While nouns and pronouns are very common parts of speech in English, they don't make up 90% of the words used. The actual percentage is much lower. It's hard to give a precise figure because it depends on the type of text and the method of analysis, but a more realistic estimate would be around 30-40%.
Here's why:
* Other parts of speech: English has a wide range of parts of speech, including verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. These words are essential for creating meaning and structure in sentences.
* Frequency depends on text type: The proportion of nouns and pronouns will vary significantly depending on the kind of text you're looking at. For example, technical writing might have a higher proportion of nouns, while poetry might have a higher proportion of adjectives and verbs.
To get a better understanding of the distribution of parts of speech in English, you can look at word frequency lists or conduct your own analysis of specific texts.