101 Core Spanish Words
101 Core Spanish Words
101 Core Spanish Words
Spanish Words
A language hacking resource from
Fluent in 3 Months
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What if I told you that you could understand about 50% of
Spanish by learning only 100 Spanish words?
Language analysts have found that if you learn just 100 words
in a language, you’ll typically know about 50% of the words in
any piece of content.
Think about it. In English, words like “the”, “a”, “and”, “I”,
“you”, “is”, and “more” are used in almost every sentence. The
same is true in Spanish.
So, to help you learn Spanish faster, here are your 100 most
useful words to start with as a Spanish learner.
Benny Lewis
Founder and CEO, Fluent in 3 Months
10 Basic Spanish Words
You Need As a Beginner
If you’re only going to learn 10 words from this resource, these are the ones you need:
HOLA HELLO
ADIÓS GOODBYE
SÍ YES
NO NO
AYUDA HELP
HOY TODAY
MAÑANA TOMORROW
These will be your most helpful nouns starting out. Of course, you may have different nouns
you use in everyday life… And you can change this list according to that! But since we’re go-
ing by word frequency here, these words will be useful to know.
HOY TODAY
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MAÑANA TOMORROW
AYER YESTERDAY
HORA HOUR
AÑO YEAR
DÍA DAY
SEMANA WEEK
ANTES BEFORE
DESPUÉS AFTER
AQUÍ HERE
ALLÍ THERE
AHORA NOW
SITIO PLACE
ESCUELA SCHOOL
TIENDA SHOP
BAÑO BATHROOM
CIUDAD CITY
PAÍS COUNTRY
COSA THING
NADA NOTHING
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ALGO SOMETHING
CASA HOUSE
COCHE CAR
IDIOMA LANGUAGE
AGUA WATER
PELÍCULA MOVIE
HOMBRE MAN
MUJER WOMAN
CHICO/CHICA BOY/GIRL
AMIGO FRIEND
PERSONA PERSON
FAMILIA FAMILY
These are the most common Spanish verbs, and you can say quite a lot with only these 25
Spanish words! The first six verbs listed, especially.
SER TO BE (PERMANENT)
ESTAR TO BE (NON-PERMANENT)
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HABER TO HAVE, TO EXIST
PODER CAN DO
VER TO SEE
IR TO GO
DAR TO GIVE
SABER TO KNOW
CREER TO BELIEVE
HABLAR TO TALK
LLEVAR TO CARRY
ENCONTRAR TO FIND
GUSTAR TO LIKE
DECIR TO TELL
VENIR TO COME
PENSAR TO THINK
ENTENDER TO UNDERSTAND
LEER TO READ
COMER TO EAT
BEBER TO DRINK
TRABAJAR TO WORK
USAR TO USE
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31 Basic Spanish
Adjectives and Adverbs
These adjectives will come in handy all the time in Spanish! It’s a good idea to memorize
them in sets whenever possible. Like mucho for “a lot” and poco for “a few.” This way you can
associate the two words together, making them easier to remember.
Words like bueno can also be used as connecting words. Because bueno is so common, in
some dialects like Mexican Spanish, it’s used to say “well then”, “okay”, or “anyway…”
ALGUNO SOME
MÁS MORE
MENOS LESS
MUY VERY
MUCHO A LOT
OTRO OTHER
CASI ALMOST
MISMO SAME
TAMBIÉN ALSO
GRANDE LARGE
PEQUEÑO SMALL
BIEN WELL
SIEMPRE ALWAYS
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NUNCA NEVER
CADA EACH
NUEVO NEW
ANTIGUA OLD
BUENO GOOD
MAL BAD
ALTO HIGH
BAJO LOW
LEJOS FAR
CERCA NEAR
HERMOSA BEAUTIFUL
FEO UGLY
DIFÍCIL DIFFICULT
FÁCIL EASY
Connectors help your speech flow in a natural way, and can buy you some precious moments
while you think of what to say next.
COMO LIKE, AS
PERO BUT
PORQUE BECAUSE
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PUES WELL THEN
AUNQUE ALTHOUGH
MIENTRAS WHILE
That’s it! Once you know these 101 core Spanish words, it becomes much easier to build sim-
ple Spanish sentences and start speaking now.
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