Want to learn 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  whilePREPOSITIONS:

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.

Rype

If you don’t want the hassle of learning the list of Spanish words alone, you could always rely on Rype to help you out. Our dedicated coaches can help keep you accountable, allow you to get real-life immersive practice, and give you immediate feedback to retain more knowledge in less time.

Each lesson plan is designed and customized to meet your individual needs, so you’ll never have to worry about other students taking up your precious time.

What’s next

If you’re interested in learning Spanish online, on your time, we’d love for you to meet Rype. With Private Spanish Lessons online, it’s the easiest and most effective way to learn a language for busy people.

Start your free trial with Rype, and you can book daily lessons at anytime of the day, any day of the week. We’ve built the entire experience to fit the needs of busy individuals like yourself, and you can even try it out for free! Or hear why students recommend Rype as the best way to learn Spanish.

We also recommend you check out our other free resources:

• How to learn a new language in 90 days
• Complete Guide on How to Speak Spanish
  
• How long does it take to learn Spanish
  
• Most common Spanish phrases
  
• Best way to learn Spanish