Frequently used words and sight words

Both sight words and high frequency words need to be recognised quickly for reading and writing to become fluent.

Knowing 100 of these frequently used words gives a beginning reader about half of the words they need for reading.

Parents can assist children by making flash cards of these words and getting children to read the cards with increasing speed.

There are a number of these lists available from books or via the internet.

Here is a useful list of frequently used words and sight words:

• a
• after
• again
• and
• at
• away
• because
• been
• before
• big
• boy
• by
• came
• come
• could
• dad
• didn’t
• do
• down
• for
• friend
• from
• gave
• get
• girl
• give
• goes
• good
• had
• have
• he
• her
• him
• his
• how
• I
• if
• in
• into
• is
• it
• like
• little
• looked
• love
• made
• make
• me
• mum
• my
• not
• of
• off
• on
• one
• our
• out
• over
• people
• play
• run
• said
• saw
• say
• school
• see
• she
• should
• so
• stayed
• that
• the
• their
• them
• then
• there
• they
• this
• to
• too
• upon
• two
• up
• us
• use
• very
• was
• we
• went
• were
• what
• when
• where
• which
• who
• why
• will
• with
• you
• your.