The Most Common Spanish Words: Frequency Lists

How many words do you need to know in order to speak a language? That’s a good question! There are about 250,000 words in the Spanish language, so you can rest assured that learning the 100 most common Spanish words will be a great start as you prepare for your first conversations. Of course, you’ll be limited in what you can say, but if you’re planning a short trip or want to master the basics so you can start speaking and growing your confidence, the frequency lists in this article provide crucial building blocks. Let’s have a look!

The 100 most common Spanish words

In the following lists, you’ll see the most frequently-used words in Spanish. One big long list in alphabetical order is boring (and honestly, not very useful). So we’ve broken up our list of the 100 most common Spanish words into several thematic groups. You’ll find all the articles together, all the joining words in one place, and several other useful categories.

Common Spanish words: Articles

Among the top 100 words in Spanish, the articles are certainly at the top of the list! Here’s a table that summarizes the articles you should know:

Spanish	English
el	the (sing. masc.)
la	the (sing. fem.)
los	the (pl. masc.)
las	the (pl. fem.)
un / uno	a / an (masc.)
una	a / an (fem.)
unos	some (masc.)
unas	some (fem.)

Careful! El / la / los also function as object pronouns and mean “him”/”her”/”it.” For example:

• Le guarda rencor. = He is mad at him.
• Los quiero volver a ver. = I want to see them again.

Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives

These two categories are also important to know. You’ll see that not all of the personal pronouns and possessive adjectives are listed in the table below. That’s because we’ve only included those you’ll hear and use most often. On the other hand, it’s also very important to know all of them, so don’t hesitate to take a closer look. And there’s no better way to learn them than in context!

Personal Pronouns	Direct Object Pronouns	Possessive Adjectives
yo (I)	me (me)	mi (my)
tú (sing. you)	te (you)	tu (your)
él / ella (he / she)	lo / la (him / her / it) el / ella (him / her / it - indirect)	su (his / her - sing. object) sus (his / her - pl. object)
nosotros (we)	nos (us)	nuestro / nuestra (our)
vosotros / vosotras (pl. you)	vuestro / vuestra (you)	vuestros / vuestras (your)
ellos / ellas (they)	los / las (them)	su (their - sing. object) sus (their - pl. object)

Examples:

• Lo siento mucho. = I am very sorry.
• Mi perro se come el hueso. = My dog eats his bone.

One last point to highlight in this section on demonstratives:

• esto/esta is neutral and is the equivalent of “this one” (near object)
• este and esta translate as “this” (near object, masculine and feminine, respectively)
• ese and esa translate as “that” (distant object, masculine and feminine, respectively)
• eso is neutral and is the equivalent of “that one” (distant object)

This list of demonstratives is given as an indication, because they are among the 100 most frequently used words in Spanish. BUT we recommend that you don’t try to learn them as isolated vocabulary. We advise you to learn them in context instead, while you’re reading a newspaper or watching a series, for example.

The most useful Spanish prepositions and linking words

Spanish	English
al	to
así	thus
con	with
cuando	when
del	of
dónde	where
entonces	so
o	or
o sea	in other words
para	for
pero	but
quién	who
si =/= sí	if =/= yes
sobre	on
y	and

The 100 most common words in Spanish: Phrases with “que” / “qué“

No, que and qué are not interchangeable, but they can both mean “that”/”which” in certain contexts. You’ll always need context to know which form to use. After you get used to their differences, it’ll seem natural to know which word to use. One benefit is that they sound pretty much the same when speaking, so there’s not really any risk of an error in conversation.

Finally, it’s useful to note that que is the most frequently used word in Spanish. Here are a few important expressions you should know:

Spanish	English
qué	that / who / which
mientras que	while / whereas
por qué	why
porque	because
puesto que	because / since
siempre que	as long as
ya que	as / considering

Phrases with “de“

The second most common word in Spanish is de. It appears in many expressions, like those below:

Spanish	English
de	from
a pesar de	despite
a propósito de	concerning / regarding
al lado de =/= cerca de	next to / beside =/= nearby / close
a causa de por culpa de	because of / due to
alrededor de	around
de ahí	hence / therefore
debajo de	under / beneath
encima de	above

Phrases with “a“

It’s probably no surprise that another tiny word is right at the top of the list of common Spanish words: a. Here are a few important phrases that use this word:

Spanish	English
a	to
a la derecha / izquierda	to the right / left
a menudo	often
a veces	sometimes
a causa de	because of / due to
a pesar de	despite
a propósito de	concerning / regarding
debido a	because of / due to
en cuanto a	regarding / as for
gracias a	thanks to

Two other expressions with a are useful to know:

• romper a: this is only employed with the verbs llorar and reír, and implies a sudden action. It translates as “to burst [into tears / out laughing].”
  Cuando oyó el chiste, rompió a reír. = When he heard that joke, he burst out laughing.
  
• volver a: this indicates repetition and is often translated as “re-.”
  Puedes volver a probar esa receta. = You can retry that recipe.
  

