Fact #184

Real Fact #184: The most used letters in the English language are E, T, A, O, I, and N.

Wow...did someone actually go through a Mirriam-Webster and count every single letter? How do you figure something like this out?

According to Wikipedia, E is most commonly believed to be the most common letter used. I suppose that is true. Feel free to count the number of E's in this post (or past posts) versus other letters to figure out if this is the case. I am not going to count myself, but just by looking at what I have written thus far I can believe it.

I actually found a table listing the frequency of all the letter sin a 40,000 word sample. Now, I never saw the word sample. I would like to in order to rule out bias. That being said, the order of the letters I listed above is the frequency order in this table. (to see the table yourself, go to http://www.math.cornell.edu/~mec/2003-2004/cryptography/subs/frequencies.html).

I guess Scrabble had to base its amount of letters off of something. There are several more E's in that burgundy bag than any other. Versus Q or Z...when do those letters get used much? Hey, they make word searches pretty easy when actually included in a word.

So I guess this is probably true, even if I cannot find more concrete info about it. If anyone finds different stats, I am happy to update this blog.

Just in closing, for the heck of it:

(This was given to me electronically by a friend. I did not make it, nor do I hold any rights to it)