For the first 30 years of my life, I spoke only English (and barely even that according to that one cranky London cab driver when I was a kid).
“I promise I’ll learn Spanish soon,” I used to shamefully promise my Mexican mother-in-law.
My visits with my in-laws used to be filled with awkward pauses as I would wait for my husband’s attention to frantically ask him “what did they say?”
I spoke zero Spanish because I had made the mistake of choosing French in high school (but in my defense, the Spanish teacher was a random white guy who used to teach class with his guitar and that wasn’t exactly my vibe at 15).
But lo and behold…I fell in love with a Mexican whose parents only spoke Spanish.
(promptly starts kicking herself in french)
So what would any nerdy girl do in my shoes? I put my head down and I learned Spanish. 💪🏼
AND YOU KNOW WHAT I FOUND OUT? This stuff is not as hard as we think it is.
I was conversational in about 6 months, and am nearly fluent now after about 3 years.
Here’s exactly how I did it, so you can do it too.
Step 1: Create a Commonly Used Word List (psst – I already did)
To start, you have to create a list of the most commonly used words in speech. Then, you translate those words into your target language.
Guess what?
I already created that list for you! You’re welcome 😉
With these top 750 words, you will be able to follow about 80% of conversations. (!!!!)
An article on DutchReady.com says:
“According to Zipf’s Law:
- The top 50 words of a language cover approximately 25% of the vocabulary.
- The top 100 words of a language cover approximately 50% of the vocabulary.
- The top 250 words of a language cover approximately 65% of the vocabulary.
- The top 500 words of a language cover approximately 75% of the vocabulary.
- The top 750 words of a language cover approximately 80% of the vocabulary.”
Read the whole article here.
That’s significant!
Here’s the logic: you’ll hear “house” 1,000 times before you ever hear the word “chainsaw”, so forget the latter and memorize the former. You feel me? Ain’t nobody trying to waste time here.
So…drumroll please….here is The List, in alphabetical order:
(btw if you want them listed out in a Google Sheet, grab it for free)
above across after again age air airport all almost alone already also always and angry animal another answer any anyone anything anywhere apple appointment arm around at back bad bag banana bank bathroom battery beach because bed bedroom beef beer before behind best better between big bike bill bird birthday bitter black blood blue boat body book boss both bottle bottom box boy bread breakfast bridge bright bus busy but button by bye cake camera car card carefully cat center chair chance charger cheap cheese chicken child choice church city class clean clock closed clothes coat coffee cold color company computer cool correct cost country credit cup customer daily dangerous dark day desk different dinner dirty doctor dog door drawer drink dry during each ear early easy egg either empty engine enough evening every everyone everything everywhere except expensive eye face fact family fan far farm fast father fee feet few field finally fire first fish five flag floor flower food foot forest fork four free fresh friend from front fruit full game girl glass good goodbye grass green group guest habit hair half hand happy hard hardly he head health heart heater hello her here hers hi high him his home hospital hot hotel hour house how hundred hungry husband I idea if important impossible in inside instead internet into it job just key kind kitchen knife lake lamp language last late later leaf least left leg less letter library lie light like line long loud low luck lunch machine mall man many map market married maybe me meal mean meat medicine meeting member message middle milk mind mine minute mirror moment money month moon more morning most mother mountain mouth movie music my name near nearby neighbor neither never new next nice night no noise normal nose not nothing now number nurse of off office often oil okay old on once one only onto open or orange order other our ours outside over own page pain pants paper parent park partner party pay pen people person phone place plan plane plate please point police poor possible potato price probably problem question quickly quiet quite radio rain rather ready real really reason red rent restaurant rice rich right river road room rule sad safe salt same school screen sea second she shelf shirt shoes shop short sick side sign signal simple single skin sky slow slowly small smell snow so soap soft some someone something sometimes somewhere soon sorry sound soup space spoon star station step still store story strange street strong student such sugar sun sure sweet switch table taste tea teacher team ten thank you that their theirs them then there these they thing things thirsty this those thousand three through ticket time tired to accept to add to admire to agree to allow to annoy to answer to apologize to appear to arrive to ask to ask for to attack to be to be able to to begin to believe to belong to borrow to break to bring to build to buy to call to cancel to care to carry to catch to cause to change to charge to check to choose to clean to climb to close to come to compare to complain to continue to control to cook to cost to count to cross to cut to decide to defend to depend to destroy to die to disagree to disappear to disappoint to discover to do to doubt to drink to drive to drop to earn to eat to end to enjoy to enter to escape to exclude to exercise to exit to expect to explain to fall to fear to feel to find to finish to fix to fly to follow to forbid to forget to get to give to go to greet to grow to guess to happen to hate to have to hear to help to hide to hit to hold to hope to hurry to imagine to improve to include to increase to invite to join to keep to know to lead to learn to leave to lend to lie to like to listen to live to lock to look to lose to love to make to matter to mean to measure to meet to mind to miss to move to need to notice to open to order to owe to own to pack to pass to pay to plan to play to please to plug to practice to prefer to prepare to prevent to promise to protect to prove to pull to push to put to read to realize to recognize to recommend to reduce to refuse to relax to remember to remove to repair to repeat to replace to reply to respect to rest to return to ride to run to save to say to search to see to seem to sell to send to separate to serve to share to show to shrink to sit to sleep to speak to spend to stand to start to stay to stop to suggest to support to suppose to surprise to swim to take to talk to teach to tell to test to thank to think to throw to train to trust to try to turn to turn off to turn on to understand to unlock to unpack to unplug to use to visit to wait to wake to walk to want to wash to watch to win to work to worry to write today together tomato tomorrow too tool top touch toward towel town train travel tree trip truth TV twice two under until upon us usually vegetable very voice wall warm watch water way we weak weather week weekly welcome well wet what when where which while white who whole why wife wind window wine with without woman word work worker world worse wrong year yes yesterday yet you young your yours zero
Then, once you have your list and you’ve translated it into your target language, you can stuff it into your cute little brain in a couple of different ways:
💬 make flashcards in Anki (an amazing and FREE resource for us language-learners. Check out a video here)
💬 handwrite the list in a language-learning journal (for languages with genders, I usually write feminine words in pink/red like la casa and then masculine words in blue like el libro) so my brain learns the gender as I’m memorizing it.
