Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Twenty most common words in English

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was keep (no consensus). Mindspillage (spill yours?) 14:52, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Twenty most common words in English and Twenty most common words in Finnish
Unsurprisingly, this contains such marvels as "the, it, that, I". But it's really an arbitrary and pointless list. No sources are cited, and the Finnish one isn't even complete. Radiant_* 11:18, May 25, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete Proto 15:33, 25 May 2005 (UTC)


 * Delete &mdash; this would probably only be interesting in other context, such as is the case for letter frequencies and ETAOIN SHRDLU. &mdash; RJH 15:36, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, or Merge into the English language article. Zerbey 18:14, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge into appropriate language article if sources are cited. Otherwise delete. Mgm|(talk) 18:55, May 25, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete unless its got references, what's the point? And is it realy encyclopaedic to have a top 20 list? 203.26.206.129 19:11, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
 * No sources or context were provided by Eequor, and without both these data are meaningless. What was the sample size?  What was the cultural bias in the sample?  Where was the sample for spoken frequencies taken from?  What variety of English do the English statistics apply to: Indian English, United States English, Hawaiian English, Hiberno-English, ...?  Uncle G 20:59, 2005 May 25 (UTC)
 * Is this a delete vote or a comment? --Angr/ &#53449; 07:30, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
 * It's actually several questions. Maybe Eequor will drop by. Uncle G 15:07, 2005 May 26 (UTC)
 * I suspect it mainly reflects American and British English. Other varieties would be much more difficult to find information about.  &#8227; &#5339;&#5505;  [[Image:Venus symbol (blue).gif|&#9792;]] [ &#5200; ] 05:22, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
 * "suspect"? You wrote the articles.  Can you not tell us where you got your data from? Uncle G 09:55, 2005 May 31 (UTC)
 * Well, it's been a while; I don't remember. There are a fair number of online sources which could be found through some digging in Google and which would match this list almost exactly aside from a transposition or two.  Such lists could be expected to describe only American and British English unless otherwise noted.  To that extent, the English article accurately reflects those dialects.  I don't have access to a definitive source on frequency analysis; hopefully somebody else might know of one.  &#8227; &#5339;&#5505;  [[Image:Venus symbol (blue).gif|&#9792;]] [ &#5200; ] 06:39, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge amonst themselves (and if other will be created merge them) into List of most common words by language. And Clean up of course.
 * Delete per 203.26.206.129 and Uncle G. --Angr/ &#53449; 07:30, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep, and add references, sources, and commentary on frequency analysis. I was going to initially suggest a Merge to Frequency analysis, as this is where the topic is of most value, but that article is already quite long, and could potentially get even longer, as it is an expansive subject. The "twenty" most common words may be a bit of an arbitrary descision, with regard to crytography. I'd like to get User:CryptoDerk's opinion on this. func (talk)  16:25, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per all the reasons given above--Sophitus 09:55, May 27, 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep and expand, possible merge. This information is good to know! &mdash; Phil Welch 06:06, 28 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Given that you don't know what dialects the lists apply to, what samples were used, or where the information came from in the first place (since the person who originally wrote the article cannot find a source), what, exactly, is it that you think you actually know from reading these articles? Uncle G 09:55, 2005 May 31 (UTC)
 * Keep, this is accurate and noteworthy information that belongs somewhere in the wiki. It would be nice to have solid references, but I don't know where to find a proper source &mdash; this is not particularly easy information to find.  Hopefully the article can be expanded as per func's suggestions, and other similar lists compiled for other languages.  &#8227; &#5339;&#5505;  [[Image:Venus symbol (blue).gif|&#9792;]] [ &#5200; ] 05:22, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
 * "accurate"? How do you know that it's accurate if you cannot find a source?  Why can you not cite the source that you got the data from when you actually wrote the articles?  Did you perform original research to compile the list? Uncle G 09:55, 2005 May 31 (UTC)
 * Merge This article should be merged with english Joey.dale 03:20, 31 May 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.