Word List
Fry Sight Words
The Fry list ranks the 1,000 most common words in English in groups of a hundred. This page lists the first 300, sorted into the words your child can sound out and the 70 heart words to learn by heart, with free word cards. The other 229 follow spelling patterns a child learns in phonics.
What is the Fry sight word list?
The Fry sight word list is Edward Fry’s ranking of the 1,000 most common words in English, in ten groups of a hundred. Fry built it in the 1950s from the words that turn up most often in reading materials for grades 3-9, and updated it in 1980, according to sightwords.com, which also prints all 1,000. It ranks words by how often they appear, not by grade. This page lists the first 300 in rank order, as printed in Fry, Kress and Fountoukidis’s The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists (1993), except one word in the third hundred, Indian, which we leave off.
The first 300 carry most of what a young child reads. Reading researcher Timothy Shanahan puts the 100 most frequent words at about 50 percent of the words a child sees in any text, and the 300 at about 75 percent. All 1,000 Fry words make up about 90 percent of a typical book, newspaper or website, by sightwords.com’s count. Our guide to what sight words are explains what the term means and how many words each grade is usually given.
Which Fry words go with which grade?
Fry did not assign grades, so the split on this site’s grade pages is ours. Each grade page lists one slice of the list, sorted for that grade:
| Fry words | Grade page | Why that grade |
|---|---|---|
| 1-25 | Kindergarten sight words | Shanahan suggests about 20 sight words by the end of kindergarten |
| 26-100 | 1st grade sight words | With kindergarten’s 25, the 100 Shanahan suggests by the end of 1st grade |
| 101-200 | 2nd grade sight words | Our choice: the next hundred |
| 201-300 | 3rd grade sight words | Our choice: the next hundred, less one word we leave off |
The kindergarten figure is from a post by Timothy Shanahan on kindergarten sight words. His own pace is faster at the top end: he tells teachers to make sure children recognize the first 100 Fry words by the end of first grade and all 300 by the end of second grade. A second grader who reads the first 200 easily can go straight on to the third hundred.
How is Fry different from Dolch?
Use the list your school sends: for a kindergartner the Fry and Dolch lists barely differ. All of the first 25 Fry words are also Dolch words, and the two lists drift apart only as they go on.
| Fry | Dolch | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 1,000 words | 220 words, plus a separate list of 95 nouns |
| Sorted by | How often each word appears, in groups of a hundred | Grade level, pre-primer to third, most common first within each |
| Built from | Reading materials for grades 3-9, in the 1950s, updated in 1980 | Children’s books of the 1930s and 40s |
The overlap shrinks with each hundred. Of the first 100 Fry words, 87 are among the 220 Dolch words. Of the second hundred, 51 are, and of the third, 28. That makes 166 shared words across the first 300, three-quarters of Dolch’s 220 (his 95 nouns are not counted). Neither list separates the words a child can sound out from the ones that have to be memorized, which is why the Dolch sight words page sorts its 220 the same way this page sorts Fry.
How many Fry words have to be memorized?
Only 70 of the first 300. The other 229 are decodable: every part of the word follows a spelling pattern a child learns in phonics by the end of second grade, so they can sound it out. The 70 are heart words, where part of the word breaks the usual patterns, so it has to be learned by heart. (One word in the third hundred is left off the page, so the counts cover 299.)
| Fry words | Heart words | Words to sound out |
|---|---|---|
| First 100 | 30 | 70 |
| Second 100 | 22 | 78 |
| Third 100 | 18 | 81 |
| All 300 | 70 | 229 |
The sort is by reading, not spelling. A word can be easy to read and still awkward to spell, so a spelling list may call a word a rule-breaker that this page sorts as decodable.
Counts like these depend on how strictly “decodable” is drawn. Reading specialists Linda Farrell, Michael Hunter and Tina Osenga, writing for Reading Rockets, count 82 heart words among Dolch’s 220, where this site’s Dolch page counts 49, so another sort of the Fry list may well find more than 70. How to teach sight words covers how to practice both kinds.
First 100 Fry words
Words 1-100 on the Fry list, the most common words in English. This site's kindergarten page lists words 1-25 and its 1st grade page lists 26-100. Of the 100, 70 can be sounded out and only 30 are heart words.
Which of the first 100 Fry words can your child sound out?
These 70 can be sounded out with phonics. Of those, 49 follow patterns a first grader is taught by the end of the year, and 21 use a pattern that comes in second grade, such as the ee in see, the ou in out or the or in for: read those together and name the pattern until it has been taught. The kindergarten and 1st grade pages sort the same words for each grade, and their worksheets are linked below.
- and
- a
- in
- is
- that
- it
- he
- for
- on
- as
- with
- his
- I
- at
- be
- this
- or
- had
- by
- but
- not
- all
- we
- when
- can
- use
- an
- each
- which
- she
- how
- if
- will
- up
- about
- out
- then
- them
- these
- so
- her
- make
- like
- him
- time
- has
- look
- more
- write
- go
- see
- number
- no
- way
- my
- than
- first
- call
- oil
- its
- now
- find
- long
- down
- day
- did
- get
- made
- may
- part
Which of the first 100 Fry words have to be learned by heart?
