BBC 500 Word Stories

I just came across this on the BBC Two website and had to share with you all:


We've once again teamed up with the Oxford University Press to analyse the 40 MILLION words children used in this year's 500 WORDS competition.

The analysis of 90,000 stories has revealed a wealth of fascinating insights into the lives of British children and the remarkable ways they use English. You can see some headline findings on this page-

Our Word Cloud shows some of the most used words - Mum is THE word of 500 WORDS 2013, with over 115,000 occurrences and regional variations, including mom and mam.

Poor dad only just scrapes into the Top 15, although he does star as an action man in several of the Top 50 stories - fighting aliens, exploding, and building a time machine!

Children are fanatical about fairy tales and mad for magic, with dragons, monsters, giants, fairies and wizards dominating.

Only man's best friend can rival dragons and monsters in the numbers stakes with dog appearing over 25,000 times.

James Bond is by far the most popular fictional character. He is name-checked nearly 1,000 times, while spy is even more popular.

One Direction are the most popular music act (and yes, Harry Styles is the most popular band member).

Top Gear is the favourite TV show, followed by Tracy Beaker, Doctor Who, EastEnders and Britain's Got Talent.

Chris Evans retains his crown as most popular individual celebrity.


The majority of references to the London Olympics came from stories penned well away from London, in places such as Wales, the Scottish Highlands & Islands and Devon.

Usain Bolt sprints ahead in the poll of most popular sports person, tying for Gold with last year's winner Wayne Rooney.

The word car appears over 26,000 times, with a substantial number featured in the girls' stories.

The most popular new word this year is gangnam (while Psy himself makes his 500 WORDS' celebrity chart debut at number 22).


Original article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/500words/2013/analysis/