Here’s a list of one thousand words and phrases chosen to be useful to a beginning learner.
Usage notes
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
When using this list to create vocabulary lists in other languages, many words will:
- have multiple translations
- translate into multiple words or even long phrases
- not translate easily or typically be left out of sentences
- translate into different parts of speech
This is expected and okay!
When considering a word in other languages, consider whether other words go with it, especially prepositions or particles and light verbs. For example, in English, the word ‘wait’ goes with the word ‘for’, but in German, it goes with the word meaning ‘on’. In English, you use ‘have’ with the word ‘breakfast’, but in French, you use the word ‘take’, instead.
Words that are not included in the 1000 are:
- numerals
- personal, demonstrative, indefinite, and reflexive pronouns (I, you, they, this, that, one, myself, yourself…)
- names of languages, countries, and currencies
This list should also be adapted for cultural context: I’d expect different kinship terms, foods, conversational phrases, animals, and places, and there may be relevant topics that are not covered here.
The thousand words
Conversational phrases
cheers, congratulations, excuse me (getting attention), excuse me (passing someone), filler word, get well soon, go ahead, good luck, goodbye, gotcha, happy birthday, hello? (phone), hello, here you go, how are you (with response), how do you say…?, huh?, I don’t care, I think so, I would like… (ordering), me too, never mind, nice to meet you, no, no thank you, oh my God, ouch, please, right?, see you (soon, tomorrow…), shoot!, sorry, take your time, thank you, that’s all, wait a minute, welcome, what was that? (asking to repeat), what’s going on?, wow, yes, you’re welcome
People
adult, baby, boy, child, female, friend, girl, male, man, non-binary, person, polite forms of address, woman
Kinship
aunt, boyfriend, brother, cousin, daughter, family, father, girlfriend, granddaughter, grandfather, grandmother, grandparent, grandson, husband, married, mother, parent, partner, pet, related to, relationship, sibling, sister, son, uncle, wife
Identity
be called, first name, last name, name, what’s your name? / my name is…, years old / how old are you?
Life
be born, die, experience, grow up, life, live
Body
arm, body, ear, eye, face, finger, foot, hair, hand, head, heart, leg, mouth, nose, tooth
Health
get better, get hurt, healthy, hurt, medicine, sick
Occupations
company, coworker, doctor, job, police, student, teacher, work (n.), work (v.)
Emotions
afraid, angry, annoyed, annoying, bored, boring, confused, confusing, embarrassed, embarrassing, excited for, feel, feeling, happy, have a good time, have fun, interested, interesting, look forward to, nervous, proud of, sad, scary, surprised, tired, tired of, worried, worry
Mental things
agree, believe, choose, decide, decision, dream, expect, figure out, find out, forget, guess, hope, idea, know, make sense, make sure, notice, opinion, realize, recognize, remember, remind, tell (discern), think, understand, wish, wonder
Animals
animal, bird, cat, dog
Food
alcohol, apple, banana, beef, beer, bread, cheese, chicken, coffee, egg, fish, fruit, juice, meat, milk, orange (fruit), pork, potato, rice, salad, salt, soda, soup, tea, vegetable, water
Food-adjacent
allergic, bottle, bowl, breakfast, cook, cup, delicious, dessert, dinner, dish (type of food), drink (n.), drink (v.), eat, food, fork, fresh, full (after you’ve eaten), glass, hungry, knife, lunch, meal, menu, napkin, order, plate, salty, spicy, spoon, sweet, taste, thirsty, vegetarian
Clothing
clothes, dress, get dressed, get undressed, glasses, hat, jacket, makeup, pants, put on, shirt, shoe, skirt, sock, suit, sweater, take off, underwear, wear
Transportation
airplane, airport, bicycle, boat, by (mode of transportation), car, drive, fly, gas, get off, get on, passport, stop (e.g. bus stop), subway, take (transportation), taxi, ticket, train, travel, trip
School
class, classmate, classroom, homework, learn, lesson, review, school, study, teach, test, university
Computers
computer, email, email address, internet, message, online, phone number, text (v.), website
Media
movie, music, photo, picture, play (a song), show (television), song, video, video games
Nature
fire, flower, lake, moon, mountain, nature, ocean, river, sky, star, sun, tree, world
Weather
cloud / cloudy, degree, rain / rainy, snow, sunny, temperature, weather, wind / windy
Places
address, apartment, bank, bathroom, bridge, building, bus, church, city, country, east, entrance, exit, highway, hospital, hotel, house, kitchen, library, lost, north, office, park, post office, restaurant, south, station, store, street, supermarket, toilet
Parts of buildings
door, floor (ground), floor (of a building), room (in a building), stairs, wall, window
Things
backpack, bag, bed, book, calendar, camera, cell phone, chair, clock, dictionary, eraser, gift, key, letter, light (fixture), map, newspaper, notebook, page, paper, pen, pencil, purse, seat, sheet, shower, soap, suitcase, table, telephone, television, thing, tissue, towel, trash, trash can, umbrella
Abstract things
art, caution, culture, game, government, history, hobby, information, news, politics, problem, reason, sport
Events
event, happen, meeting, party, situation
Language
language, mean (v.), meaning, sentence, topic, translate, word
Time
afternoon, A.M. / P.M., autumn, birthday, date, day (span of time), day (time of day), future, holiday, hour, last night, minute, month, morning, night / evening, noon, o’clock, past, season, second, spring, summer, time (an instance), time (in general), today, tomorrow, tonight, week, weekday, weekend, winter, year, yesterday
