Vocabulary / Portuguese
The 1,000 most common Portuguese words
These are the 1,000 words you will meet most often in Portuguese, in frequency order, each with its most common English meaning. A small core of words does most of the work in everyday speech, so learning them in this order gets you understanding real Portuguese faster than any themed list.
Like Spanish, Portuguese splits to be between ser and estar, and both arrive at the very top of the list. The pair is a grammar lesson rather than two vocabulary items. The list hands you the words; the distinction takes a little longer.
Written Portuguese will look familiar if you know any Spanish, French or Italian, but the sound is its own world: nasal vowels, swallowed endings, and words that shrink in speech. Pair the list with listening early, or the written forms will set you up to miss the spoken ones.
Portuguese spans Brazil and Portugal, and a frequency list smooths over the differences in pronunciation and everyday word choice. The core here serves both; just expect tu and você to trade places depending on where you land.
| # | Portuguese | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | serˈse(ʁ) | to be |
| 2 | irˈi(ʁ) | to go |
| 3 | terˈte(ʁ) | to have |
| 4 | estarisˈta(ʁ) | to be |
| 5 | fazerfɐˈzɐ(ɾ) | do |
| 6 | sabersɐˈbe(ɹ) | to know |
| 7 | dizerd͡ʒiˈze(ɹ) | say |
| 8 | bemˈbɛ̃ | well |
| 9 | quererkiˈɾe(ɹ) | want |
| 10 | poderpoˈde(ʁ) | can |
| 11 | maisˈmajs | more |
| 12 | muitoˈmũj̃.tu | very |
| 13 | haveraˈve(ʁ) | to have |
| 14 | verˈve(ʁ) | to see |
| 15 | coisaˈkoj.zɐ | thing |
| 16 | bomˈbõ | good |
| 17 | sóˈsɔ | alone |
| 18 | tudoˈtyd | everything |
| 19 | acharɐˈʃa(ɹ) | to think |
| 20 | agoraaˈɡɔ.ɾɐ | now |
| 21 | ficarfiˈka(ʁ) | stay |
| 22 | falarfɐˈla(ɹ) | to speak |
| 23 | todoˈto.du | all |
| 24 | pensarpẽˈsa(ʁ) | think |
| 25 | virˈvi(ʁ) | come |
| 26 | nadaˈna.dɐ | nothing |
| 27 | deixardi(j)ˈʃa(ɹ) | leave |
| 28 | vezˈve(j)s | time |
| 29 | darˈda(ʁ) | give |
| 30 | mesmoˈmez.mu | same |
| 31 | casaˈka.zɐ | house |
| 32 | diaˈd͡ʒi.ɐ | day |
| 33 | tempoˈtẽ.pu | time |
| 34 | gostarɡusˈta(ɹ) | like |
| 35 | assimaˈsĩ | thus |
| 36 | parecerpa.ɾeˈse(ʁ) | seem |
| 37 | homemˈõ.mẽj̃ | man |
| 38 | anoˈɐ.nʷ | year |
| 39 | passarpaˈsa(ʁ) | pass |
| 40 | pessoapeˈso(w).ɐ | person |
| 41 | paiˈpaj | father |
| 42 | certoˈsɛʁ.tu | certain |
| 43 | encontrarẽ.kõˈtɾa(ʁ) | find |
| 44 | conseguirkõ.sɛˈɡi(h) | to manage |
| 45 | noiteˈnojt͡ʃ | night |
| 46 | melhormeˈʎɔʁ | better |
| 47 | mãeˈmɐ̃j̃ | mother |
| 48 | olharuˈja(ɹ) | look |
| 49 | acontecera.kõ.tɛˈse(h) | happen |
| 50 | vidaˈvi.dɐ | life |
| 51 | chegarʃeˈɡa(ʁ) | arrive |
| 52 | tentartẽˈta(ʁ) | try |
| 53 | andarɐ̃ˈda(ʁ) | walk |
| 54 | ouvirøˈvi(ɾ) | hear |
| 55 | precisarpɾi.siˈza(ɹ) | need |
| 56 | sentirsẽˈt͡ʃi(ʁ) | feel |
| 57 | sairsaˈi(ʁ) | leave |
| 58 | levarliˈva(ɹ) | take |
