Below are two estimates of the most common words in Modern Spanish. Each estimate comes from an analysis of a different text corpus. A text corpus is a large collection of samples of written and/or spoken language, that has been carefully prepared for linguistic analysis. To determine which words are the most common, researchers create a database of all the words found in the corpus, and categorized them based on the context in which they are used.

The first table lists the 100 most common word forms from the Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual (CREA), a text corpus compiled by the Real Academia Española (RAE). The RAE is Spain's official institution for documenting, planning, and standardising the Spanish language. A word form is any of the grammatical variations of a word.

The second table is a list of 100 most common lemmas found in a text corpus compiled by Mark Davies and other language researchers at Brigham Young University in the United States. A lemma is the primary form of a word—the one that would appear in a dictionary. The Spanish infinitive tener ("to have") is a lemma, while tiene ("has")—which is a conjugation of tener—is a word form.

Real Academia Española The list below comes from "1000 formas más frecuentes" ()", a list published by the Real Academia Española (RAE) from analysis of more than 160 million word forms found in the Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual (), or CREA. CREA is a computerised corpus of texts written in Spanish, and of transcripts of spoken Spanish. It includes books, magazines, and newspapers with a wide variety of content, as well as transcripts of spoken language from radio and television broadcasts and other sources. All the works in the collection are from 1975 to 2004. CREA includes samples from all Spanish-speaking countries.

The list of "2000 most frequent word forms" comes from an analysis of CREA version 3.2. Plurals, verb conjugations, and other inflections are ranked separately. Homonyms, however, are not distinguished from one another. CREA 3.2 was published in June 2008.

+ Most frequent word forms out of ~160 million words(RAE 2008) Rank Word form Occurrences Part of speech Translation 1 de 9,999,518 preposition of; from 2 la 6,277,560 article, pronoun the; third person feminine singular pronoun 3 que 4,681,839 conjunction that, which 4 el 4,569,652 article the 5 en 4,234,281 preposition in, on 6 y 4,180,279 conjunction and 7 a 3,260,939 preposition to, at 8 los 2,618,657 article, pronoun the; third person masculine direct object 9 se 2,022,514 pronoun -self, oneself (reflexive) 10 del 1,857,225 contraction from the 11 las 1,686,741 article, pronoun the; third person feminine direct object 12 un 1,659,827 article a, an 13 por 1,561,904 preposition by, for, through 14 con 1,481,607 preposition with 15 no 1,465,503 adverb no; not 16 una 1,347,603 article a, an, one 17 su 1,103,617 possessive his/her/its/your 18 para 1,062,152 preposition for, to, in order to 19 es 1,019,669 verb is 20 al 951,054 contraction to the 21 lo 866,955 article, pronoun the; third person masculine direct object 22 como 773,465 conjunction like, as 23 más 661,696 adjective more 24 o 542,284 conjunction or 25 pero 450,512 conjunction but 26 sus 449,870 possessive his/her/its/your 27 le 413,241 pronoun third person indirect object 28 ha 380,339 verb he/she/it has [done something]; you (formal) have [done something] 29 me 374,368 pronoun me 30 si 327,480 conjunction if, whether 31 sin 298,383 preposition without 32 sobre 289,704 preposition on top of, over, about 33 este 285,461 adjective this 34 ya 274,177 adverb already; still 35 entre 267,493 preposition between 36 cuando 257,272 conjunction when 37 todo 247,340 adjective all, every 38 esta 238,841 adjective this 39 ser 232,924 verb to be 40 son 232,415 verb they are, you (pl.) are 41 dos 228,439 number two 42 también 227,411 adverb too, also, as well 43 fue 223,791 verb was 44 había 223,430 verb I/he/she/it/there was (or used to be) 45 era 219,933 verb was 46 muy 208,540 adverb very 47 años 203,027 noun years 48 hasta 202,935 preposition until 49 desde 198,647 preposition from; since 50 está 194,168 verb is 51 mi 186,360 possessive my 52 porque 185,700 conjunction because 53 qué 184,956 pronoun what?; which?; how adjective 54 sólo 170,552 adverb only, solely 55 han 169,718 verb they/you (pl.) have [done something] 56 yo 167,684 pronoun I 57 hay 164,940 verb there is/are 58 vez 163,538 noun time, instance 59 puede 161,219 verb can 60 todos 158,168 adjective all; every 61 así 155,645 adverb like that 62 nos 154,412 pronoun us 63 ni 153,451 conjunction, adverb neither; nor; no even 64 parte 148,750 noun part; message 65 tiene 147,274 verb has 66 él 139,080 pronoun he, it 67 uno 136,020 number one 68 donde 132,077 preposition where 69 bien 130,957 adjective fine, well 70 tiempo 130,896 noun time; weather 71 mismo 130,746 adjective same 72 ese 127,976 pronoun that 73 ahora 125,661 adverb now 74 cada 124,558 determiner each; every 75 e 123,729 conjunction and 76 vida 123,491 noun life 77 otro 121,983 adjective other, another 78 después 121,746 preposition after 79 te 120,052 pronoun to you, for you; yourself 80 otros 119,500 pronoun others 81 aunque 115,556 conjunction though, although, even though 82 esa 115,377 adjective that 83 eso 114,523 pronoun that 84 hace 114,507 verb he/she/it does/makes 85 otra 113,982 adjective, pronoun other; another 86 gobierno 113,011 noun government 87 tan 112,471 adverb so 88 durante 112,020 preposition during 89 siempre 111,557 adverb always 90 día 110,921 noun day 91 tanto 110,679 adjective, adverb so much 92 ella 110,620 pronoun she, her; it 93 tres 109,542 number three 94 sí 108,631 noun, pronoun yes, if; reflexive pronoun 95 dijo 108,471 verb said; told 96 sido 107,352 past participle been 97 gran 106,991 adjective large, great, big 98 país 104,568 noun country 99 según 104,204 preposition as; according to 100 menos 103,498 adjective less; fewer

