Common Words 100-500 Drill
number people water sound place small large answer between country
Every passage contains: number people water sound place small
QWERTY layout assumed. Backspace corrects; uncorrected errors count against net WPM.
"number", "people", "water", "sound", "place", "between", "country", "picture", "important", "different", "together", and the rest of this drill's vocabulary sit one tier below the previous drill's words in raw frequency, and it shows in their shape: almost every word here runs five to nine letters, and almost none of them is a bare function word. These are nouns, adjectives, and content-carrying words people reach for constantly, but not so constantly that any single one gets typed often enough on its own to become a fully automatic whole-word motion the way "the" or "and" does.
That's the real difference from the Top 100 Words Drill, and it isn't just about the words being longer. There are hundreds of distinct words in this frequency band rather than around a hundred, so any individual word — "picture", say, or "always" — gets a fraction of the repetition a top-100 word receives. Speed here depends much less on memorised whole words and much more on general touch-typing fluency: reliable key location, a steady multi-syllable rhythm, and quick recognition of familiar smaller pieces inside a longer word.
Why This Drill
That last piece is worth noticing directly. "another" is built from "an" plus "other"; "together" opens with "to"; "because" opens with "be"; "before" opens with "be" again. Several of the longer words in this drill start with a short word the hands already type constantly on their own, which means the motor program built for that short word — the kind of learned motion the Science of Muscle Memory in Typing describes — can sometimes carry the first stroke or two of the longer one, even though the two words have nothing to do with each other in meaning.
The words that don't offer that shortcut — "picture", "answer", "children", "important" — get typed on general fluency alone, without a familiar embedded word to lean on. Comparing how much slower those come out compared with a word like "another" is a reasonable way to see how much of your speed on this band is genuine multi-syllable control versus borrowed momentum from smaller, more frequent words.
This band is also where speed differences between typists start to widen. Almost anyone comfortable with a keyboard can rattle off the top hundred words at a good clip, since sheer repetition papers over a lot of underlying unevenness. Once the vocabulary is this varied, unevenness in syllable-to-syllable rhythm has nowhere left to hide, which is a large part of why the Common Words 500-1000 Drill tends to feel like a bigger jump than its word lengths alone would suggest.
Words That Start With a Word You Already Know by Heart
"another", "together", "because", and "before" all open with a short, extremely common word in its own right — "an", "to", "be" twice over. The motor pattern already built for that short word can carry the opening strokes of the longer one, borrowed momentum that has nothing to do with the two words sharing any meaning, only their first letters.
Where the Free Ride Runs Out
"picture", "answer", "children", and "important" don't open with a smaller, familiar word, so there's nothing for the hands to borrow from. The whole word has to be produced on general fluency alone, which is why these particular entries in the drill tend to feel a notch harder than words of a similar length that happen to start with something more familiar.
Why This Band Separates Typists More Than the Last One Does
The top hundred words get so much individual repetition that most typists handle them at a similarly good clip regardless of overall skill level. This band doesn't offer that safety net — there are simply too many distinct words for any one of them to be that automatic — so real differences in multi-syllable rhythm and general fluency show up here in a way the shorter, more repetitive vocabulary tends to hide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are these words harder than the Top 100 Words Drill's vocabulary if they're still common?
"Common" here means common across the language as a whole, not common enough that any one specific word gets the constant individual repetition that fully automates it — there are simply too many distinct words in this band for that to happen the way it does for "the" or "and".
Does it help that words like "another" and "together" start with smaller, more familiar words?
It can — the motor pattern already built for "an" or "to" sometimes carries the opening of the longer word, even though the meanings are unrelated, which is one reason those words often come out a touch smoother than similarly long ones without that overlap.
Why do words like "picture" or "important" feel harder than "together" even though they're a similar length?
Because they do not start with something you already know. "together" opens with a word your hands can produce without thinking; "important" gives them nothing to lean on.
Is this drill a better predictor of real typing speed than the Top 100 Words Drill?
In a rough sense, yes, since ordinary writing mixes frequent function words with exactly this kind of mid-frequency content vocabulary — this band tests the part of your speed that repetition alone can't fully explain.
Should I expect a noticeably lower words-per-minute here than on the top-100 drill?
Usually, since longer words with less individual repetition take more total keystrokes and lean less on fully automatic whole-word motions — a lower number here than there is the expected pattern, not a sign of a problem.
What should I move to after this drill?
The Common Words 500-1000 Drill continues up the frequency scale into vocabulary that's less individually familiar and more prone to specific awkward letter transitions, rather than just being a longer version of this one.