The 100 most common Spanish words (with English translations)

If you want to understand real Spanish, you don't need to start with hard words. You need to start with the ones that show up all the time. The short answer: the 100 most common words in spoken Spanish are mostly verbs, pronouns and small linking words like el (the), de (of), que (that), ser (to be) and no. They appear in almost every sentence, which is why they matter more than any themed word list.

Below is the full list, in order, with the most common English translation of each word.

Where this list comes from

The list is built from film and TV subtitles (the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus, as organized by the FrequencyWords project). Subtitles are speech: people chatting, arguing, apologizing, calling someone over. So the list looks much more like the Spanish of a conversation than the Spanish of a newspaper.

One important detail: all forms of the same word were added together. Ser includes es, soy, era and fue; tener includes tengo, tiene and tenía. That way the list shows the word itself, not each of its pieces.

From 1 to 25

No.	Word	English
1	el	the
2	de	of, from
3	que	that, what
4	ser	to be
5	él	he
6	no	no, not
7	a	to, at
8	uno	a, one
9	yo	I
10	estar	to be
11	y	and
12	en	in, on
13	tú	you
14	haber	to have (helper verb), there is
15	tener	to have
16	por	for, by
17	ir	to go
18	qué	what
19	hacer	to do, to make
20	este	this
21	poder	can, to be able to
22	ese	that
23	con	with
24	para	for, to
25	mi	my

From 26 to 50

No.	Word	English
26	decir	to say, to tell
27	saber	to know
28	su	his, her, your, their
29	querer	to want, to love
30	todo	all, everything
31	pero	but
32	sí	yes
33	si	if
34	bien	well, fine
35	ver	to see
36	mucho	a lot, much
37	tu	your
38	bueno	good
39	aquí	here
40	como	like, as
41	más	more
42	creer	to believe, to think
43	deber	must, to owe
44	ya	already, now
45	así	like this, so
46	ahora	now
47	algo	something
48	dejar	to leave, to let
49	vez	time (as in "one time")
50	hablar	to speak, to talk

From 51 to 75

No.	Word	English
51	dar	to give
52	cuando	when
53	pasar	to happen, to pass
54	nada	nothing
55	cómo	how
56	o	or
57	otro	other, another
58	tanto	so much
59	sentir	to feel
60	esperar	to wait, to hope
61	gracias	thanks
62	pensar	to think
63	venir	to come
64	solo	only, alone
65	cosa	thing
66	porque	because
67	necesitar	to need
68	día	day
69	nuestro	our
70	mirar	to look
71	hombre	man
72	casa	house, home
73	entonces	then, so
74	hola	hello
75	alguno	some, any

From 76 to 100

No.	Word	English
76	verdad	truth, true
77	quién	who
78	tiempo	time, weather
79	llevar	to carry, to take, to wear
80	dos	two
81	nunca	never
82	mejor	better, best
83	llamar	to call
84	dónde	where
85	año	year
86	señor	sir, Mr.
87	parecer	to seem
88	favor	favor (por favor: please)
89	volver	to come back
90	oír	to hear
91	también	also, too
92	tomar	to take, to drink
93	noche	night
94	gustar	to like
95	encontrar	to find
96	mismo	same
97	dios	god
98	vida	life
99	quedar	to stay, to remain
100	sobre	about, on

What this list says about Spanish

Looking at all 100 together, a few patterns stand out:

• Verbs rule. There are 32 verbs in the top 100, from ser, estar and tener to gustar and quedar. Twenty short verbs already get you a long way.
• Two verbs for "to be". Ser (No. 4) is for what something is; estar (No. 10) is for how or where it is. Soy cansado sounds wrong; estoy cansado (I'm tired) is right.
• Two verbs for "to have". Tener is owning or having; haber is the helper in he comido (I have eaten) and the hay in hay café (there is coffee).
• Accents change meaning. Sí (yes) and si (if), tú (you) and tu (your), qué (what) and que (that) are different words, and all six are in the top 40.
• "Time" splits in two. Vez (No. 49) is a time as in "one more time"; tiempo (No. 78) is time passing, and also the weather.
• Gustar works backwards. Me gusta el café literally means "coffee pleases me". It's how Spanish says "I like coffee".

Words you can already guess

Even in the top 100, some words give themselves away to an English speaker: favor, no, hola, nada, casa (as in "mi casa es su casa") and vida (think "vital"). Further down the list, the number of familiar words grows fast, because Spanish and English share thousands of Latin roots. We wrote a whole article on the Spanish words you already know.

How to use these 100 words

Memorizing the table from top to bottom doesn't stick very well. What makes a word stick is meeting it again and again, in different sentences, when you need it. A few simple ideas:

1. Read short sentences out loud that combine several words from the list: No sé qué quieres (I don't know what you want) uses four of them.
2. Listen for them in shows and songs. After seeing the list, it's hard not to notice ya, bueno and entonces in every scene.
3. Use them in messages. A reply like Sí, creo que sí (yes, I think so) uses three words from the top 100 and sounds natural.

Where these words show up in Pollyfriends

In Pollyfriends, conversations start from lists like this one. The friends are AI characters with a name, a city and a daily routine, and they talk the way real people talk. The Spanish cast lives in Mexico. Vale, a barista in Mexico City's Narvarte neighborhood, greets you with ¿Qué te sirvo hoy?, and Doña Cuca, a grandmother in Puebla, starts every story with Fíjate, mi vida...

If you'd like to see these words in use, you can meet the Spanish-speaking friends, each with a story of their own. No rush: they'll be there whenever you feel like chatting.