Word lists
Where the ELP words come from
The ELP guide names no source for its high-frequency lists, but 145 of its 148 words are E. W. Dolch’s, from the sight vocabulary he published in 1936. The other three (each, other, people) are on Fry’s first 100 Instant Words. The ELP keeps 144 of Dolch’s 220 words, sorts them by spelling pattern, and leaves out 76, most of them short-vowel words that phonics lessons teach.
Where Dolch’s words went
Each bar is one of Dolch’s five levels, split by the ELP grade whose lists include its words. Tap part of a bar to see its words, sorted by ELP list.
- ELP kindergarten
- ELP grade 1
- ELP grade 2
- Not on the ELP lists
Tap part of a bar to see its words.
Where each ELP list’s words came from
Each bar is an ELP list, split by the Dolch level its words come from. Pattern lists such as Long vowel silent e draw on four of Dolch’s five levels at once.
- Pre-primer
- Primer
- First grade
- Second grade
- Third grade
- Not in Dolch’s 220
Kindergarten
Grade 1
Grade 2
Tap part of a bar to see its words.
Every word, by ELP list and Dolch level
Each row is an ELP list, in the guide’s order, and each column a Dolch level. Every ELP word and every one of Dolch’s 220 appears once, and the last row holds the 76 the ELP lists leave out.
| ELP list | Pre-primer | Primer | First grade | Second grade | Third grade | Not in Dolch’s 220 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Kindergarten (K) | a, and, I, is, it, the, to, you | he, she, was | of | |||
| 2 · CV (Gr 1) | go, me, my, we | be, no | by | |||
| 3 · Irregular/HFW (Gr 1) | come, one, said, two, see, look | some, put | why | try | ||
| 4 · Digraphs (Gr 1) | that, this, with | then, when | wish, which | much, pick | ||
| 5 · Irregular/HFW (Gr 1) | where, little, play | are, have, into, there, they, want, what, like | small | |||
| 6 · Long vowel silent e (Gr 1) | here, make | white, ate, came, ride | take | five, gave, made, these, those, use, write | ||
| 7 · Irregular/HFW (Gr 1) | who, good | again, any, could, from, give, once, walk, were, her | would | |||
| 8 · R-controlled (Gr 1) | for | under | over | before, first | hurt, start | |
| 9 · Irregular/HFW (Gr 1) | old | because, been, both, buy, does, goes, many, pull, their | ||||
| 10 · Vowel teams (Gr 1) | away, blue | please, eat, say, too | green, read, right | keep | each | |
| 11 · Diphthongs (Gr 2) | down | brown, new, now, our, out, saw | how, round, know | found | draw, grow, own, show | |
| 12 · Irregular/HFW (Gr 2) | find | pretty | around, very, wash, work, your | done, eight, kind, laugh, only, together, warm | ||
| 13 · Multisyllabic (Gr 2) | funny, yellow | every, going, open | always | better, carry, today, myself, never, seven | other, water (a Dolch noun), people | |
| Not on the ELP lists | big, can, help, in, jump, not, red, run, three, up | all, am, at, black, but, did, do, four, get, must, on, ran, so, soon, well, went, will, yes | after, an, as, ask, fly, had, has, him, his, just, let, live, may, stop, thank, them, think | best, call, cold, don’t, fast, its, off, or, sing, sit, sleep, tell, upon, us | about, bring, clean, cut, drink, fall, far, full, got, hold, hot, if, light, long, shall, six, ten |
Dolch’s 95 nouns are left out of the charts and the table. He kept them off his sight vocabulary, and water is the only one on the ELP lists.
What the ELP leaves out
53 of the 76 are one-syllable short-vowel words, such as big, can, run, stop, best and six. Apart from and, is and it in kindergarten, the ELP’s only short-vowel words are on its Digraphs list, so it seems to leave the rest to phonics lessons.
Pattern before level
A pattern list takes the words that share its pattern, whatever their Dolch level: 74 of the 144 shared words are on one. The silent e list pulls five, gave, made, these, those, use and write into grade 1 from Dolch’s second grade, while the diphthong list holds 10 early words such as how, round and down back to grade 2.
Levels aren’t grades
Pre-primer and primer are named for reading books, and the Utah Reading Clinic puts Dolch’s first three levels all in grade 1. Read that way, the ELP has 61 of the shared words earlier than Dolch, 66 in the same grade and 17 later.
The cards
All five of Dolch’s levels are on the Word cards page, coded on the back. Each card’s tag names the ELP list that teaches the word, if one does.
Sources
- E. W. Dolch, “A Basic Sight Vocabulary,” The Elementary School Journal 36, no. 6 (February 1936): 456–460. His 220 words, built from three earlier lists, with the 95 nouns given separately. A scan of the article.
- Dolch Word List, ReadWriteThink (IRA/NCTE, 2004): the levels used here. It prints giving where Dolch’s article has going.
- Dolch Word List, University of Utah Reading Clinic, which sets the first three levels as First (October), First (March) and First (End).
- Fry Word List, Bookroo: Fry’s first 100 Instant Words.
- Early Literacy Profile (ELP) Assessment & Instructional Guide, Central Okanagan Public Schools (2025), pp. 16–17. The district’s ELP page is the place for the assessment itself.
The lists were matched by spelling. A short-vowel word here has one syllable and one vowel letter with its short sound, so all, cold, full and live don’t count.