Spanish A1 vocabulary: your core word list

With a few hundred well-chosen words, you can already understand a surprising amount at level A1. Here are the most important beginner words with English translations, sorted by topic.

Tip: don't just read the list. Cover the Spanish column and try to come up with each word from the English. That is active recall, and in Recallo you can practice the whole A1 word group exactly this way.

A1 core vocabulary by topic

A curated selection for your first weeks:

Greetings and politeness

hola: hello
buenos días: good morning
buenas noches: good evening, good night
adiós: goodbye
gracias: thank you
por favor: please
de nada: you're welcome
perdón: sorry, excuse me
sí / no: yes / no

People and family

hombre: man
mujer: woman
niño: boy, child
amigo: friend
familia: family
madre: mother
padre: father
hermano: brother

Numbers 1 to 10

uno: one
dos: two
tres: three
cuatro: four
cinco: five
seis: six
siete: seven
ocho: eight
nueve: nine
diez: ten

Everyday life and home

casa: house, home
agua: water
día: day
noche: night
tiempo: time, weather
trabajo: work, job
ciudad: city
libro: book

Food and drink

comida: food, meal
pan: bread
café: coffee
leche: milk
fruta: fruit
carne: meat
pescado: fish (as food)
queso: cheese

The key verbs

ser: to be (identity, traits)
estar: to be (state, location)
tener: to have
hacer: to do, to make
ir: to go
comer: to eat
hablar: to speak
querer: to want, to love

Colors and time

rojo: red
azul: blue
verde: green
negro: black
hoy: today
mañana: tomorrow
ayer: yesterday
ahora: now

This is a selection to get you started. Recallo's dictionary has over 20,000 entries, sorted into seven learning stages, with example sentences and audio.

The 250 most important A1 words

Sorted by learning path, the most common first. Each word links to its page with translation, example sentence, pronunciation and, for verbs, the full conjugation.

The complete vocabulary is in the A to Z word index.

Frequently asked questions

How many words do you need for A1 Spanish?+

Roughly 500 to 800 words that you can actively use are enough to get by in simple everyday situations at A1. More important than the number is that you can recall them on your own.

Which Spanish words should I learn first?+

The most frequent ones: greetings, numbers, the verbs ser, estar, tener and ir, and everyday words for people, food and home. With those you can already understand and build many simple sentences.

Practice A1 vocabulary actively

Practice the whole A1 group with audio and example sentences, free in Recallo.

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