| 59 | matarmaˈta(ʁ) | kill |
| 60 | tipoˈt͡ʃi.pʷ | type |
| 61 | novoˈnwɐ.βu | new |
| 62 | voltarvowˈta(ʁ) | return |
| 63 | senhorsẽˈɲoʁ | mister |
| 64 | conhecerko.ɲɛˈse(h) | to know |
| 65 | acabara.kaˈba(ʁ) | finish |
| 66 | algoˈaw.ɡu | something |
| 67 | ajudara.ʒuˈda(ʁ) | help |
| 68 | amigoɐˈmi.ɡʷ | friend |
| 69 | claroˈkla.ɾu | clear |
| 70 | precisopɾeˈsi.zu | necessary |
| 71 | verdadeveʁˈda.d͡ʒi | truth |
| 72 | primeiropɾiˈme(j).ɾu | first |
| 73 | mulhermuˈjɛɹ | woman |
| 74 | antesˈɐ̃.t͡ʃis | before |
| 75 | grandeˈɡɾɐ̃.d͡ʒi | big |
| 76 | filhoˈfij(ʷ) | son |
| 77 | esperaris.peˈɾa(ʁ) | hope |
| 78 | morrermoˈʁe(ʁ) | die |
| 79 | trabalhotɾaˈba.ʎu | work |
| 80 | apenasaˈpẽ.nɐs | only |
| 81 | horaˈɔ.ɾɐ | hour |
| 82 | poucoˈpo(w).ku | little |
| 83 | esperaisˈpɛ.ɾɐ | wait |
| 84 | problemapɾoˈblẽ.mɐ | problem |
| 85 | começarko.meˈsa(ʁ) | start |
| 86 | pararpaˈɾa(ʁ) | stop |
| 87 | acreditara.kɾe.d͡ʒiˈta(ʁ) | believe |
| 88 | chamarʃaˈma(ʁ) | call |
| 89 | dinheirod͡ʒiˈɲe.ɾʷ | money |
| 90 | desculpadesˈkuw.pɐ | excuse |
| 91 | entrarẽˈtɾa(ʁ) | enter |
| 92 | pedirpeˈd͡ʒi(ʁ) | to ask |
| 93 | nomeˈno.mʲ | name |
| 94 | deverdeˈve(ʁ) | must |
| 95 | sérioˈsɛ.ɾju | serious |
| 96 | lembrarlĩˈbɾa(ɹ) | remember |
| 97 | hojeˈo.ʒi | today |
| 98 | trabalhartɾɐ.bɐˈja(ɹ) | work |
| 99 | voltaˈvɔw.tɐ | return |
| 100 | certezaseʁˈte.zɐ | certainty |
This page is the short version. The full list has 5,000 Portuguese words.
See all 5,000Sources and licences
The ranking is ours, built from the frequency data below and published under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Two things worth knowing before you read it. The list holds content words - nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs - so the function words that top any raw frequency count are not in it: no the, of, and, and no pronouns. And each entry gives one everyday meaning, written to be the one you are most likely to need, not the word's full range of senses.
To cite this resource: linguafolks. The most common Portuguese words. www.linguafolks.com/articles/most-common-words/pt. Teachers and institutions are welcome to use, print or adapt the lists in coursework with attribution and a link.
- FrequencyWords, over OpenSubtitles 2018
Word frequency counted across film and television subtitles, via OPUS. Generator MIT (Hermit Dave); corpus OpenSubtitles 2018 via OPUS.
P. Lison, J. Tiedemann & M. Kouylekov (2018). OpenSubtitles2018: Statistical Rescoring of Sentence Alignments in Large Corpora. LREC 2018.
- Wiktionary
Pronunciation (IPA), where an entry has one - coverage is partial, and a word without one shows none. CC BY-SA and GFDL, dual-licensed.
Obtained in machine-readable form from kaikki.org. Tatu Ylonen (2022). Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data. LREC 2022, pp. 1317-1325.
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