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.