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Longman Communication 3000
The Longman Communication 3000 is a list of the 3000 most frequent words in both spoken and written English, based on statistical analysis of the 390 million words contained in the Longman Corpus Network – a group of corpuses or databases of authentic English language. The Longman Communication 3000 represents the core of the English language and shows students of English which words are the most important for them to learn and study in order to communicate effectively in both speech and writing. Analysis of the Longman Corpus Network shows that these 3000 most frequent words in spoken and written English account for 86% of the language. This means that by knowing this list of words, a learner of English is in a position to understand 86% or more of what he or she reads. Of course, “knowing” a word involves more than simply being able to recognise it and know a main meaning of it. Many of the most frequent words have a range of different meanings, a variety of different grammatical patterns, and numerous significant collocations. Nonetheless, a basic understanding of the Longman Communication 3000 is a very powerful tool and will help students develop good comprehension and communication skills in English. ‘This [frequency] information is gold dust for the language learner. LDOCE shows in graphic and immediate form which words are really worth learning and knowing how to use.’
Jeremy Harmer, ELT author
These frequency markers added to the headwords in the dictionary give users access to a wealth of information that can help the selection of the appropriate word or phrase in a variety of situations. Not only are the words and meanings given descriptive labels, for example formal or informal, AmE (American English) or BrE (British English), humorous, old-fashioned, but now they have the added information about relative frequency in spoken and written language. Take for example the verb book (in the meaning of