The Dolch List

Dyslexia Parents Resource

The Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary

From 50 to 75 percent of all words used in school books, library books, newspapers, and magazines are in the Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary of 220 words. They are "service words" (pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and verbs) which cannot be learned through the use of pictures. Because they are used to hold thoughts together, these words must be recognized at a glance before a child can read with confidence.

You may want to use this list to offer practice for your child. Suggestions would include: Have you child use each word in a sentence, make flash cards and put words together to form sentences, use selected words to write stories and illustrate, make a double set of some words to use in a memory game..... etc. (Try to avoid endless hours of drill). Ten to fifteen minutes three times a week is fabulous. Most importantly, have fun with you child and continually let him/her know how proud you are that they are trying! This should be a positive experience for both child and parent.

and	you	let	be	into	go
me	away	all	once	I	with
from	that	tell	am	what	ran
then	about	ride	come	of	try
white	run	see	under	work	seven
can	want	find	sleep	today	this
in	his	walk	four	yes	little
live	was	two	no	do	now
if	pick	is	like	down	there
by	here	but	up	has	or
not	don't	know	yellow	over	a
read	on	think	could	get	fast
made	got	how	look	who	new
ask	long	at	say	have	put
your	said	play	thank	green	every
the	he	red	were	right	will
for	my	five	would	to	they
went	good	please	we	she	where
one	small	help	big	her	take
far	are	too	going	so	off
stop	make	saw	had	as	it
funny	some	jump	around	eat	old
may	why	warm	first	hold	draw
many	never	when	does	own	because
keep	any	them	very	done	which
not	after	before	wash	call	best
these	full	better	soon	its	black
an	sing	blue	been	came	both
three	sit	bring	carry	just	brown
round	six	buy	wish	upon	eight
us	clean	fall	use	give	fly
again	open	him	show	cold	hurt
our	goes	light	only	laugh	myself
always	out	pull	much	cut	shall
their	start	those	together	did	write
must	grow	gave	ten	kind	pretty
drink	ate

300 Most Common Words - from the American Heritage Word Frequency Book by John B. Carroll, Peter Davies, and Barry Richman (Houghton Mifflin, 1971, ISBN 0-395-13570-2.
Word Frequencies - The most commonly used word in written English, by pretty much any reliable standard, is "the," appearing nearly twice as often as the next most common word. The most commonly used word in spoken English, however, is "I," followed, in order, by "you," "the," and "a." Lists the most commonly used words in written English by a number of different sources.
Vocabulary Lists - huge listing of words under all sorts of headings, most common mis-spelt words, most common nouns, most common verbs, etc., etc.
List of Homonyms - by Alan Cooper (this page is slow to load).

Dyslexia Parents Resource