High-Frequency Words: Which Ones Are Decodable?

A high-frequency word is a word that shows up often in written language. We Are Teachers defines them that way. The same page separates that label from a sight word: a sight word is any word a reader already identifies at once, and any word can become one. A high-frequency word can be regular, like me, or highly irregular, like of or who.

That split is the part to teach. Frequency tells you which words are worth an early lesson. The spelling tells you whether the lesson is phonics or a heart mark. See sight words for the instant-word meaning, and heart words for the mark on the irregular part.

How few words carry early text

We Are Teachers says thirteen words make up a quarter of all of the words that kids read, and roughly 100 words make up 50% of text. Learning that small set, while you also teach decoding, gives a child a large share of the words on the page. It does not replace the patterns. It shortens the list you have to plan.

There is no national ranking of twenty words that every school must use. K12Reader's Fry first-hundred worksheet prints one published frequency list. Reading down the first list, the first twenty words are the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, he, was, for, on, are, as, with, his, they, and I. Use the words in the books your class is about to read, and sort those. The worksheet is not a requirement.

A sample, already sorted

The Institute of Education Sciences practice guide prints a sample of high-frequency words in two columns. Irregular words in that sample are the, there, was, want, from, said, have, friend, and of. Regular words are in, and, had, that, him, did, then, with, and down.

Word	IES column	K-2 first move
the	irregular	Say the word, show the spelling, practice the whole word
there	irregular	Map any letter the class can already read, learn the rest
was	irregular	Leave w unmarked, mark the vowel that is not short a
want	irregular	Teach it when a book needs it, not as a shape to guess
from	irregular	Same routine as was: sound the regular letters, learn the odd part
said	irregular	Teach it before the book that uses it
have	irregular	Sound the letters that match, learn the part that does not
friend	irregular	Hold it until a book needs it
of	irregular	The whole spelling is the part to learn
in	regular	Sound it out, then practice until it is quick
and	regular	Sound it out. No heart mark
had	regular	Sound it out
that	regular	Sound it out once short a and th are taught
him	regular	Sound it out
did	regular	Sound it out
then	regular	Sound it out once th is taught
with	regular	Sound it out once th is taught
down	regular	Sound it out once ow representing /ow/ has been taught

The middle column is the practice guide's sort. The right-hand note is a K-2 teaching decision for those same words, not a second column in the guide. The National Center on Improving Literacy says to teach consonants and short vowels where the letters have their most common sound, such as a in bat, before words where a letter does something else. That is why "that" and "with" wait for the digraph, and why "was" is not a short-a word.

Ten of those words answer the "common list" question without pretending they are a national ranking: the, was, said, of, have, in, and, that, with, and had. Five need a heart or a whole-word lesson. Five can be sounded out once the matching patterns are in place.

Regular now, irregular for now, irregular for good

Sort every new high-frequency word into one of three piles before you put it on a card.

Regular now. Every letter matches a pattern the class has learned. In, and, had, him, and did belong here as soon as short vowels and those consonants are taught. Students apply letter-sound skills, then practice until recognition is quick. The Institute of Education Sciences practice guide says that for regular high-frequency words. Memorizing the shape of "and" wastes the phonics lesson.

Irregular for now. The word will be decodable after a later pattern. "Me" is the example We Are Teachers gives of a phonetically regular word that is also common. Before open syllables are taught, a child cannot use that pattern yet, so "me" is a temporary heart. After the pattern is taught, take the mark off and read it by sound. The same move fits "that" and "with" before th is taught, and "then" as well.

Irregular in the guide's column. The, was, said, have, and of stay in the irregular pile even after early short vowels, because a letter still does something the common pattern does not do. Teach the regular letters by sound. Learn the leftover. The Institute of Education Sciences practice guide also says to teach irregular high-frequency words as whole words. End the lesson on the whole word, read and written, not on the mark alone.

How to run the sort in K-2

1. List the high-frequency words in next week's books. Ignore a borrowed stack the books do not use.
2. Cross off words whose patterns are already taught. Those are regular now. Sound them out in the phonics lesson.
3. Star words the book needs that the class cannot yet decode. Those are the week's heart words or whole-word lessons. A few at a time.
4. Read each new word in a sentence the same day. A card alone is not the lesson.
5. When a new pattern arrives, re-sort. Move words out of the "for now" pile.

Kindergarten usually meets the, a, and, in, is, and was in the first books. Teach the regular ones with the letter sounds of that week. Teach was and the when the book needs them. First grade clears a lot of the "for now" pile as silent e, vowel teams, and th come in. Second grade keeps the same sort for the less common irregular spellings. The habit does not change. The pile gets smaller.

What to stop doing with the list

• Drilling "in" and "and" as shapes. They are regular.
• Treating the whole high-frequency list as irregular. We Are Teachers notes that a surprising number of these words are phonetically regular.
• Adding twenty new cards because a printable said so. The book's words are the list.
• Skipping the sentence. Frequency is why the word matters. Context is where the child has to read it.

One limit of this advice: the practice guide's sample is a teaching example, not a frequency ranking, and the thirteen-word figure is not a list of thirteen spellings on the page we opened. You still have to look at the books in your room and sort those words. A sort does not tell you a child is finished with phonics.

A word list in every book, with answer keys for the comprehension questions, is in the K-2 Decodable Books download. It is an instant download, and nothing ships.