Hi all,<br><div><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif;font-size:10px;line-height:12px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><h3 style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-style:inherit;font-size:16px;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51, 51, 51)">

<br></h3><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">

I am wondering if frequency lists of the most languages can be considered as equivalent. For instance, consider an English frequency list such as the BNC frequency list (<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ekilgarriff%2Eco%2Euk%2Fbnc-readme%2Ehtml&urlhash=KPiq&_t=tracking_anet" rel="nofollow" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:initial;outline-style:none;outline-color:initial;font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0, 102, 153)" target="_blank">http://www.kilgarriff.co.uk/bnc-readme.html</a>) and a German frequency list (<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgerman%2Eabout%2Ecom%2Flibrary%2Fblwfreq01%2Ehtm&urlhash=99CW&_t=tracking_anet" rel="nofollow" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:initial;outline-style:none;outline-color:initial;font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0, 102, 153)" target="_blank">http://german.about.com/library/blwfreq01.htm</a>). The English frequency list starts with the definite article "the". The German one - with the definite article "der". Hence, the literal translation of the word "the" in German will result the word "der".<br>

<br>Of course, it is not always enough to translate directly. However, I wouldn't wonder if say 70%-80% of the most frequent words in the most languages can be considered as equal. Notice I don't say the words should be also ordered in the same manner. For example, word "of" always comes before the word "appear". Nevertheless, I anticipate that words "of" and "appear" are present in the most frequent words of the most languages in every possible order even if particular language uses the word "appear" more often than the word "of".</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">
<br></p><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">
Alexander</p>
</span></div>