Georgina Smith
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The Essential English Vocabulary List: 300 Common English Nouns, Verbs and More
The more vocabulary you know, the better you will understand English.
Some words are used much more frequently than others—so, it’s important to start with the basics. This way, you will be able to understand a range of situations and types of media in English.
Here are 300 of the most common English words that you’re sure to notice on TV, in exams and in daily conversation. From nouns and adjectives, to verbs and prepositions, this list has some of the most essential vocabulary you’ll need!
Contents
- Common English Nouns
- Common English Verbs
- Common English Adjectives
- More Common English Words
- And One More Thing...
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Common English Nouns
Nouns refer to things such as people, places, objects and ideas. Knowing lots of nouns will help you improve how much English you can understand. Here are some of the most useful English nouns to know:
- Animal
- Apple
- Art
- Baseball
- Beach
- Bed
- Book
- Brother
- Business
- Camera
- Car
- Case
- Chair
- Child
- City
- Color
- Company
- Country
- Day
- Doctor
- Door
- Education
- Environment
- Event
- Fact
- Family
- Father
- Food
- Football
- Friend
- Game
- Government
- Group
- Hand
- Home
- Hospital
- House
- Idea
- Industry
- Information
- Internet
- Job
- Language
- Law
- Life
- Light
- Love
- Man
- Market
- Medicine
- Moon
- Mother
- Mountain
- Movie
- Music
- Name
- Nature
- Newspaper
- Ocean
- Part
- Peace
- People
- Picture
- Place
- Plant
- Player
- Point
- Power
- Price
- Problem
- Product
- Program
- Project
- Question
- Room
- Science
- School
- Sister
- Solution
- Song
- Sport
- Star
- Student
- Sunset
- System
- Table
- Teacher
- Technology
- Television
- Tennis
- Time
- Tree
- Water
- Week
- Window
- Woman
- Work
- World
- Year
- Zoo
Learn more about how to use English nouns here.
Common English Verbs
Verbs are ‘action words’ such as “walk” or “speak.” They also describe states, for example, your opinions or perceptions. Most sentences have verbs, so it’s important to learn the key ones. Here are some useful English verbs you should know:
- Add
- Allow
- Ask
- Become
- Begin
- Believe
- Break
- Bring
- Build
- Buy
- Call
- Can
- Carry
- Change
- Come
- Consider
- Continue
- Create
- Develop
- Die
- Do
- Drive
- Expect
- Fall
- Feel
- Find
- Fly
- Follow
- Forget
- Get
- Get up
- Give
- Go
- Grow
- Happen
- Have
- Hear
- Help
- Include
- Join
- Keep
- Know
- Lead
- Learn
- Leave
- Let
- Look
- Lose
- Love
- Make
- Meet
- Mean
- Move
- Need
- Offer
- Open
- Pay
- Play
- Provide
- Put
- Read
- Reach
- Remember
- Return
- Run
- Say
- See
- Sell
- Send
- Serve
- Set
- Show
- Sit
- Sleep
- Speak
- Spend
- Stand
- Start
- Stop
- Study
- Swim
- Take
- Talk
- Tell
- Think
- Try
- Turn
- Understand
- Use
- Value
- Want
- Wash
- Wait
- Walk
- Watch
- Win
- Wish
- Work
- Write
Learn all about how to conjugate English verbs here.
Common English Adjectives
Adjectives are used to describe nouns. They explain what objects, people or places are like, and help add detail to your sentences. Here are some important adjectives in English:
- Beautiful
- Brave
- Bright
- Busy
- Clean
- Cold
- Cool
- Dark
- Easy
- Fast
- Fat
- Few
- Fine
- Free
- Full
- Funny
- Good
- Great
- Happy
- Hard
- Heavy
- High
- Hot
- Huge
- Important
- Kind
- Large
- Late
- Light
- Little
- Long
- Loud
- Low
- New
- Nice
- Old
- Open
- Poor
- Quick
- Quiet
- Rich
- Sad
- Short
- Slow
- Small
- Strong
- Tall
- Warm
- Weak
- Young
Learn more about English adjectives and their placement in sentences here.
More Common English Words
There’s more to English sentences than just nouns, adjectives and verbs. You can also use prepositions (words that explain something’s relationship to time, place, etc.) conjunctions (words that connect phrases) and other terms. Here are some more common words in English that may be useful to you:
- About
- Above
- Across
- After
- Against
- Along
- Among
- Around
- As
- At
- Before
- Behind
- Below
- Beneath
- Beside
- Between
- Beyond
- But
- By
- Despite
- Down
- During
- Except
- For
- From
- In
- Inside
- Into
- Like
- Near
- Next
- Of
- Off
- On
- Onto
- Out
- Outside
- Over
- Past
- Round
- Since
- Through
- Throughout
- Till
- To
- Toward
- Under
- Underneath
- Until
- With
Learn more about how to study English prepositions here.
So, now you know 300 of the most common English words! You can learn even more terms by checking out these methods here, and review them by using flashcards.
You could also try using language learning program FluentU to see these terms used in context.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
Then, you could try putting them into practice with a conversation partner on a platform like italki or Skype.
If you stick to learning new English words consistently, your listening, reading, writing and speaking skills will improve in no time!
And One More Thing...
If you like learning English through movies and online media, you should also check out FluentU. FluentU lets you learn English from popular talk shows, catchy music videos and funny commercials, as you can see here:
If you want to watch it, the FluentU app has probably got it.
The FluentU app and website makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and useful examples.
FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.
For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you see this:
FluentU lets you tap to look up any word.
Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.
The best part? FluentU remembers the vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a truly personalized experience.
Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