Mark Davies

In 2006, Mark Davies, an associate professor of linguistics at Brigham Young University, published his estimate of the 5000 most common words in Modern Spanish. To make this list, he compiled samples only from 20th-century sources—especially from the years 1970 to 2000. Most of the sources are from the 1990s. Of the 20 million words in the corpus, about one-third (~6,750,000 words) come from transcripts of spoken Spanish: conversations, interviews, lectures, sermons, press conferences, sports broadcasts, and so on. Among the written sources are novels, plays, short stories, letters, essays, newspapers, and the encyclopedia Encarta. The samples, written and spoken, come from Spain and at least 10 Latin American countries. Most of the samples were previously compiled for the Corpus del Español (2001), a 100 million-word corpus that includes works from the 13th century through the 20th.Davies (2006), p. 2–3

The 5000 words in Davies' list are lemmas.Davies (2006), pp. 4–6 A lemma is the form of the word as it would appear in a dictionary.Davies (2006), p. 4 Singular nouns and plurals, for example, are treated as the same word, as are infinitives and verb conjugations. The table below includes the top 100 words from Davies' list of 5000.Davies (2006), pp. 12–14 This list distinguishes between the definite articles lo and la and the pronouns lo and la; all are ranked individually. The adjectives ese and esa are ranked together (as are este and esta) ), but the pronoun eso is separate. All conjugations of a verb are ranked together.

