No problem, Nancy. We just got home from running errands anyway. Would it interest you to know that in your post there are 47 As, 67 Es, 41 Is, 72 Os, and 23 Us? I'm not saying this absolutely shows the trivia answers, but it definitely shows something.

TM

Good morning...er..afternoon Nancy! ðÂÂÂ

Love this sort of question! I definitely know the vowels and have what I think are good guesses for the consonants, although the fifth one is hardest since I am pretty sure I have the first four.

Cynthia

I know the ones I always type in when playing Doodle Hangman :).
Annette

lol - what a clever bunch you are!! Well, I think the vowels are nailed. In doing research for this I actually found a web site that claims to have stats to help you 'hack' Wheel of Fortune!! And, as TM has noted, statistics is where it is at for this!! The most commonly called consonant is also the most common consonant. R, which is often called, is less commonly used than another, more prevalent letter. Hmmm....
Just had a look at on demand movies for tonight. It is brutally cold and my feet are still warming up from my foray this am. I'm going to make a pot of spaghetti sauce with some kind of meat, and maybe make some paparelle noodles from scratch!! Then we have the choice between Jersey Boys and Chef!! - no clue in this, btw.

Nancy.

I also know the vowels and 4 of the consonants. Will have to ponder a bit on the 5th. Maybe DH can help.

Well, after some discussion we have come up with a 5th letter.

Okay, since I do know the most common of all and pretty sure of the most common consonant, I am thinking that my fifth choice will be one that goes along with that. Of course, as I teach my students, when together they make one new sound.

Cynthia

I don't know THE answer, so please don't assume that this is it and kill off any fun guessing, but for Nancy's original post only, here are the top six consonants.

T 69
N 47
S 45
R 34
H 31
L 30

Adding both her posts together gives.

T 192
S 130
N 126
H 95
R 92
L 92

I'm a little surprised at how high H ranked.

If I took a big enough sample of text, I'm sure we could get to the actual English language letter frequency, but I'll bet this is pretty close.

Hoping this adds interest, rather than kills it.
TM

Ah, TM, I think that I may have gotten it right, then. I am surprised too at the frequency of that one consonant!

This week, the words there, their, and they're are on the agenda in class.

Cynthia

The distribution in Nancy's postings may hold true for some of the most commonly used words but does it hold true for other commonly used words in writing, such as newspapers, books, essays, etc.?

This time I will stick to my original choice. 3:2 in this sentence.

Consonant does seem to be a theme - I tried in vain to come up with a word with them in order. It looks like it should be easy, but it is not. I have come up with a phrase for all - is it too soon?

Nancy.

Give it to us Nancy! Not too soon-I think we all think we have it!

Cynthia

Looking forward to seeing the phrase you came up with, Nancy.

Keeping in mind that some words are used more times in a paragraph or on a page so the frequency of the letter may be greater in that example but that doesn't mean that there are more words that include a certain letter.

Either way I think it will be close for h and l.

I choose l for the 'ell of it. (I don't normally use swear words, but couldn't resist.)

lol Bobbie - great!!
This is silly, but the letters suggested this phrase:
ToSs No sHaRDs Locally.

Nancy.

So D beats out L. Huh! I guess you're just going to have to start using more Ds, Nancy. :-)

I wonder how the letter frequencies might change for certain specialty writings, like chemistry, medicine, music, the bible ... It might be fun to check that out.

TM

so the vowels are: e, a, o, i
and consonants are: in order, using Nancy's phrase
t, s, n, h, r, d, l

ditto Bobbie.

Annette

Well - you all got it I believe!! Sorry again about forgetting, but I had a great morning with like-minded people ready to oust our current prime Minister, so it was in a good cause.

Interesting that the most often guess letter is 'R' - hmmmm. You really should read the article - it's pretty neat, and if you are a Wheel Watcher, it will be invaluable.

So for everyone:

Thanks for playing - see you all next week. Off to see Cynthia's question now!

Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to pick the right letters!!

Thanks for the coruscating stars, Nancy, and for the great question and answer. I play around with computer programming a little bit, and a common exercise is to write a program that will count the number of times each letter is used in a certain text. That's why i sort of jumped on that right away. I hope I didn't say too much too soon and spoil anyone's fun.

TM

I think everyone was on the right track - sounds like a cool program!! Now, if I could just get my online radio station to work again - lol.

Nancy - who is challenged today

I wouldn't have gotten the consonants in order with out your very obvious clue. Some of us need to be taken firmly in hand and led to the answer. ;-)

You didn't spoil the fun for me, TM. Actually added to it! And now you are broadening my vocabulary. Coruscating, like that word. Hope I can remember it to use another day.

Thanks, Nancy, for the great question and coruscating stars.