Maizie is right.
High Frequency Words (HFWs) are NOT the same as 'tricky words'.
And some words are tricky to spell but easy to read, e.g. main lane.
Others have regular spellings, but are tricky to read: gave, have.
Some are both: friend, fiend.
Someone had asked for the 300 most HF words on another thread.
I'll paste them in again, divided into phonically simple and tricky for reading.
187 / 300 are regular for reading and can all be used for teaching basic decoding (but quite a few, such as 'they' unpredictable for spelling):
a, am, an, and, as, at, back, bad, can, cat, dad, gran, grandad, had, has, hat, man, rabbit, ran, sat, than, that, that’s,
came, gave, made, make, place, take, same, name, baby,
away, day, may, play, say, way,
car, dark, garden, hard, park,
bed, best, better, eggs, end, fell, get, help, let, let’s, next, red, tell, them, then, very, well, went, yes, her,
been, feet, green, keep, need, queen, see, sleep, three, tree, trees,
even, here, these,
big, children, did, didn’t, different, fish, him, his, if, in, is, it, it’s, its, king, little, miss, still, thing, things, think, this, will, wind, wish, with,
birds, first, girl,
inside, like, liked, time, I, I’ve, cried, night, right, by, fly, my,
box, dog, fox, from, got, hot, long, lots, no, not, of, off, on, so, stop, stopped, top, floppy, across, along,
cold, old, told,
go, going, home, over, clothes,
or, for, horse, morning,
found, house, mouse, our, out, round, around, shouted, about, boy,
but, duck, fun, just, much, mum, must, run, sun, under, up, us, jumped, suddenly, use,
their, they, new, again, air, because, began, boat, window.
Tricky for reading
In the first 100 most HF words, 40 are not entirely decodable:
the - he, be, we, me, she,
was, want, all, call, said,
of, to, one, come, do, down, into, look, now,
only, other, some, two,
could, you, your,
when, what, where, which, who, why,
there, were,
right, are, have, before, more.
In next 200, 60 are clearly tricky:
another, any, many, saw, water, small, laughed,
bear, great, head, ready, each, eat, sea, tea, please,
ever, never, every, eyes,
find, friends, giant, I’ll, I’m, key, live, river,
people, pulled, put, thought, through, were, work, would,
coming, everyone, gone,
most, mother, oh, once,
grow, how, know, snow, town, window,
book, food, good, room, school, soon, too, took, door,
Mr Mrs
Another 13 are slightly so (partly depending on accent):
after, asked, can’t, fast, last, plants
animals, dragon, magic,
clothes, cold, old, told
Masha Bell