Schedule
a break, free (nothing to do), free time, plan, plan, set up (a meeting), vacation
Money
bill, change (money), cheap, credit card, expensive, free (no money), money, pay, price, spend, wallet
Colors
black, blue, brown, color, dark, green, grey, orange (color), pink, purple, red, white, yellow
Physical descriptions
big, clean (adj.), closed, cold, cool (temperature), dirty, empty, fast, full (not empty), hard (not soft), heavy, hot, light (bright), light (not heavy), long, loud, low, off (of a switch), on (of a switch), open (adj.), round, short, slow, small, soft, straight, tall, thick, thin, to be made of, type (kind), warm
Other descriptions
bad, beautiful, busy, careful, clear, comfortable, common, complicated, convenient, cool, correct (adj.), crowded, cute, dangerous, difficult, easy, famous, fat, friendly, fun, funny, go well, good / well, great, handsome, important, kind, last (final), last (previous), main, mistake, new, normal, okay (acceptable), okay (average), old, popular, quiet, ready, real, safe, serious, simple, size, smart, special, strange, strong, stupid, true, ugly, useful, various, weak, work (be suitable), wrong, young
Physical actions
break, bring, build, carry, close (v.), collect, cut, drop, drop off, fall, follow, get rid of, get (retrieve), hold, leave (an item), lie down, make <adjective>, open (v.), pass (hand over), pick up (a person), pick up (an object), pick up (something from somewhere), pull, push, put, put down, run, sit, stand, stay, take out, turn off, turn on, walk, work (function)
Change
become, change (v.)
Motion
arrive, come, cross (v.), enter / go in, go, go down, go out, go up, leave, pass (somewhere), reach, return (go back), turn
Communication
answer (n.), answer (v.), ask, ask for, call (identify), call (on the phone), conversation, describe, explain, let someone know, question, recommend, reply, say, speak, talk, tell (someone), thank
See / hear
hear, hear of, listen, look like, look at / watch, see, seem, sound (a certain way), sound (noise)
Want / like
favorite, feel like, if you’d like, like, love, need, prefer, rather, want
Other actions
add, buy, clean (v.), correct (v.), cry, dance, do, draw, exercise, find, fix, get ready, go shopping, go to bed, hang out, head out, help, laugh, look for, look up, lose, make, meet, participate, play, practice, read, rest, return (a thing), sell, send, share, show (v.), sing, sleep, stop by, take, throw away, try, use, visit, wait, wake up, wash, watch out, win, work hard, work on, write
Describing space
above, area, around, at, away (not here), back (direction), back (location), be located, behind, between, bottom, by (a place), close (to), corner, down(wards), far, forward, from, front, ground, here, in, in front of, inside, left (direction), middle, next to, on, out of, outside, outside of, over / above, over there, place, right (direction), room (for something), side, spot, there, through, to, top, under, up(wards), way (route), west
Describing time
after(wards), ago, at (a time), away (distance), back then, before, by (a time), during, early, eventually, for (a duration), for a little bit, for a long time, immediately, in a while, just (recently), late, later, miss, next (on the next occasion), now, nowadays, on the way, on time, once (in the past), over (of an event), recently, since, so far, someday, soon, spend time, take (an amount of time), then (at that time), until, while
Progress
about to, again, already, begin, beginning, done, end (n.), end (v.), gone, keep (doing), left (remaining), not any more, not yet, repeat, still, stop (v.), used to
Frequency
always, never, often, rarely, sometimes, usually
Quantities
all, amount, any, approximately, at least, both, each / every, enough, extra, few, half, many, more, most of, no (before a noun), none, number, one of, percent, several, some, the rest, total, whole
Degree
a little, almost, at all, completely, kind of, mostly, not at all, not really, really, that <adjective>, too (excessively), very
Comparison
as (comparisons), difference, different, exactly, less, like (similar to), opposite, same, similar to, than, the most
Manner
like this, way (manner)
Obligation and permission
have to, let, make (somebody do something), may (permission), not allowed / forbidden, should
Possibility
can, definitely / not necessarily, might, maybe, possible, probably, sure
Possession
borrow, get (receive), give, have, keep (something), lend, lose (an item), own
Existence
be, not, there is
Sets
alone, belong, by onesself, group, include, missing, other, part, separate, together
Generic things
anyone, anything, anytime, anyway, anywhere, each other, everyone, everything, everywhere, for some reason, no one, nothing, nowhere, somehow, someone, something, somewhere
Questions
for how long, how, how <adjective>, how many, what, what about, what kind of, what time, what’s <adjective> about, when, where, which, who, why
Speaker attitude
actually, apparently, basically, especially, even, finally (after a long time), generally, hopefully, just (only), look like (inference), of course, only, unfortunately
Transitions
additionally, also, although, and, and so on, because, but / however, by (doing something), by the way, depend on, either… or…, first of all, for example, if, in order to, in this case, lastly, neither / nor, next (and then), or, other than that, otherwise, so that, that (before a sentence), that’s how, therefore, unless, when (before a sentence), whenever, whether
Assorted relationships
about, according to, against, as (in the role of), because of, by (someone), except (for), for (a thing), in (a unit), instead of, of, other than, out of (for comparisons), per, such as, to (experiencer), with, with (by means of), without