Phrases with “en“

This word often functions as a preposition, and it appears in many useful fixed expressions:

Spanish	English
en	in
en cambio	however
en cuanto a	as for
en efecto	in effect
en resumen	in conclusion
hoy en día	today / these days
quedar en	to decide / to come to an agreement

Phrases with “lo“

Lo is both an object pronoun and a word in its own right. Here are a few examples of its versatility:

Spanish	English
lo	the (direct object pronoun)
a lo mejor	maybe perhaps
de lo contrario	otherwise
por lo menos	at best
por lo que	that's why…
por lo visto	apparently it would seem…

Phrases with “por“

Spanish	English
por	for
por consiguiente	as a result
por ejemplo	for example
por eso por lo que	that's why…
por favor	please
por lo tanto	and so
por lo visto	apparently it would seem…
por qué	why

Se

This word appears in many reflexive phrases:

Spanish	English
se	himself herself
se hace	get become
se debe	must be it is necessary…
se puede	maybe
se refiere	concerning regarding
se trata	to be about (something)

Vez

Spanish	English
vez	time (occurrence)
cada vez más	more and more
otra vez	again (one more time)
tal vez	maybe
una vez	once / one time

Other common adjectives/adverbs

Spanish	English
aquí	here
ahí	there
ahora	now
algo	something
alguien	someone
antes	before
bien	well
bueno	good
cómo	how
como	like
dos	two
gracias	thank you
hasta	until
hola	hello
hoy	today
más	more
muy	very
mucho	a lot / much
nada	nothing / none
no	no / not (negation)
nunca	never
siempre	always
sin	without
solo	alone
sólo	only
también	also
tanto	so much
todo	all / every
todos	everyone
ya	already

The 100 most common Spanish words: Most common verbs

TO BE (HAY, ESTAR, SER)

In Spanish, there are three ways to say “to be”: hay, estar, and ser. These last two are auxiliaries that are interchangeable.

Use ser to describe an object or a person, or to give the time.

	SER present	SER imperfect
yo (I)	*soy*	*era*
tú (you)	*eres*	eras
él (he)	*es*	*era*
ellos (they)	*son*	eran

On the other hand, estar describes a temporary state or the location of an object or person.

	ESTAR present	ESTAR imperfect
yo	*estoy*	*estaba*
tú	*estás*	estabas
él	*está*	*estaba*
ellos	*están*	estaban

*The conjugations with “*” are the most commonly used forms.

TO HAVE (HABER/TENER)

There are two verbs for saying “to have” in Spanish: haber and tener. The first is mostly used as an auxiliary or in impersonal expressions, while the second is essentially used to indicate possession or expressions such as “to be hungry”/”to be thirsty”/”to be in pain”/etc.

In the table below, you’ll find all of the most common conjugations. So don’t worry if it doesn’t look complete to you – just focus on learning these for now!l

	HABER	TENER
yo	he	tengo
tú	has	tienes
él	ha / hay	tiene

TO GO (IR)

The verb “to go” (ir) is one of the most frequently used in Spanish (as in many other languages). Here are the most frequent conjugated forms.

	IR
yo	voy
tú	vas
él	va
nosotros	vamos

Exception: the conjugated form fue is the simple past form of both ser and ir

TO BE ABLE TO (PODER)

	PODER
yo	puedo
tú	puedes
él	puede

Other useful verbs

In addition to those listed above, here are some other very useful verbs in Spanish:

Spanish	Most Common Conjugated Form	English
comer	(yo) como	to eat
creer	(yo) creo	to believe / to think
decir	(yo) digo	to say
hacer	(él) hace	to do
parecer	(él) parece	to seem
pasar	(él) pasa	to happen / to occur
saber	(yo) sé (tú) sabes	to know
querer	(yo) quiero (tú) quieres	to want
ver	(yo) veo	to see / to watch

The most common nouns

Of course, there are also a few nouns on the list of the 100 most common Spanish words. Here they are:

Spanish	English
casa	house
día	day
dios	god
favor	favor / service
noche	night
señor	sir
tiempo	time
verdad	fact / truth
vida	life

How to learn this Spanish vocabulary

As you may have noticed, this list of the 100 most frequently used words in Spanish is quite restrictive. It’s mainly sentence-building words: articles, adverbs, logical connectors… We therefore encourage you to learn vocabulary – useful for you, of course – in addition to this list. The vocabulary here will help you construct a grammatically correct sentence, but you’ll also need a broader vocabulary of nouns and verbs to talk about your experiences.

And if you’re a regular reader of our blog, it’s no secret. You know what we’re going to say now: have fun!

Learning a language is all about having fun. If you just have a list to learn by heart, it might be difficult to stay motivated. So let’s start with fun! Of course, learning the 100 most frequently used words in Spanish also requires some work on your part. But it’s also ESSENTIAL to stay motivated. So don’t hesitate to watch films and series (there are several on Netflix, for example, that are very good, even with English subtitles). You can also listen to music in Spanish, read novels or short texts, travel to a Spanish-speaking country and try to pronounce the words you see in the street, chat with native speakers… In short, there are lots of options.

We’ve also created MosaSeries to help you learn Spanish progressively, from beginner to intermediate levels. El hombre sin nombre is the captivating story of a man who has lost his memory and is doing everything in his power to recover it.

Go further

If you’d like to dive into this subject even farther, you might enjoy:

• The Most Common English Words: English Frequency Lists
• Five Simple Ways to Memorize Vocabulary
• Applying the Pareto Principle to Language Learning