Every list here is ranked by how often words actually appear in spoken Spanish — the most efficient possible order to learn. Start at the top and your comprehension rises as fast as it can per word learned.
The flagship interactive frequency list. Search, filter, hide translations, and mark words as learned.
The single highest-value place to start — 100 words that make up half of everyday speech.
Two of every three words in conversation. The point where you stop feeling lost.
The verbs that carry the action of most sentences — ser, estar, tener, hacer, ir and more.
The corpus behind the ranking and exactly how word counts map to comprehension.
The full frequency-ranked list as a printable PDF. Enter your email and it's yours.
Learn words in frequency order — most common first. Because a small set of words makes up most of everyday speech, learning by frequency means every word you study is one you will actually hear. The top 1,000 words alone cover about 74% of spoken Spanish.
Aim for the 1,500 most common words. That covers roughly 80% of everyday spoken Spanish — the threshold where conversations and shows become followable. The first 500 already get you to about 67%.
Yes. Every list here is free to read, search, and use, with translations and example sentences. A free account adds spaced-repetition practice on the top 500 words.