The most frequent words in English
The First 100 Fry words — "the," "of," "and," "a" among them — are, by Dr. Edward Fry's original research, the single most frequently occurring words across ordinary English text, together making up a genuinely large share of the words in any typical book, article, or classroom reading passage. Learning to recognize and write these instantly, rather than sounding each one out fresh every time, is the highest-leverage starting point for early reading and writing fluency.
Because these words appear so constantly, they're also often exempt from regular phonics rules — many can't be sounded out cleanly, which is exactly why they're taught as sight words to be recognized and written from memory instead.
Using this worksheet effectively
This list is split into four smaller groups so practice stays manageable rather than overwhelming a child with all 100 words at once. Every worksheet here downloads as a free, print-ready PDF with no account required.