💬 handwrite a chunk of the words at a time on a piece of paper, throw it in a sheet protector and then lug that baby around while you do chores (I’ve even taped it on the wall when I’m showering)
Bonus points for overachievers:
After getting through your 750 most common words, start adding words specific to your life.
🧘🏼♀️ Yoga girly? Learn how to say mat, block, and downward dog.
👩🏼🍳 Chef girly? Learn how to say dice, chop, and blanch.
Catch my drift? Make your language your own.
Step 2: Train Your Ears, baby
Some might argue that this should be Step 1…but I digress
Basically, there are sounds in every foreign language that we can’t easily distinguish.
For example, to a native English-speaker, the difference between “clothes” and “close” (as in “she and I are close”) is subtle but obvious. But it is not to my Portuguese step-dad, let me tell you.
So you have to find yourself a fancy thing called a “pronunciation trainer”. These tools basically allow you to hear similar sounding words and letters in your new language, repeatedly, so your brain can start to hear the audio-subtleties.
You can find them in many places on the interwebs…but my favorite is at Fluent Forever. This company was started by a polyglot opera singer who decided to learn all of the languages that he sings (impressive) and he also wrote an amazing language learning book that I 10/10 recommend. Find it here.
Many of the premade pronunciation trainers work with Anki, which is a program totally worth the 10 minute investment in learning to use it. It’s free, fast, and it works using brain science.
If you buy the one from Fluent Forever, you download it directly into Anki and can get started immediately (you don’t have to make your own flashcards). I’ve purchased them for Italian and Spanish, and think they are awesome.
Step 3: Start Speaking! (everybody’s least favorite)
Listen, one time I was at a party at a winery where there was an Italian there. I was super stoked to practice my college Italian, so I would awkwardly insert Italian sentences into our conversation (the horror 🫠).
But at one point, I said I wasn’t drinking wine because I had to drive. Except instead of saying “devo guidare” [I have to drive] I said “devo seguire” [I have to follow].
He looked at me, puzzled, until he figured it out and gently corrected me.
I promptly berated myself. How could I make such a silly error? How embarrassing! You can bet your bottom dollar that I have never forgotten how to say “to drive” in Italian again.
But here’s the hard truth: perfectionists never become bilingual. Ouch. Sorry.
The reason is simple. You have to make hundreds if not thousands of mistakes before you can speak smoothly in a conversation in your second (or third) language without the listener having to deal with your awkward pauses and – yes – your little mistakes.
You will never become fluent without speaking many, many, many, many times in broken Spanish, Italian, Arabic, or whatever language you’re learning. So hopefully you’re choosing a language where the native speakers are patient (Mexicans really are 💗)
Like I said before, I consider myself conversational bordering on being fluent in Spanish – and I recently took my daughter to the doctor in Mexico and accidentally called indigenous people homeless people because the words in Spanish are similar. That mistake would have turned my stomach before! Now? Eh, whatever, he knew it was an honest mistake.
So where can you practice speaking in a way that doesn’t feel as humiliating and vulnerable?
My warm recommendation: a setting where your listener is already primed to listen to broken speech. That way when you pause, mumble, switch back to English, and make those inevitable errors, you will not be surprising your listener.
Here are some options:
Another option is to speak to someone close to you that is a native speaker of your target language. I have been so lucky to be able to ask my husband “hey, how do you say straw again in Mexican Spanish?” and immediately have the correct answer.
But there is a problem with these lovely humans — they often can’t explain language rules. “Babe, why did you conjugate the verb in that way?” “…I dunno, it just sounds right.” 😑 So take their advice in tandem with the professionals who specialize in helping us language newbies.
Wrapping it Up – You’ve Got This, Girly!!
Language learning has been massively overcomplicated by high school teachers, bigass textbooks, and Duolingo (sorry).
In summary, if you can do three simple things— learn your common words, play with language sounds, and then practice through speaking— you will be conversational within a few months.
Language learning is one of my favorite hobbies. I have a big dream to be a polyglot one day, and I am well on my way to raising trilingual children.
When you learn a new language, you open up your horizons to new opportunities, thousands of new friendships, new travel destinations, and much more.
You will never regret putting yourself out there and learning to speak another language.
Good luck, and let me know how it goes!
xx Bri