ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Most common words in English

Imagine that you have a big bag of sweets that has lots of candies. Now, imagine that you are taking out the candies one by one and putting them in a jar. After some time, you notice that some candies are showing up more often than others, like green candies. Green candies are the most common candies in your big bag of sweets.

Now, let's think about the English language. Just like the bag of sweets, there are lots and lots of English words. However, some words are used way more often than others. These words are called the "most common words in English."

There are about 300 to 500 most common words in English that are used over and over again in everyday conversation and writing. Words like "the," "and," "a," "to," and "in" are some of the most common words in English.

Just like how some candies are more popular than others, some English words are more popular than others too. These popular words are the most common words in the English language, and it's important to learn them so that you can better understand and communicate with others when speaking and writing in English.