Language · NLP
Which word wins?
🎓 School maths · Years 2–3Statistics — Tally items into categories and compare the totals on a chart.Maths by year →
The Case. Computers can't read like you — they count. What's the most common word in a sentence? That simple idea powers search engines.
Your tools. Plain Python counts each word; matplotlib charts the winners.
Investigate. Press Run. The longest bar is the word used most.
- Paste in your favourite song line and see which word repeats.
- Counting words is the very first step of teaching a computer to read.
your_code.py
Starting Python…
The Reveal
Starting Python… (first time only — a few seconds)
🗒️ Detective's notes
Bundles your findings, chart and code into one PDF you can keep, print or hand in.
🧩 How this code works
The tools it uses
- Matplotlib — your crayon box — it turns numbers into charts and pictures.
How to read it, top to bottom
- 1. Import — bring in the tools (listed above).
- 2. The data — the lists and numbers near the top. These are the bits you change.
- 3. The work — a little maths, or a loop that repeats a step.
- 4. Show it —
print(...)writes words;plt.show()draws the picture.
Use it for your own problems
- Change the numbers at the top and press Run — nothing breaks, so experiment!
- Ask your own version of the question — swap in your family, your scores, your week.
- The same tools work on any numbers — that's the superpower you're learning.
Need a hint?
counts.get(w, 0) + 1 means: however many times we've seen this word, add one more.