Fry sight words, first 100
The Fry sight words are the 1,000 most common words in English print, listed in ten hundreds by frequency. The first hundred alone make up about half of everything a child reads, which is why they are the first words taught by sight in kindergarten and 1st grade.
Free printable PDF, Kindergarten to 1st grade.
One page, black and white, prints the same every time.
What is on the sheet
The table below is the sheet as it prints with these options: First 100, No.
The first hundred 100 words
| a | each | it | out | to |
| about | find | like | part | two |
| all | first | long | people | up |
| an | for | look | said | use |
| and | from | made | see | was |
| are | get | make | she | water |
| as | go | many | sit | way |
| at | had | may | so | we |
| be | has | more | some | were |
| been | have | my | than | what |
| but | he | no | that | when |
| by | her | not | the | which |
| called | him | now | their | who |
| can | his | number | them | will |
| come | how | of | then | with |
| could | I | oil | there | words |
| day | if | on | these | would |
| did | in | one | they | write |
| do | into | or | this | you |
| down | is | other | time | your |
What the Fry list is
Edward Fry published his Instant Words in 1980 and revised them in 1996 from a count of the words in modern printed English. The list is 1,000 words long, in ten groups of a hundred, and it is ordered by how often the words appear: the first ten words are about a quarter of all print, the first hundred about half, and the full thousand around ninety percent. Unlike the older Dolch list, it includes nouns and runs well past 3rd grade.
Many of the first hundred are function words with no picture and no phonics rule to lean on, "the", "of", "was", "are", "you", so they are learned by sight. The page prints them in alphabetical order, which is how most classrooms post them; the checklist version adds a box beside each word.
Using the list
Read the list to the child once, then have the child read it, and tick or note the words that came without a pause. Ten new words a week is a common pace in kindergarten; a 1st grader who reads well can be checked against the whole hundred in a sitting. The words that need work go on cards and get met in books, not only on cards. When the first hundred are automatic, the second hundred page is next. Every hundred to the tenth has its own page, and the print form above also prints any hundred up to the sixth.
Common questions
- Fry or Dolch, which should I use?
- Whichever your child's school uses; the two overlap heavily. Fry is longer and more recent and continues into the upper grades. The Dolch lists are on this site as well, by level.
- Where are the fourth to tenth hundreds?
- Each has its own page, linked from this one, and the fourth to sixth also print from this page if you choose the hundred above. They are the 3rd to 5th grade words, met mostly through reading.
- Is the order on the page the frequency order?
- No, it is alphabetical, so a word can be found quickly. The frequency order is what decides which hundred a word belongs to.