UPDATE: Nominations are closed. Voting has started!

After the great success of the last three editions of our Top 100 Language Blogs competition (results for 2008, 2009, 2010), the bab.la language portal and Lexiophiles language blog are announcing this year's contest with some minor changes: the Top 100 Language Lovers 2011 competition.

Passion for languages is still the protagonist of the competition but this year we are also taking Facebook pages and twitterers into consideration, hence the new title

As always, we need your help to find the best of the best for the following categories:
1. Language Learning Blogs (blogs about language learning & teaching)
2. Language Professionals Blogs (blogs from translators, interpreters etc. on the professional usage of languages)
3. Language Facebook Pages (Facebook pages about language, language learning etc.)
4. Language Twitterers (Twitter accounts focused on language, language learning etc.)

The nominations for the Top 100 Language Lovers 2011 competition are open until May 16th, 23:59 hours German time. Nominate your favorite Blogs, Facebook Pages and Twitter Accounts by sending an e-mail with the URL to giulia (at) bab (dot) la or just leave a comment below.

There are no strict boundaries for your nominations: as long as passion for languages is involved, the blog or Facebook page or Twitter account you have in mind fits into our competition! Just to give you an idea, main topics could be about tips on how to learn a language, language teaching, commenting on translations, strategies for interpreters etc.

Hurry up, the deadline to nominate your favorites is Monday May 16th! After the nomination phase, you will be able to give your vote to most promising for each category. The final ranking will be based half on the users' votes and half on our internal ranking (more information on the ranking criteria here). Results will be made public on June 1st. If you’d like to know more about how the competition is run, please read our how the competition works article. If you have any further questions, just ask giulia (at) bab (dot) la.

The official hash tag is #tll11.

Stay tuned!

The bab.la language portal and Lexiophiles blog are pleased to introduce the Top 100 Language Lovers 2011 competition. Due to the success of our previous Top 100 Language Blogs (read more about why we started the competition here), we decided this year to open the contest to Facebook Pages and Twitterers.

There are four categories for the Top 100 Language Lovers 2011, in order to make the language experts comparable:
1. Language Learning Blogs: blogs about the language learning process, both from the learners and teachers perspective.
2. Language Professionals Blogs: blogs by people using languages in their profession, such as translators or interpreters.
3. Language Facebook Pages: Facebook pages related to language topics, such as dictionaries, translation tools, language lovers’ communities…
4. Language Twitterers: Twitter accounts sharing content about languages

How exactly does the competition work?
The competition is divided into three phases. In the nomination phase, you can nominate any blog/Facebook page/twitterer you would like to be included by leaving a comment here or sending an email to giulia (at) bab (dot) la. In the following voting phase, you can vote for your favorites in each of the above four categories. Users' votes will count for 50% of the final result, the Lexiophiles ranking criteria (see below) will count for the other 50%. Results will be made public in the third phase on June 1st.

What is the exact time frame and what happens during each phase?

Nominations (May 3rd - May 16th, 23:59 hours German time)
Nominate your favorite language lovers. All blogs from last year that are still active will be automatically nominated, as well as suggestions we have received since then. We will contact all bloggers/Facebook page admins/twitterers who are nominated (either by email or posting a comment) to let them know about the nomination. You can nominate max. 1 blog, 1 Facebook page and 1 Twitter account per person/company (so max. 3 in total). If you have several blogs, Facebook pages or Twitter accounts, you need to choose one. The official end for nominations is May 16th. However, we will stop considering suggestions after the first thousand nominations per category.

Voting (May 17th - May 29th 23:59 hours German time)
Out of all nominations received until May 16th, we will set a list of the 100 best ones per category to be submitted for voting. On May 17th we will publish the voting lists of the top 100 for each category (top 200 for language learning blogs, see update below). You can vote once for each category. We will check the votes at the end of the voting phase for fraudulent votes and, if necessary, adjust the number of votes. If your blog/Facebook page/Twitter account is on the voting list, you can ask your readers, friends, family and whoever comes to mind to vote for you. Bloggers will be provided with a voting button for their convenience before the voting phase starts. The voting period runs until May 29th, 23:59 hours German time.
UPDATE: Due to so many nominations in the language learning blog category we have raised the level to 200 blogs.

Ranking & Results (May 30th – June 1st)
All the competitors will be ranked based on user votes (50%) and the Lexiophiles ranking criteria (50%, see below). We will then compile the top 100 overall language lovers list and the top 25 list for each of the four categories. Results will be published on June 1st. Each blogger/Facebook page admin/twitterer will be contacted when the results are published.

What are the Lexiophiles ranking criteria?
Every competitor will be analyzed and ranked by our staff. Even though we know that no ranking system is 100% accurate and always somewhat subjective, we feel that the following criteria give a good overall view of how good a blog, or a Facebook page, or a Twitter account is.

Learning & Professionals Blogs: We look for authored and original content, considering the depth of postings, the incorporation of multimedia (such as videos, pictures, slideshows etc.) and meaningful linking (e.g. in-depth information for further reading, background information, interesting opinions on a subject, etc.). Interaction is also very important, i.e. sharing information and getting other people involved. The most observable feature is comments, but it doesn’t stop there: can users contact the blogger via a contact page, Facebook or similar? We also take into consideration the regularity and frequence of updating, and, finally, the overall appearance of the blog.

Facebook Pages: We look for originality and diversity of content. Good interaction means there are discussions with comments from users and answers to them. We will take into consideration the regularity of posting and the fan base of the page.

