The most commonly used letters in different languages vary based on the frequency of letters in their respective alphabets. Here’s a breakdown by country, based on the dominant language spoken:
English (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, etc.)
- Most common letter: E
- Other frequent letters: T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R
Spanish (Spain, Latin America)
- Most common letter: E
- Other frequent letters: A, O, S, R, N, I, D
French (France, Canada, Belgium, etc.)
- Most common letter: E
- Other frequent letters: A, I, S, N, R, T
German (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
- Most common letter: E
- Other frequent letters: N, I, S, R, A, T, D
Italian (Italy)
- Most common letter: E
- Other frequent letters: A, I, O, N, R, T, L
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil)
- Most common letter: A
- Other frequent letters: E, O, S, R, I, D
Russian (Russia, parts of Eastern Europe)
- Most common letter: О (O)
- Other frequent letters: Е (E), А (A), И (I), Н (N), Т (T), С (S)
Chinese (Mandarin, China, Taiwan, Singapore)
- Since Chinese is logographic, letter frequency isn’t relevant, but the most common characters include:
- 的 (de) (possessive particle)
- 一 (yī) (one)
- 是 (shì) (to be)
Arabic (Middle East, North Africa)
- Most common letter: ا (Alif – equivalent to “A”)
- Other frequent letters: ل (L), م (M), ن (N), ي (Y), هـ (H)
Hindi (India)
- Most common letter: आ (Ā)
- Other frequent letters: क (K), त (T), म (M), न (N)
Japanese (Japan)
- For kana scripts, the most common characters in hiragana:
- い (I), ん (N), か (Ka), し (Shi)
- In kanji, frequently used characters include:
- 日 (sun/day), 本 (origin/book), 人 (person)
Turkish (Turkey)
- Most common letter: A
- Other frequent letters: E, I, N, R, K, L
Polish (Poland)
- Most common letter: A
- Other frequent letters: E, O, I, N, S, T, R
Dutch (Netherlands, Belgium)
- Most common letter: E
- Other frequent letters: N, A, T, I, O, R
Swedish (Sweden)
- Most common letter: E
- Other frequent letters: A, T, R, N, I, S
Finnish (Finland)
- Most common letter: A
- Other frequent letters: I, T, N, E, S, K
Greek (Greece)
- Most common letter: Α (A)
- Other frequent letters: Ε (E), Ο (O), Ν (N), Ι (I), Σ (S), Τ (T)
Across most languages, vowels such as E, A, and O tend to be the most commonly used letters. However, some languages, like Russian, Arabic, and Chinese, have different structures that influence letter frequency.