Footballers are not known for their extensive vocabularies.
So it was hard to tell whether it was a compliment or an insult when Italian Fabio Capello, England’s football coach, said he could manage the national team using just 100 words.
“If I need to speak about the economy or other things, I can’t speak,” he told reporters. “But when you speak about tactics, you don’t use a lot of words. I don’t have to speak about a lot of different things. Maximum 100 words.”
To see if it could be done, first the BBC went to the Oxford English Corpus, which has identified the hundred commonest English words found in writing globally:
| 1. the 2. be 3. to 4. of 5. and 6. a 7. in 8. that 9. have 10. I 11. it 12. for 13. not 14. on 15. with 16. he 17. as 18. you 19. do 20. at 21. this 22. but 23. his 24. by 25. from |
26. they 27. we 28. say 29. her 30. she 31. or 32. an 33. will 34. my 35. one 36. all 37. would 38. there 39. their 40. what 41. so 42. up 43. out 44. if 45. about 46. who 47. get 48. which 49. go 50. me |
51. when 52. make 53. can 54. like 55. time 56. no 57. just 58. him 59. know 60. take 61. person 62. into 63. year 64. your 65. good 66. some 67. could 68. them 69. see 70. other 71. than 72. then 73. now 74. look 75. only |
76. come 77. its 78. over 79. think 80. also 81. back 82. after 83. use 84. two 85. how 86. our 87. work 88. first 89. well 90. way 91. even 92. new 93. want 94. because 95. any 96. these 97. give 98. day 99. most 100. us |
Source: Concise Oxford English Dictionary (11th edition, 2006)
You will be pushed to make many phrases from these – although you may do better from the list of the top 25 Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives.
The list of nouns makes interesting reading:
- man is 7th, whereas child is 12th and woman 14th
- the highest-ranking body part, hand, is 10th – eye is the next in 13th place, followed by head at 27
- Work is at number 16 whereas play and rest do not feature in the top 100!
- war is at 49 with no sign of peace
- problem is 24th and there is no solution in sight
- friend is 30th with no enemy or foe
- book is number 41 whereas computer does not feature in the top 100 and is below paper
- Money is surprisingly low at 65 and cash is nowhere to be seen: this low ranking is perhaps explained by the fact that we have so many synonyms for money.
Not to be outdone, Cambridge has now been through the Cambridge International Corpus.
The dictionaries contain more than one billion English words, and their context, used regularly in newspapers, books, emails and conversations. Experts tracked down around 8.5 million football-related words before refining them to the 100 most commonly used football nouns, verbs and adjectives.
The list of 100 football words are:
1 – ball 2 – cup 3 – player 4 – Game 5 – Match 6 – Win 7 – Lose 8 – Play 9 – Team 10 – Goalkeeper 11 – Defender 12 – Fullback 13 – Midfielder 14 – Winger 15 – Striker 16 – Forward 17 – Defence 18 – Midfield 19 – Attack 20 – Pitch 21 – Goal 22 – Goalposts 23 – Crossbar 24 – Woodwork 25 – Box 26 – Touchlines 27 – Left 28 – Right 29 – Kick 30 – Pass 31 – Tackle 32 – Cross 33 – Dribble 34 – Shoot 35 – Strike 36 – Score 37 – Equalise 38 – Foul 39 – Defend 40 – Attack 41 – Header 42 – Touch 43 – Mark 44 – Dive 45 – Referee 46 – Linesman 47 – Assistant 48 – Offside 49 – Handball 50 – Free kick 51 – Penalty 52 – Corner 53 – Goal-kick 54 – Caution 55 – Suspension 56 – Yellow 57 – Red 58 – Cards 59 – International 60 – Tournaments 61 – Stages 62 – Competition 63 – Friendlies 64 – Qualifiers 65 – Group 66 – Quarter-finals 67 – Semi-finals 68 – Progress 69 – Final 70 – Shoot-out 71 – Tactics 72 – Training 73 – Formation 74 – Possession 75 – Pressure 76 – Defensive 77 – Attacking 78 – Patience 79 – Fitness 80 – First-half 81 – Second-half 82 – Half-time 83 – Injury-time 84 – Extra-time 85 – Physical 86 – Technical 87 – Clever 88 – Pace 89 – Skill 90 – Talented 91 – Fans 92 – Supporters 93 – Passion 94 – Spirit 95 – Pride 96 – Excitement 97 – Defeat 98 – Disappointment 99 – Humiliation 100 – Sack.
Perhaps we could run a project with just 100 words? Maybe even just 40:
Meeting, stakeholder, initiation, deliverables, deadlines, scope, budget, sponsor, on-time, quality, document, time, report, review, communication, progress, management, change, office, benefits, cost, business, case, plan, control, milestone, task, estimate, program(me), team, design, analyse, package, work, schedule, risk, slip, delays, overrun, shelved…
Leave a comment with your suggestions.