The Third 100 Most Common Words

Words 201 to 300 on our list of the most common words: heard, children, mother, morning, friend, water, door, family. These are the words that start filling 2nd grade stories, about people, places and the day.

Print the list and flashcards (PDF) Kids: take the quiz All sight word lists

Words 201 to 300, most common first

The number shows each word's place on the full list of 1,000. 20 of these words are also on the Dolch lists.

About this list

This list moves from small "glue" words toward words with clear meanings: mother, children, water, door, king, story, family, party. That makes it a good list for building sentences and short stories together.

Most of these words follow patterns 2nd graders know: -ing and -ed endings in looked, asked, called, making, coming; r-controlled vowels in party, hard, far, girl, word; and vowel teams in seen, soon, need, voice.

The heart words in this group are worth extra writing practice, because 2nd graders use them constantly: friend, young, water, woman and heard are frequent spelling mistakes.

Heart words in this list

These words have a part that doesn't follow the sounds your child knows yet. Sound out the rest and learn the tricky part by heart. See what are sight words? for the method.

WordThe tricky part
friendie says short e
youngou says short u
eyeseye sounds like the letter I
watera says ah
womano says the oo in book
wholew is silent
halfl is silent; a says short a
dooroor says or
heardear says er
knewk is silent
mothero says short u
oftent is often silent
businessu says short i
againstai says short e

Words to sound out instead of memorizing: yet, set, end, run, men, until, looked, asked, called, making, coming, party, hard, far, girl, word, seen, soon, need, morning, play, name, white, side.

Sentences to read

Each sentence uses words from this list. Read them together, then let your child try alone.

  1. My friend and I play in the morning.
  2. The children heard a voice at the door.
  3. Mother gave us water.
  4. We ate half of the cake at the party.
  5. Can you hear the king?
  6. I hope you have a good name for it.
  7. The young girl ran far.
  8. Read the whole story.
  9. Open your eyes and look.
  10. My family often eats at home.

How to practice

  1. Five words a week. Pick three to five new words each week and mix in one heart word.
  2. Sound out first. Blend the sounds of regular words. For heart words, sound out the regular parts and point to the tricky part.
  3. One minute of flashcards a day. A word is known when your child reads it in under three seconds, three days running.
  4. Find the words in books. Before reading together, hunt for this week's words on a page.
  5. Write them. Spell each new word out loud while writing it. It sticks far faster than reading alone.

Quiz: third 100 most common words

Read each sentence and tap the word that fits. The speaker button reads the sentence aloud, without giving away the answer.

  1. 1.My best _____ is Sam.

    Show answer

    friend: My best friend is Sam.

  2. 2.Can I have a cup of _____?

    Show answer

    water: Can I have a cup of water?

  3. 3.Close your _____ and sleep.

    Show answer

    eyes: Close your eyes and sleep.

  4. 4.We eat breakfast in the _____.

    Show answer

    morning: We eat breakfast in the morning.

  5. 5.I _____ a loud noise last night.

    Show answer

    heard: I heard a loud noise last night.

  6. 6.Please open the _____.

    Show answer

    door: Please open the door.

  7. 7.I cut the cake in _____.

    Show answer

    half: I cut the cake in half.

  8. 8.Let's _____ a game.

    Show answer

    play: Let's play a game.

  9. 9.My _____ makes dinner.

    Show answer

    mother: My mother makes dinner.

  10. 10._____ you very much!

    Show answer

    Thank: Thank you very much!

Printable list and flashcards

The Third 100 Most Common Words printable checklist, page 1

The free PDF has 10 US Letter pages: a numbered checklist of all 100 words with a box to tick for each word your child knows, and 9 pages of large flashcards to cut out, 12 to a page. Print on card stock if you can.

Download the PDF Make custom flashcards

How this list was made

This is English1to5's own list. We ranked words by how often they appear in classic public-domain children's books and in everyday English (word frequencies from the open wordfreq project by Robyn Speer, CC BY-SA 4.0), then removed names, single letters and topics that don't suit a children's list. The list is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license, so teachers are welcome to reuse it with credit.

More word lists

← Second 100 Most Common Words Fourth 100 Most Common Words →

For lists grouped by grade, see the Dolch lists. For older readers, see words 501 to 1000. All lists are on the sight words page.

Last reviewed: November 11, 2026

Questions parents ask

What are the third 100 most common words?

Words 201 to 300 on English1to5's list of the 1,000 most common words for young readers, starting with yet, heard, himself, called, few.

How was this list made?

We ranked words by how often they appear in classic children's books and in everyday English, then removed names and topics that don't suit kids. It's similar in spirit to the Fry Instant Words, but it's our own list.

Is this the same as the Fry list?

No. The Fry Instant Words are a separate, published list. Ours was made independently, so the order differs, but the most common words overlap a lot.

How many of these words are on the Dolch lists?

20 of these 100 words are also on the five Dolch grade lists.

How fast should my child learn these words?

About five new words a week works well for most children, with daily review. At this level, the whole list takes about 20 weeks at that pace.