This is part of my guide on how to start learning a language more quickly. You can find the guide homepage here.

You can express yourself surprisingly flexibly when you know 300 well-chosen words (and grammar) in a language. (By “words”, I really mean lemmas, i.e. I’m counting “run” and “runs” as one word.) When trying to talk about a topic, there will probably be some key words that you don’t know, but you can ask for or look up those words and then use them for the rest of the time that you’re talking about the topic. You can see an example of how using the 300 words works.

Here’s the list of 300. I hope it’s a useful guideline and starting point for you. I may revise it, so please refer to the original post for the most up-to-date version. In addition to these general words, there will probably be some others that will be among the most useful for you (e.g. “class” if you’re a student). When you find yourself using them again and again, learn them too.

* Note: You should really think of this as a list of concepts. Your goal isn’t to translate each word to a word in your target language, but to figure out how to express that concept in your target language. In some cases, a concept may translate to multiple words (for example, I listed “you” as a concept, but in some languages there are different words for “formal you” and “informal you”). Some concepts may translate to no word at all, but rather a certain grammatical structure (for example, Russian doesn’t use the verb “have”; to say “I have a cat” in Russian, you say “at me there is a cat”).

Use a dictionary to find out how to express these concepts in your target language (for some subtleties, you’ll need to google or ask in a forum). After that, I suggest memorizing the words by making yourself a Memrise course with the words and going through the course. Learn to be able to go from the concept to the word in your target language, not the other way around; you want to be able to produce the word, not just recognize it. You should also learn how to pronounce your target language. To hear native speakers pronounce words in your target language, check out Forvo.

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This list has been translated into: Cantonese, Finnish, French, Spanish.

Version 1 of this list, which had 200 words, was translated into: Afrikaans, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Swedish, Thai.

If you’d like to translate this list into another language, please feel free! :) Just include a link back to this post, and let me know when you’re done so that I can link to your list here.

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First Verbs

be there is have do go want can need think know say like speak learn understand

Conjunctions

that (as in “I think that…” or “the woman that…”) and or but because though so (meaning “therefore”; e.g. “I wanted it, so I bought it”) if

Prepositions

of to from in at (a place) at (a time) with about like (meaning “similar to”) for (warning, this one has several meanings that you need to take care of) before (also as a conjunction) after (also as a conjunction) during

Question Words

who what where when why how how much which

Adverbs

a lot a little well badly only also very too (as in “too tall”) too much so (as in “so tall”) so much more (know how to say “more … than …”) less (know how to say “less … than …”) as … as … (e.g. “as tall as”) most least better best worse worst now then here there maybe always usually often sometimes never today yesterday tomorrow soon almost already still even enough

Adjectives

the, a (technically articles) this that good bad all some no any many few most other same different enough one two a few first next last (meaning “past”, e.g. “last Friday”) last (meaning “final”) easy hard early late important interesting fun boring beautiful big small happy sad busy excited tired ready favorite new right (meaning “correct”) wrong true

Pronouns

Know them in the subject (“I”), direct object (“me”), indirect object (“to me”), and possessive (“my”) forms.

I you she he it we you (plural) they

Nouns

If your language has grammatical gender, then learn each noun as “the [noun]” with “the” in the correct gender. (e.g. in Spanish, instead of learning language = “idioma”, learn language = “el idioma”.) This will help you remember the gender.

everything something nothing everyone someone no one (name of the language you’re studying) English thing person place time (as in “a long time”) time (as in “I did it 3 times”) friend woman man money country (name of your home country) city language word food house store office company manager coworker job work (as in “I have a lot of work to do”) problem question idea life world day year week month hour mother, father, parent daughter, son, child wife, husband girlfriend, boyfriend

More Verbs

work (as in a person working) work (meaning “to function”, e.g. “the TV works”) see use should believe practice seem come leave return give take bring look for find get (meaning “obtain”) receive buy try start stop (doing something) finish continue wake up get up eat eat breakfast (in several languages, this is a verb) eat lunch eat dinner happen feel create (aka “make”) cause (aka “make”) meet (meeting someone for the first time) meet (meaning “to bump into”) meet (an arranged meeting) ask (a question) ask for (aka “request”) wonder reply mean read write listen hear remember forget choose decide be born die kill live stay change help send study improve hope care

Phrases

hello goodbye thank you you’re welcome excuse me (to get someone’s attention) sorry it’s fine (response to an apology) please yes no okay My name is What’s your name? Nice to meet you. How are you? I’m doing well, how about you? Sorry? / What? (if you didn’t hear something) How do you say ______? What does ______ mean? I don’t understand. Could you repeat that? Could you speak more slowly, please? Well (as in “well, I think…”) Really? I guess that It’s hot. (talking about the weather) It’s cold. (talking about the weather)

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Example

Here’s a demonstration of how you can express your thoughts with 300 words. I took a paragraph from a website, and rephrased it using only the 300 basic words + a few others.

Here’s the paragraph:

I have had a good run, producing more films than virtually anyone else. And I believe better films (okay, maybe I am biased, but..), and ones with more consistent returns, but damn! It is harder now to justify investment or commitment than ever before — even when the tools have improved and the talent pool grown like never before. Film, like all the culture economies, has been turned on it’s head, but unlike the others, since the work at the top still delivers a return, our leaders and corporations act like business is as it’s always been.

Here’s the rephrased version. It doesn’t sound as nice as the original, but it’s still completely understandable. I bolded the words that aren’t in the basic word list the first time that they appear. When writing or talking, you can ask for or look up those words and then keep using them.

I have done well and made more films than almost all other people. And I think that my films were better (okay, it is me saying that…) and they almost always made money. But! It is harder now than at any time before to say why you’re making films – though the things we use are better and better people want to work for us. Films, like other things that make money from culture, are not like they were before. But what’s different for films is: because the films that make the most still make a lot of money, the companies that make films work like nothing is different.

Click here to return to the basic word list or here to return to the guide homepage.