	give	find	should	need
mean	may	tell	call	show
feel	change	write	talk	try
leave	meet	help	own	ask
put	start	become	include	live
must	study	play	might	let

 

Verbs, simple past sense

was	had	did	were	said
went	knew	could	got	would
thought	liked	made	saw	took
came	could	used	worked	wanted
looked	gave	found	should	needed
meant	may	told	called	showed
felt	changed	wrote	talked	tried
left	met	helped	owned	asked
put	started	became	included	lived
must	studied	played	might	let

 

Nouns and adjectives

time	people	year	way	thing
day	company	child	man	life
place	pause	problem	number	part
country	point	school	interest	end
world	week	report	house	group
home	course	case	system	woman
family	book	question	good	well
new	right	last	long	unclear
same	great	little	old	different
high	late	kind	big	every

 

Mixed List I

the	of	good	be	time
and	to	had	well	people
year	a	in	did	say
have	new	way	it	you
for	went	last	that	on
right	with	know	from	as
long	this	so	would	made
day	man	were	go	by
they	at	make	like	life
saw	same	they	but	get

 

Mixed list II

or	his	great	knew	little
not	think	child	old	place
she	all	do	if	one
high	take	thing	about	can
my	late	there	pause	said
her	more	which	kind	big
their	come	part	see	your
when	thought	every	who	up
took	number	will	what	use
me	some	work	out	other