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Ranked Ways USA English Sounds Are Spelled As Found in Media Text Pages. |
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The table below ranks the primary ways sounds are spelled in traditional spelling (tradspel) taken from the number of instances occurring in media (newspapers, magazines). The column "trad" means |
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how spelled in tradspel. The percentages represent how often a sound is spelled by a particular letter |
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or letter string. Results are approximate, but the sample is large, and the accuracy should be within a |
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percentage point. (The data are from a frequency count of the top 5,000 newspaper words from the |
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UK Collins Cobuild database converted to USA English spelling. Note that "_-e" means "silent e.") |
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1st |
way |
2nd |
way |
3rd |
way |
4th |
way |
5th |
way |
6th |
way |
Total |
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cnt |
sound |
trad |
% |
trad |
% |
trad |
% |
trad |
% |
trad |
% |
trad |
% |
Instances |
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1 |
~n |
"n" |
99% |
"kn" |
1% |
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4,003,428 |
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2 |
~u |
"e" |
29% |
"a" |
26% |
"o" |
25% |
"u" |
12% |
"o-e" |
5% |
"ou" |
1% |
3,773,977 |
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3 |
~t |
"t" |
100% |
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3,387,362 |
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4 |
~r |
"r" |
100% |
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3,231,352 |
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5 |
~i |
"i" |
63% |
"e" |
21% |
"io" |
4% |
"a" |
2% |
"o" |
2% |
"ee" |
2% |
3,184,808 |
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6 |
~d |
"d" |
100% |
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2,317,673 |
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7 |
~ee |
"e" |
31% |
"y" |
25% |
"i" |
19% |
"ee" |
10% |
"ea" |
10% |
"ie" |
2% |
2,143,530 |
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8 |
~s |
"s" |
83% |
"c" |
14% |
"x" |
3% |
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2,092,787 |
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9 |
~l |
"l" |
100% |
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1,884,647 |
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10 |
~th |
"th" |
100% |
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1,884,518 |
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11 |
~a |
"a" |
94%% |
a-e |
5% |
a--e |
1% |
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1,837,615 |
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12 |
~m |
"m" |
100% |
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1,425,121 |
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13 |
~z |
"s" |
98% |
"x" |
1% |
"z" |
1% |
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1,423,473 |
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14 |
~k |
"c" |
58% |
"k" |
26% |
"x" |
6% |
"ck" |
6% |
"q" |
3% |
"ch" |
1% |
1,373,133 |
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15 |
~w |
"w" |
70% |
"wh" |
17% |
none |
10% |
"qu" |
3% |
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1,357,339 |
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16 |
~er |
"er" |
60% |
"or" |
19% |
"ur" |
7% |
"ir" |
4% |
"ure" |
3% |
"our" |
3% |
1,333,566 |
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17 |
~e |
"e" |
77% |
"a" |
9% |
"ea" |
6% |
"ai" |
6% |
"ie" |
1% |
"ie" |
1% |
1,260,240 |
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18 |
~ue |
"o" |
55% |
"ou" |
15% |
"u" |
9% |
"u-e" |
6% |
"oo" |
6% |
"ew" |
5% |
1,150,320 |
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19 |
~v |
"v" |
53% |
"f" |
47% |
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1,140,631 |
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20 |
~h |
"h" |
94% |
"wh" |
6% |
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967,211 |
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21 |
~b |
"b" |
100% |
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948,699 |
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22 |
~f |
"f" |
96% |
"ph" |
2% |
"gh" |
2% |
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934,177 |
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23 |
~ie |
"i" |
37% |
"i-e" |
33% |
"y" |
18% |
"igh" |
8% |
"ie" |
2% |
"eye" |
1% |
929,064 |
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24 |
~p |
"p" |
100% |
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883,154 |
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25 |
~g |
"g" |
98% |
"x" |
2% |
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801,841 |
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26 |
~aa |
"o" |
66% |
"a" |
34% |
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787,179 |
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27 |
~ae |
"a-e" |
34% |
"ay" |
20% |
"a" |
17% |
"ey" |
12% |
"ai" |
10% |
"a--e" |
4% |
776,943 |
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28 |
~oe |
"o" |
63% |
"ow" |
16% |
"o-e" |
15% |
"ou" |
3% |
"oa" |
2% |
"oe" |
1% |
661,642 |
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29 |
~y |
none |
55% |
"y" |
43% |
"i" |
2% |
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558,733 |
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30 |
~oo |
"al" |
28% |
"le" |
24% |
"oul" |
20% |
"oo" |
14% |
"u" |
9% |
"e" |
2% |
553,830 |
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31 |
~sh |
"sh" |
51% |
"ti" |
30% |
"ci" |
8% |
"ssi" |
3% |
"s" |
2% |
"ss" |
1% |
380,137 |
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32 |
~or |
"or" |
59% |
"ore" |
21% |
"our" |
8% |
"oor" |
4% |
"ar" |
3% |
"owar" |
1% |
359,572 |
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33 |
~thh |
"th" |
100% |
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348,758 |
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34 |
~au |
"al" |
50% |
"o" |
29% |
"ough" |
7% |
"au" |
6% |
"aw" |
5% |
"a" |
2% |
346,173 |
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35 |
~ou |
"ou" |
69% |
"ow" |
31% |
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323,502 |
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36 |
~ch |
"ch" |
72% |
"t" |
22% |
"tch" |
5% |
"sc" |
1% |
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304,508 |
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37 |
~air |
"ere" |
30% |
"ar" |
20% |
"eir" |
17% |
"er" |
14% |
"are" |
9% |
"air" |
7% |
299,160 |
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38 |
~j |
"g" |
59% |
"j" |
33% |
"d" |
5% |
"dg" |
3% |
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237,941 |
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39 |
~oi |
"oi" |
62% |
"oy" |
38% |
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47,094 |
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40 |
~zh |
"s" |
98% |
"x" |
1% |
"g" |
1% |
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26,868 |
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