The 100 most common Spanish words, in order

A small number of words make up most of what you hear in Spanish. The hundred below come from how often each word is used in film and TV subtitles, so they’re the words of everyday speech: the verbs ser, estar, tener and ir, the little words that hold sentences together, and the first nouns everyone needs.

Verbs are listed in their dictionary form, so tener stands for tengo, tienes, tiene and the rest. Nouns show their article and gender colour: el words red, la words blue.

The list

#	Word	Meaning
1	el	the
2	de	of, from
3	que	that, which
4	ser	to be (what something is)
5	no	not
6	un	a, an
7	a	to, at
8	estar	to be (how or where something is)
9	y	and
10	en	in, on, at
11	lo	it
12	tener	to have
13	por	for, by
14	haber	to have (as in he comido); hay: there is
15	qué	what, which
16	ir	to go
17	me	me
18	este	this
19	hacer	to do
20	poder	to be able
21	ese	that
22	se	oneself, himself, herself
23	te	you (te veo: I see you)
24	con	with
25	para	for, to
26	decir	to say
27	saber	to know
28	querer	to want
29	todo	all, every
30	mi	my
31	pero	but
32	sí	yes
33	si	if
34	bien	well
35	su	his, her, its, their
36	yo	I
37	ver	to see
38	bueno	good
39	del	of the
40	como	as, like
41	aquí	here
42	tu	your
43	al	to the
44	más	more
45	le	to him, her, you
46	creer	to believe
47	deber	to have to
48	ya	already
49	así	like this
50	ahora	now
51	muy	very
52	algo	something
53	hay	there is, are
54	dejar	to leave, let
55	la vez	time, occasion
56	dar	to give
57	él	he
58	cuando	when
59	tú	you
60	nada	nothing
61	nos	us
62	cómo	how
63	pasar	to happen, pass
64	o	or
65	otro	other, another
66	mucho	much, many
67	ella	she
68	pensar	to think
69	hablar	to speak
70	gracias	thanks, thank you
71	sentir	to feel
72	sólo	only
73	la cosa	thing
74	solo	alone
75	porque	because
76	mirar	to look at
77	necesitar	to need
78	el día	day
79	usted	you (formal)
80	el hombre	man
81	entonces	then
82	la casa	house
83	hola	hello
84	la verdad	truth
85	alguno	some, any
86	el tiempo	time
87	tan	so
88	venir	to come
89	volver	to return
90	quién	who
91	sus	their, his, her
92	encontrar	to find
93	dos	two
94	nunca	never
95	llevar	to carry
96	mejor	better
97	el señor	man, sir
98	dónde	where
99	el año	year
100	oh	oh

How to learn them

Start with the ones you can picture. Nouns and actions like casa, hombre and ver are the quickest to learn with a memory picture. The small grammar words make more sense once you meet them in sentences.
Learn nouns with el or la. La casa, el día. See how to remember Spanish noun gender.
Give hard words a hook. A phrase that sounds like the word, pictured with its meaning. See memory hooks.
Review them on a schedule, a few each day. See how spaced repetition works.

More in how to remember Spanish vocabulary.

How Flashfriend uses this list

Flashfriend teaches these words and the next few thousand, starting with the ones you can picture and leaving the small grammar words for sentences. Each word gets a picture you make, its gender colour and audio, and you’re tested on each word just before you’d forget it, with a longer gap each time you remember it. Grammar comes one pattern at a time, in sentences you can read. Read more about Flashfriend for Spanish.

Where the list comes from

Frequencies come from the OpenSubtitles corpus, through Hermit Dave’s FrequencyWords, with forms grouped under their dictionary word. Meanings and genders are Flashfriend’s. The list on this page is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

The list

How to learn them

How Flashfriend uses this list

Where the list comes from

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