A new list of the most common nouns in the English language published in the latest Oxford dictionary reveals that English speakers are obsessed with time, Oxford University Press (OUP) researchers said. The word "time" topped the list, with "year" in third place and "day" in fifth position and "week" at 17th. "Person" reached number two on the list and men are still on top, with "man" ranking at number seven, "child" at 12 and "woman" trailing at 14. "Work" appears at number 16, while "rest" and "play" are nowhere to be seen in the top 100. "Money" appears not to be as important as people might think, weighing in at number 65, although researchers thought this could be due to the multitude of other related words such as "cash". English speakers talk about "war", 49th, far more than "peace", which does not even feature in the top 100. The common nouns section appears in the revised eleventh edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, considered as the definitive guide to the evolving language. OUP project manager Angus Stevenson said the frequency with which words such as "time" and "man" occur could be down to the love of phrases in English such as "I would not even pass the time of day with him", and "time waits for no man". "The thing that struck me when I put together this list was that 90 percent of the top 100 words were one syllable," Stevenson said. The 10 most common nouns: 1. Time
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據牛津大學出版社研究員介紹,最新版牛津詞典中列出的常用英語名詞榜顯示,英語里最常被念叨的詞就是“時間”。 “時間”一詞居于榜首,“年”排在第3位,“日”和“星期”分別排在第5和第17位。 此外,“人”名列排行榜第2位,同時,和人相關的名詞也高居榜首,其中,“男人”排在第7位,“兒童”位于第12位,“女人”緊跟其后,排在第14位。 “工作”排在第16位,而“休息”和“玩”竟沒有進入前100名。 “金錢”似乎沒有人們想象的那么重要,僅排在第65位。而研究員們則認為這是由于存在很多和“金錢”相關的名詞,如“現金”。 另外,“戰爭”的使用頻率大大高于“和平”,排在第49位,而“和平”則未進入前100名。 常用名詞排行榜收錄在最新修訂的第11版《簡明牛津英文詞典》中,該詞典被公認為是記錄語言發展的權威工具書。 牛津大學出版社經理安格斯·史蒂文森說,詞的使用頻率,如“時間”和“人”,和人們喜愛使用的一些詞組有關,如“我甚至不愿跟他說話”及“時間不等人”。 史蒂文森說:“在整理這些詞語時,我驚奇地發現在這100個上榜名詞中,有90%竟然都是一個音節。” 十大常用名詞: |
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Vocabulary: |
pass the time of day : 寒暄 |