The 650 Portuguese words that carry most conversations

Word frequency is brutally top-heavy. In spoken-corpus studies, the most frequent ~1,000 word families cover roughly 85% of everyday speech, and the curve is steepest at the very top. The words below sit on that steep part: concrete, picturable, and worth knowing in any Portuguese conversation you're likely to have.

This is the exact list every Verbamor learner's deck is seeded with on day one (we build on Wyner's Fluent Forever base list, tuned by our card-quality pipeline). Nothing on this page is paywalled inside the app; we're giving you the list because the list was never the hard part. Making 650 words stick is.

The first 100

Portuguese · words 1–100 of 642

#	Word	English	Type
1	ir (vou)	to go	verb
2	pequeno / pequena	small	adjective
3	fácil	easy	adjective
4	perguntar (pergunta)	to ask	verb
5	fechado / fechada	closed	adjective
6	dizer (diz)	to say	verb
7	a água	water	noun
8	comer (come)	to eat	verb
9	grande	large, big	adjective
10	triste	sad	adjective
11	quebrado / quebrada	broken	adjective
12	a roupa	clothing, clothes	noun
13	o café	coffee	noun
14	sujo / suja	dirty	adjective
15	o hospital	hospital	noun
16	beber (bebe)	to drink	verb
17	o cabelo	hair	noun
18	o trânsito	traffic	noun
19	a cozinha	kitchen	noun
20	dançar (dançam)	to dance	verb
21	a música	song	noun
22	a rua	street	noun
23	o mercado	market	noun
24	cozinhar (cozinha)	to cook	verb
25	olá	hello	interjection
26	brigar (brigam)	to fight	verb
27	perigoso / perigosa	dangerous	adjective
28	pensar (pensa)	to think	verb
29	caminhar (caminhar)	to walk	verb
30	beijar (beija)	to kiss	verb
31	com raiva	angry	adjective
32	difícil	difficult	adjective
33	novo / nova	new	adjective
34	largo / larga	wide	adjective
35	cedo	early	adverb
36	quando	when	adverb
37	a refeição	meal	noun
38	aberto / aberta	open	adjective
39	a parada	stop (bus stop)	noun
40	ele	he	pronoun
41	velho / velha	old	adjective
42	eles / elas	they	pronoun
43	bom / boa	good	adjective
44	isso	it / that (near listener)	pronoun
45	eu	I	pronoun
46	o exército	army	noun
47	você	you	pronoun
48	o segundo	second (unit of time)	noun
49	escutar (escuta)	to listen	verb
50	ontem	yesterday	adverb
51	o advogado	lawyer	noun
52	hoje	today	adverb
53	ela	she	pronoun
54	ruim	bad	adjective
55	amanhã	tomorrow	adverb
56	nós	we	pronoun
57	delicioso / deliciosa	delicious	adjective
58	duro / dura	hard, tough, rigid	adjective
59	o fã	fan (admirer)	noun
60	o artista	artist	noun
61	mesmo / mesma	same	adjective
62	atirar (atira)	to shoot	verb
63	o cardápio	menu	noun
64	diferente	different	adjective
65	o molho	sauce	noun
66	com sede / sedento / sedenta	thirsty	adjective
67	errado / errada	wrong	adjective
68	encontrar (encontra)	to find	verb
69	feliz	happy	adjective
70	trabalhar (trabalha)	to work	verb
71	faminto / faminta	hungry	adjective
72	este / esta	this	adjective
73	estreito / estreita	narrow	adjective
74	bonito / bonita	beautiful / pretty	adjective
75	sorrir (sorri)	to smile	verb
76	o padre	priest	noun
77	o encontro	date (romantic)	noun
78	morto / morta	dead	adjective
79	rico / rica	rich	adjective
80	o paraíso	heaven	noun
81	o soldado	soldier	noun
82	chamar (chama)	to call	verb
83	o inferno	hell	noun
84	longo / longa	long	adjective
85	solto / solta	loose / free	adjective
86	pular (pula)	to jump	verb
87	brincar (brincam)	to play	verb
88	a alergia	allergy	noun
89	vivo / viva	alive	adjective
90	correr (corre)	to run	verb
91	a morte	death	noun
92	pobre	poor	adjective
93	provar (prova)	to taste	verb
94	grosso / grossa	thick	adjective
95	a empresa	company (business)	noun
96	surdo / surda	deaf	adjective
97	a religião	religion	noun
98	plano / plana	flat / level	adjective
99	ouvir (ouve)	to hear	verb
100	feio / feia	ugly	adjective

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