Twitter accounts: We will take into consideration the relevance of the shared information, the diversity of content, the use of hastags and links. Another important factor will be the influence of the twitterer, i.e. whether the content posted is also retweeted and the account is recommended by other twitterers via Follow Friday. Regularity of posting will count as well.

I am nominated. Why can I not find my blog/Facebook page/Twitter account on the voting list?
This might be the case due to one of the following reasons:
1. Your blog/Facebook page/Twitter account didn't get to the Top 100 best ones of its category.
2. You already have another blog/Facebook page/Twitter account nominated for the competition.
3. We received more than one thousand nominations for the category you fit into (after which we stop considering new suggestions).

What about the results?
The Top 100 Language Lovers 2011 competition will be published on bab.la on June 1st to reach the biggest audience possible. We will publish an overall Top 100 list and a Top 25 list for each of the four categories (see above). We also have some nice prices lined up for the top winners. We will make a donation to the Homeless World Cup in the name of the Top 3 overall bloggers and the no. 1 in each category.

The official hash tag for the competition is #tll11.

Good luck and enjoy!

- The top 100 words & expressions only make up for about 5% of the listened to words.Within the top 100 words about 20 percent we would classify as R-rated (for lack of a better wording). Therefore, we created two graphics as you might be interested in a "clean" version.
- Looking at the top 500 words the R-rated words number drops significantly. Our interpretation is that people like to listen to the f*** and similar words as they think it is funny.
- With 0.2% of the overall listened to word-count 'I love you' is the number 1 word. The world is good after all...
- The most difficult to pronounce words for non-native English speakers are: though, thought, through, although and tough. What can we say but that those really are tough words?

The original size for download: Top 100 English Words Rated R and Top 100 English Words Rated G
You are welcome to use the graphics when quoting the source: bab.la dictionary (http://en.bab.la/dictionary/)

UPDATE: We did the same analysis for the top 100 most listened to German words.

Here are some more or less useful links for further reading:
bab.la top misspelled word list 2009
Top 100 most commonly used English words
Top 100 most-used English words from the WSJ
Background article on top 100 most frequently used English words list
Top 5.000 most used words (free download after registration)
Saddest English words (competition by NY Times, you need to sort the comments by 'reader's recommendations')
Top 10 mispronounced English foodie words
Most misspelled web searches
Top 100 US baby names 2010

The results of The Top 100 Language Blogs 2010 competition are finally in. Congratulations to all of you who took part in the competition! Also thank you very much for nominating, cheering and voting for your favorite blogs!

We have received more than 20,000 votes and countless e-mails and comments. For more information about the competition, you can read all about it in our ‘how the competition works’ article.

You can find the Top 100 Language Blogs 2010 list on bab.la:

http://bab.la/news/top-100-language-blogs-2010

You can also check the Top 10 Language Blogs per category:

• Language Learning
• Language Teaching
• Language Technology
• Language Professionals

The lucky winners got some nice prizes. We have given them gifts certificates from KIVA , a non-profit website which helps people in third-world countries with so called micro credits. They can show their readers that their writing has made a difference in the lives of others.

We have prepared some nice personalized buttons for the Top 20 Blogs overall and the Top 10 Blogs in each category. For anyone who didn't make it to the very top there is a general button which can be picked up here.

All of us at bab.la and Lexiophiles hope that you enjoy reading and following the blogs on our list – and look out for the next competition!

It has been one week since the beginning of the voting period for The Top 100 Language Blogs. Great blogs are taking part in this competition and running for the number 1 spot! There are four categories in the competition for you to vote for. Visit the pages and cast your votes for the best:

1. Language Learning: Blogs about the language learning process, difficulties with or discussion about learning a language.
2. Language Teaching: Blogs discussing languages from the perspective of a teacher.
3. Language Technology: Blogs discussing technology as part of the language learning process.
4.Language Professionals: Blogs by people using languages in their profession, such as translators or interpreters.

Apart from all the new readers we also have some great prizes up for grabs. So cast your vote and don’t forget to check the results on May 28 th! If you want to know more about how the competition works, check here.

UPDATE: Voting is now closed. The results (and winners!) will be published on Friday (May 28). Check back then!

First of all, thanks for all the suggestions and blog nominations! We are very pleased to have received a total of 495 blog nominations. From those, we have selected 100 blogs in each category that will go into the voting phase.

How to vote? Very simple: just click on the blog you want to vote for in each of the categories below.You can vote only once in each category.

• Language Learning
• Language Teaching
• Language Technology
• Language Professionals

Remember to check back soon to find out who the winners were, and see what they won!

UPDATE: Voting is now closed. The results (and winners!) will be published on Friday (May 28). Check back then!

Here are all the Language Technology blogs who have made it to the voting phase (read more about how the competition works).

Click the radio button next to the blog name you want to vote for and click 'vote' at the bottom of the poll!
You can vote only once in each category.

Other categories: Language Learning - Language Teaching - Language Professionals

View the full list of nominations for Language Technology.

Add the voting button to your blog!

Thanks and remember to check back on May 28th to find out who the winners are!
If you have further questions or would like to contact us for feedback email priscila (at) bab (dot) la

UPDATE: Voting is now closed. The results (and winners!) will be published on Friday (May 28). Check back then!

Here are all the Language Professionals blogs that have made it to the voting phase (read more about how the competition works).

Click the radio button next to the blog name you want to vote for and click 'vote' at the bottom of the poll!
You can vote only once in each category.

Other categories: Language Learning - Language Teaching - Language Technology

View the full list of nominations for Language Professionals.

Add the voting button to your blog!

Thanks and remember to check back on May 28th to find out who the winners are!
If you have further questions or would like to contact us for feedback email priscila (at) bab (dot) la