These 30 are heart words, words that break the usual spelling patterns and need to be learned by heart. They are the kindergarten page’s 9 and the 1st grade page’s 21 in one pile, and each page’s worksheets are linked below. Our heart words guide shows which part of each one to learn by heart.
- the
- of
- to
- you
- was
- are
- they
- have
- from
- one
- word
- what
- were
- your
- said
- there
- do
- their
- other
- many
- some
- would
- into
- two
- could
- people
- water
- been
- who
- come
Second 100 Fry words
Words 101-200 on the Fry list, the same 100 this site's 2nd grade page lists. Of the 100, 78 can be sounded out and only 22 are heart words.
Which of the second 100 Fry words can your child sound out?
These 78 can be sounded out with phonics, using patterns taught by the end of second grade, such as the ow in know and the soft c in place. The 2nd grade sight words page has the same 78, and its worksheets are linked below.
- over
- new
- sound
- take
- little
- know
- place
- year
- me
- back
- most
- very
- after
- thing
- our
- just
- name
- good
- sentence
- man
- think
- say
- help
- much
- before
- line
- right
- too
- mean
- old
- same
- tell
- boy
- follow
- came
- show
- also
- around
- form
- three
- small
- set
- end
- well
- large
- must
- big
- even
- such
- turn
- here
- why
- ask
- went
- men
- read
- need
- land
- different
- home
- us
- try
- kind
- hand
- off
- play
- spell
- air
- away
- animal
- house
- point
- page
- letter
- found
- study
- still
- America
Which of the second 100 Fry words have to be learned by heart?
These 22 are heart words, words that break the usual spelling patterns and need to be learned by heart. They are the same 22 as in the 2nd grade page’s heart-word section, whose worksheets are linked below.
- only
- work
- live
- give
- great
- where
- through
- any
- want
- put
- does
- another
- because
- move
- picture
- again
- change
- mother
- answer
- learn
- should
- world
Third 100 Fry words
Words 201-300 on the Fry list, less one we leave off. The 3rd grade sight words page lists the same words for a third grader. Of the 99, 81 can be sounded out and only 18 are heart words.
Which of the third 100 Fry words can your child sound out?
These 81 can be sounded out with phonics, using patterns taught by the end of second grade. Many are longer words read one part at a time, such as important, children and without.
- high
- every
- near
- add
- food
- between
- own
- below
- plant
- last
- keep
- tree
- never
- start
- city
- light
- under
- story
- saw
- left
- few
- while
- along
- might
- close
- seem
- next
- hard
- open
- example
- begin
- life
- always
- those
- both
- paper
- together
- got
- often
- run
- important
- until
- children
- side
- feet
- car
- mile
- night
- walk
- white
- sea
- began
- grow
- took
- river
- carry
- state
- book
- hear
- stop
- without
- second
- late
- miss
- idea
- eat
- face
- far
- really
- almost
- let
- girl
- cut
- talk
- soon
- list
- song
- being
- leave
- family
- it's
Which of the third 100 Fry words have to be learned by heart?
These 18 are heart words, words that break the usual spelling patterns and need to be learned by heart. They are the same 18 as in the 3rd grade page’s heart-word section, whose worksheets are linked below.
- country
- school
- father
- earth
- eye
- thought
- head
- don't
- something
- group
- four
- once
- enough
- watch
- above
- sometimes
- mountain
- young
Frequently asked questions
What grade levels are Fry sight words appropriate for?
Fry did not assign grade levels: his list ranks words by how often they appear. Reading researcher Timothy Shanahan suggests children know the first 100 Fry words by the end of first grade and the first 300 by the end of second grade. This site's grade pages give words 1-25 to kindergarten, 26-100 to first grade and 101-200 to second grade.
Fry sight words vs. Dolch sight words: which is better for kindergarten?
Neither, for a kindergartner: the first 25 Fry words are all on the Dolch list too, so use the list your child's school sends. Only 9 of those 25 have to be learned by heart, and the rest can be sounded out.
Are there specific Fry sight words that focus on phonics as well?
Yes, most of them. Of the first 300 Fry words, 229 follow spelling patterns a child learns in phonics by the end of second grade, such as the ee in see or the silent e in make, so they can be sounded out. Only 70 are heart words, with a part that breaks the usual patterns.
What is the Fry sight word list for grades K-1?
Words 1-100, the first hundred. This site gives words 1-25 to kindergarten and 26-100 to first grade, a split that is ours, since Fry assigned no grades. Of the 100, 70 can be sounded out and 30 have to be learned by heart.
Which Fry sight words are most challenging for first graders?
The heart words, the ones with a part that breaks the usual spelling patterns. The first 100 Fry words have 30 of them, such as said, was, of, one and people. This site has no data on which words children mix up most, so it does not rank them.
Related lists