When learning anything, there's always the long way of doing it, and a shortcut. Some people find a way to learn how to lose 20 lbs in just a few months, while others struggle for years. Some people can pick up an instrument and learn how to play it within weeks, while others never learn.When it comes to learning Spanish, one of the major shortcuts is focusing on the most common words. Let's explore why.

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Why focus on just the most common words?

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.

The key point to focus on here is the difference in results from 1,000 most common words to 2,000 words.In terms of vocabulary in oral speech, while learning the first 1,000 most common words will help you familiarize with ~88% of Spanish, learning the next 1,000 will only increase your knowledge by 4.9%.

While the extra 4.9% may make a difference if you're planning to use Spanish on a regular basis, it's undeniable that to get the most results with the least effort is focusing on the first 1,000. And the same will apply for learning the first 100 most common words versus 1,000.With that said, we're going to share with you the first 100 most common words. Then we'll share below how you can easily learn the next 900 Spanish words, including links to resources we recommend.

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100 most common Spanish words

de  of, from, byla  theel  thea  to, atlos  theun  a, an, onelas  thedel  of the, from the, by theuna  a, an, oneal  to the, at thedos  twouno  onecada  eachtres  threeunos  some, a fewConjunctions:

que  that, who, which, thany  ando  orcomo  as, likepero  butsi  ifporque  becausecuando  whenni  nor, neitherdonde  wherey  andaunque  although, even thoughsino  but, exceptmientras  while

Prepositions:

en  in, on, intopor  through, for (means), along, bycon  withpara  in order to, for (ends)sin  withoutsobre  about, above, on top ofentre  between, amonghasta  untildesde  from, sincedurante  during, for (time)contra  againsthacia  towardsegún  according toPronouns:

se  himself, herself, itself, yourself, yourselves, themselveseach otherlo  it, thatsu  his, her, yourme  (to) mele  (to) him, her, yousus  his, her, your, theiryo  Iqué  what(?)mi  mynos  (to) us, ourselveste  (to) youeso  thatél  he, himnada  nothingesto  thisella  she, herusted  youcómo  how(?)les  (to) them, youalgo  somethingellos  they, themmí  menosotros  we, ustu  yourAdverbs:

no  no, notmás  moreya  already, now, soonmuy  verytambién  alsosí  yesasí  so, thus, like this,like thatbien  wellsolo (solamente)  onlyahora  nowsiempre  alwaystan  soentonces  thendespués  after, latermenos  lessaquí  hereantes  before, earlierhoy  todayluego  then, laterademás  besides, in additioncasi  almostnunca  never

Verbs:

es  is, areha  has, haveson  areestá  is, arehay  there is, there areser  to beera  was, werehabía  there was, there weretiene  has, havefue  was, werepuede  canhan  havehacer  to make, to dohace  make(s), do(es)decir  to sayva  go(es)estaba  was, weresea  (might) bever  to seeestán  aresido  beendijo  saidhe  I havecreo  I believetienen  havetenía  haddice  says, sayvamos  we go, we are goingtener  to haveparece  seems, seempoder  to be able topueden  canAdjectives:

este  thistodo  allesta  thistodos  all, everyoneese  thatmismo  sameotro  other, anotheresa  thatbueno  goodotra  other, anothertanto  so muchotros  other, otherspoco  little (not much)mucho  muchgran  great, bigestos  thesegeneral  generaltodas  all, everyonemayor  bigger, oldermejor  bettertoda  alltal  suchotras  other, othersestas  theseprimera  firstalgunos  some

Nouns:

los años  yearsla vez  time (una vez = once)la parte  partla vida  lifeel tiempo  time, weatherel día  dayel mundo  worldel estado  stateel gobierno  governmentla casa  houseel hombre  manel país  countryla forma  wayel año  yearel caso  caseel hecho  factel momento  momentlas cosas  thingsEspaña  Spainel trabajo  worklos días  daysla política  policy, politicslas veces  timesla gente  peopleel lugar  placeel ejemplo  examplelas personas  peoplela mujer  woman

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)

Best resources to learn the most common 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.

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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.

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Jumpspeak

Our app Jumpspeak will teach you how to use the most common Spanish words you've learned in real conversation settings. You can get real-time feedback with our speech recognition, while improving your listening skills at the same time. It's next level immersion.

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Ready for the next chapter? We're going to talk about Spanish Exercises you can do.

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Chapter List

1. Why Learn Spanish?2. Where to Learn Spanish?3. Spanish Blogs4. Spanish Podcasts5. Spanish Youtube Channels6. Free Spanish Apps7. Most Common Spanish Words8. Spanish Exercises 9. Spanish Lessons10. Spanish For Kids11. Spanish For Business