Letter Frequency in the English language

This Nugget has been written by marcmandy on 24 Jun at 7:56PM

Category: Hangman

I pulled this off a wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequency

It might help to determine letter selection. While every word is unique and this doesn't apply to each one,
it does give an idea of how often letters appear and which letters have a better chance of appearing than others.

{ Image: img594.imageshack.us/img594/9819/englishletterfrequency.jpg }

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/9819/englishletterfrequency.jpg

If the word you are trying to guess was, say, ZEPHYR, it wouldn't help a lot, but since the words are chosen randomly, it might be a useful aid.
 
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Nugget Comments
multi-word phrases

Posted on 25 Jun at 9:51AM by Jools

this is more useful in multi-word phrases
Keyboard

Posted on 3 Jul at 4:21AM by NetKissa aka Knit This

Normal keyboard has letters arranged so that most common letters in English is in the center close to your index fingers. I use this as a guide when choosing what letters to guess first.
Z vs S

Posted on 20 Sep at 6:42PM by Tezcatlipoca

In American English, should the Z have slightly higher frequency than in British English?
And consequently (I'll start a sentence with and if I want to), should S have a slightly lower frequency?
For example: British organisation/ American organization.
I suppose the change in frequency may be only slight, but it is certainly worth bearing in mind for non-Americans. Smiling
Z vs S

Posted on 20 Sep at 6:42PM by Tezcatlipoca

In American English, should the Z have slightly higher frequency than in British English?
And consequently (I'll start a sentence with and if I want to), should S have a slightly lower frequency?
For example: British organisation/ American organization.
I suppose the change in frequency may be only slight, but it is certainly worth bearing in mind for non-Americans. Smiling
ETAOIN SHRDLU

Posted on 28 Oct at 12:55AM by rabbitoid

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etaoin_shrdlu

This phrase, relatively easy to remember, is the approximate order of frequency of the 12 most commonly used letters in the English language.

The wikipedia article gives some amusing information concerning the use of the phrase.