The Building Blocks of Every Sentence

Have you ever thought about how often we see the words "the" or "and" in the sentences we read and write? In all honesty, they appear so frequently that you probably don't even notice. As you read through this short article, here's an exercise to try: count how many times each of these common English words we've listed appears in every sentence. It might surprise you!

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1. The

A definite article, we use "the" far more often than you might think. It appears twice in just the title of this article alone! Plus, whenever we need to mention certain nouns, we put "the" to good use—think "the dog," "the car," and "the building."

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2. And

Sure, there are other ways to connect sentences and subjects, but the easiest way to do it is by using "and." And being the most common conjunction, you'll see it everywhere in everything you read or write.

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3. Be

"Be" tops the list of the most common verbs in the English language. Even if you don’t often see it in its base form, you’ll likely encounter its conjugated forms all the time—such as "is," "am," "were," "being," and "been."

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4. To

This preposition is another word that you'll see pop up all the time in English. Whether you're describing direction ("here to there"), time ("from 10AM to 6PM"), or for giving and receiving ("I'm gifting this to you"), there are plenty of ways "to" can be used.

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5. Of

"Of" is another preposition that rivals the popularity of "to." It's most often used to show possession, indicate a connection, or to link a portion to a larger group. For example: "he's a friend of mine," "a bowl of cereal," "the name of the store."

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