A highlighted row indicates that the word was found to occur especially frequently in samples of spoken Spanish.Davies (2006), p. 9

+ Most frequent lemmas out of ~20 million words(Davies 2006) Rank Lemma Occurrences Part of speech Translation 1 el / la 2,037,803 article the 2 de 1,319,834 preposition of, from 3 que 662,653 conjunction that, which 4 y 562,162 conjunction and 5 a 529,899 preposition to, at 6 en 507,233 preposition in, on 7 un 434,022 article a, an 8 ser 374,194 verb to be 9 se 329,012 pronoun -self, oneself (reflexive) 10 no 257,365 adverb no 11 haber 196,962 verb to have 12 por 190,975 preposition by, for, through 13 con 184,597 preposition with 14 su 187,810 adjective his, her, their, your 15 para 126,061 preposition for, to, in order to 16 como 106,840 conjunction like, as 17 estar 106,429 verb to be 18 tener 106,642 verb to have 19 le 98,211 pronoun third person indirect object 20 lo 91,035 article the 21 lo 92,519 pronoun third person masculine direct object 22 todo 88,057 adjective all, every 23 pero 82,435 conjunction but, yet, except 24 más 92,352 adjective more 25 hacer 81,619 verb to do; to make 26 o 82,444 conjunction or 27 poder 76,738 verb to be able to, can 28 decir 79,343 verb to tell, say 29 este / esta 80,544 adjective this 30 ir 70,352 verb to go 31 otro 61,726 adjective other, another 32 ese / esa 60,989 adjective that 33 la 55,523 pronoun third person feminine direct object 34 si 53,608 conjunction if, whether 35 me 95,577 pronoun me 36 ya 46,778 adverb already, still 37 ver 45,854 verb to see 38 porque 44,500 conjunction because 39 dar 40,233 verb to give 40 cuando 39,726 conjunction when 41 él 38,597 pronoun he 42 muy 39,558 adverb very, really 43 sin 40,432 preposition without 44 vez 35,286 noun time, occurrence 45 mucho 36,391 adjective much, many, a lot 46 saber 37,092 verb to know 47 qué 42,000 pronoun what?; which?; how adjective 48 sobre 35,038 preposition on top of, over, about 49 mi 45,636 adjective my 50 alguno 30,485 adjective / pronoun some; someone 51 mismo 29,569 adjective same 52 yo 54,635 pronoun I 53 también 33,348 adverb also 54 hasta 29,506 preposition / adverb until, up to; even 55 año 33,053 noun year 56 dos 27,733 number two 57 querer 28,696 verb to want, love 58 entre 30,756 preposition between 59 así 24,832 adverb like that 60 primero 26,553 adjective first 61 desde 25,288 preposition from, since 62 grande 25,963 adjective large, great, big 63 eso 31,636 pronoun that 64 ni 24,261 conjunction not even, neither, nor 65 nos 26,349 pronoun us 66 llegar 22,878 verb to arrive 67 pasar 22,466 verb to pass; to happen; to spend time 68 tiempo 22,432 noun time, weather 69 ella(s) 24,770 pronoun she; (plural) them 70 sí 33,828 adverb yes 71 día 24,715 noun day 72 uno 21,407 number one 73 bien 21,589 adverb well 74 poco 20,986 adjective / adverb little, few; a little bit 75 deber 22,232 verb should, ought to; to owe 76 entonces 23,548 adverb so, then 77 poner 20,330 verb to put (on); to get [adjective] 78 cosa 23,943 noun thing 79 tanto 20,531 adjective much 80 hombre 20,292 noun man, mankind, husband 81 parecer 19,964 verb to seem, to look like 82 nuestro 20,666 adjective our 83 tan 19,002 adverb such, a, too, so 84 donde 18,852 conjunction where 85 ahora 21,030 adverb now 86 parte 20,319 noun part, portion 87 después 20,229 adverb after 88 vida 18,045 noun life 89 quedar 18,152 verb to remain, to stay 90 siempre 17,689 adverb always 91 creer 21,257 verb to believe 92 hablar 19,006 verb to speak, to talk 93 llevar 17,062 verb to take, to carry 94 dejar 18,185 verb to let, to leave 95 nada 19,365 pronoun nothing 96 cada 17,155 adjective each, every 97 seguir 16,104 verb to follow 98 menos 15,527 adjective less, fewer 99 nuevo 17,381 adjective new 100 encontrar 15,556 verb to find

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