To give you a real taste, here are words from three frequency bands:
Band 1 (1–500): the, of, and, to, in, for, is, on, that, by, this, with, from, at, be, as, are, was, he, she, it, they, we, have, not, but, do, say, get, make, go, know, take, see, come, think, look, want, give, use, find, tell, ask, work, seem, feel, try, leave, call.
Band 2 (501–1500): able, bad, best, better, big, black, certain, cold, complete, dark, early, easy, economic, entire, environmental, fair, far, fast, fine, foreign, full, great, green, hard, high, huge, important, international, large, late, least, light, likely, local, long, low, main, major, medical, military, national, natural, new, next, old, open, other, past, personal, political, poor, possible, public, real, recent, red, religious, right, serious, short, significant, similar, simple, small, social, soft, special, strong, sure, total, true, white, whole, young. 4500 Key English Words Pdf
Band 3 (1501–4500): abandon, accelerate, acknowledge, adapt, advocate, alternative, anticipate, apparent, appreciate, artificial, assure, authentic, aware, beneficial, brief, challenge, characteristic, clarify, coincide, collaborate, commitment, community, compatible, compensate, complex, concentrate, conclude, confident, conflict, confront, conscious, consequence, consider, consistent, constant, consult, context, contribute, conventional, convince, coordinate, core, corporate, correspond, crucial, currency, decade, decline, definite, demonstrate, deny, depend, despite, devote, dimension, discrete, distort, diverse, dominate, dramatic, duration, economic, eliminate, emerge, emphasis, enable, encounter, enhance, enormous, ensure, entitle, environment, establish, estimate, evident, evolve, exaggerate, exceed, exclude, exploit, expose, extend, external, extract, facility, factor, feature, finance, flexible, focus, former, formula, foundation, fraction, frequent, fulfill, function, fundamental, generate, gesture, global, govern, grade, guarantee, hence, highlight, hypothesis, identical, identify, ignore, illustrate, impact, implement, implicate, impose, incentive, incidence, incline, income, incorporate, index, indicate, individual, induce, inevitable, influence, initial, initiate, innovation, input, insert, insight, inspect, instance, instruct, integral, integrate, intellectual, intense, interact, intermediate, internal, interpret, interval, intervene, intrinsic, investigate, involve, isolate, issue, job, journal, justify, label, labor, layer, lecture, legal, legislate, leisure, liberate, likewise, link, locate, logic, maintain, major, manipulate, manual, margin, mature, maximize, mechanism, media, mediate, medical, medium, mental, method, migrate, military, minimal, minimize, minimum, ministry, minor, minute, mode, modify, monetary, monitor, motive, mutual, negate, network, neutral, nevertheless, objective, obtain, obvious, occupy, occur, odd, offset, ongoing, option, orient, outcome, output, overall, overlap, overseas, panel, paradigm, participate, partner, perceive, perfect, perform, period, persist, pertain, phase, phenomenon, philosophy, physical, plus, policy, portion, pose, positive, potential, powerful, practice, precise, predict, predominant, preliminary, premise, previous, primary, prime, principal, principle, prior, priority, proceed, process, professional, project, promote, proportion, protect, protocol, psychology, purchase, pursue, random, range, ratio, rational, react, recover, reduce, region, register, regulate, reinforce, reject, relate, relax, release, relevant, relieve, rely, remove, require, research, resolve, resource, respond, restore, restrict, retain, reveal, revenue, reverse, revise, revolution, rigid, role, route, schedule, scheme, scope, section, sector, secure, select, sequence, series, shift, significant, similar, site, situation, skilled, slightly, so-called, social, software, sole, slightly, so-called, social, software, sole, solution, source, specific, specify, sphere, stable, statistic, status, steady, straightforward, strategy, stress, strict, structure, style, submit, subsequent, substantial, succeed, sufficient, suggest, summary, support, survey, survive, sustain, symbol, system, tactic, task, technique, technology, temporary, tendency, tense, terminal, theme, theory, therapeutic, thermal, thesis, topic, trace, tradition, transfer, transform, transit, transmit, transport, trend, trigger, typical, ultimate, undergo, understand, undertake, uniform, unique, universal, unknown, unlikely, unlikely, upgrade, upon, urban, usage, valid, valuable, vary, vast, vehicle, version, via, violate, virtual, visible, vision, volume, voluntary, volunteer, welfare, whereas, whereby, widespread, witness, worker, worldwide, worth, worthy.
(This is a compressed sample – the full PDF would contain ~4,500 distinct entries.) To give you a real taste, here are
Search for the "4000 Essential English Words PDF" by Paul Nation (published by Compass Publishing). This is the gold standard. Books 1-6 total roughly 4,000 words. Book 6 brings you close to 4,500.
Do not learn 4500 words at once. Instead: (This is a compressed sample – the full
Import the 4500 words into a digital flashcard app like Anki or Quizlet. These apps use algorithms to show you a word right before you would naturally forget it. Most 4500-word PDFs are already pre-converted into Anki decks if you search for them.
Transfer the 15 daily words from the PDF into a flashcard app (Anki or Quizlet).
Yes. Go to EnglishClub.com → Vocabulary → Lists → 4500 Words (free). Or search “Word frequency list English PDF Mark Davies” – academic, free, and legal.
This is a modern, open-source competitor to older lists. The NGSL 1.2 includes 2,801 core words, but their extended "NAWL" (Academic Word List) adds another 1,000. Combined, they hit roughly 4,000. Many fans have compiled a "NGSL+NAWL Combined 4500 PDF."