Want to speak Spanish faster?
Your best bet is to learn the most common Spanish words that you can use throughout most of your conversations. Even in English, we only use 10-20% of words throughout 80-90% of our everyday conversations (unless you’re having an intense philosophical or business conversation).
1,000 Most Common Spanish words = 88% of comprehension
A study done on the Spanish language revealed that:
Studying the first 1000 most frequently used words in the language will familiarize you with 76.0% of all vocabulary in non-fiction literature, 79.6% of all vocabulary in fiction literature, and 87.8% of vocabulary in oral speech.
Studying the 2000 most frequently used words will familiarize you with 84% of vocabulary in non-fiction, 86.1% of vocabulary in fictional literature, and 92.7% of vocabulary in oral speech.
And studying the 3000 most frequently used words will familiarize you with 88.2% of vocabulary in non-fiction, 89.6% of vocabulary in fiction, and 94.0% of vocabulary in oral speech.
Without throwing too much research and date at you, these findings brings us to a simple conclusion that can save you a lot of time.
Learning and mastering the first 1,000 most common Spanish words will be an essential milestone we should achieve in any language, as this will allow us to:
- “grasp 88% of vocabulary in oral speech” (and most of us are learning with the sole intent to converse with another native speaker)
- “express everything we could possibly want to say”
For most of us, 1,000 words is that sweet mark between result and effort, since learning an additional 1,000 words (2,000 words) will only deliver 5% additional comprehension (88% –> 93%).
100 Most Common List of Spanish Words
For the sake of the time you have to read this article, we’ve compiled for you the most common 100 list of Spanish words you can get started with.
If you’re interested in finding out the other 900 list of Spanish words, here they are:
- 1,000 most common Spanish words (audio version)
- 1,000 most common Spanish words (flash card version)
- 5,000 most common Spanish words (memrise)
de of, from, by
la the
el the
a to, at
los the
un a, an, one
las the
del of the, from the, by the
una a, an, one
al to the, at the
dos two
uno one
cada each
tres three
unos some, a few
Conjunctions:
que that, who, which, than
y and
o or
como as, like
pero but
si if
porque because
cuando when
ni nor, neither
donde where
y and
aunque although, even though
sino but, except
mientras while
Prepositions:
en in, on, into
por through, for (means), along, by
con with
para in order to, for (ends)
sin without
sobre about, above, on top of
entre between, among
hasta until
desde from, since
durante during, for (time)
contra against
hacia toward
según according to
Pronouns:
se himself, herself, itself, yourself, yourselves, themselves
each other
lo it, that
su his, her, your
me (to) me
le (to) him, her, you
sus his, her, your, their
yo I
qué what(?)
mi my
nos (to) us, ourselves
te (to) you
eso that
él he, him
nada nothing
esto this
ella she, her
usted you
cómo how(?)
les (to) them, you
algo something
ellos they, them
mí me
nosotros we, us
tu your
ADVERBS:
no no, not
más more
ya already, now, soon
muy very
también also
sí yes
así so, thus, like this,
like that
bien well
solo (solamente) only
ahora now
siempre always
tan so
entonces then
después after, later
menos less
aquí here
antes before, earlier
hoy today
luego then, later
además besides, in addition
casi almost
nunca never
VERBS:
es is, are
ha has, have
son are
está is, are
hay there is, there are
ser to be
era was, were
había there was, there were
tiene has, have
fue was, were
puede can
han have
hacer to make, to do
hace make(s), do(es)
decir to say
va go(es)
estaba was, were
sea (might) be
ver to see
están are
sido been
dijo said
he I have
creo I believe
tienen have
tenía had
dice says, say
vamos we go, we are going
tener to have
parece seems, seem
poder to be able to
pueden can
ADJECTIVES:
este this
todo all
esta this
todos all, everyone
ese that
mismo same
otro other, another
esa that
bueno good
otra other, another
tanto so much
otros other, others
poco little (not much)
mucho much
gran great, big
estos these
general general
todas all, everyone
mayor bigger, older
mejor better
toda all
tal such
otras other, others
estas these
primera first
algunos someNOUNS:
los años years
la vez time (una vez = once)
la parte part
la vida life
el tiempo time, weather
el día day
el mundo world
el estado state
el gobierno government
la casa house
el hombre man
el país country
la forma way
el año year
el caso case
el hecho fact
el momento moment
las cosas things
España Spain
el trabajo work
los días days
la política policy, politics
las veces times
la gente people
el lugar place
el ejemplo example
las personas people
la mujer woman
Best method to learn the list of Spanish words
While everyone learns and memorizes differently, there are a few resources that we can recommend to you to accelerate the process.
Anki
Anki makes it easy for you to create online flashcards to remember things faster. You can create it on your desktop, and take it with you on-the-go on your tablet or smartphone by downloading their app
Memrise
Memrise is an online community and memorization tool to help you memorize anything with ease, including Spanish words. In fact, Memrise has dedicated channels that are specifically built for languages like Spanish, French, Italian, German, and more.
We found this Memrise channel, which shares the first 5,00 words of Spanish that you can go through.
Jumpspeak
Learning these most common Spanish words alone won't cut it. You'll have to practice speaking these in real-life conversations. This is where Jumpspeak comes in.
You can immerse yourself in real-life conversation settings on Jumpspeak, 24/7. With intelligent speech recognition, you'll get real-time feedback on your pronunciation, and feel confident with your Spanish speaking skills (without feeling judged).
We also recommend you check out our other free resources:
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