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
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Common English Nouns
Nouns refer to things such as people, animals and places. 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 in authentic English video clips with interactive subtitles. 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!
