Frequency Lists

Esperanto vocabulary frequency lists — the most common roots ranked by frequency of use.

About Frequency Lists

Frequency lists rank Esperanto roots by how often they appear in authentic text (books, articles, websites, spoken transcripts). Learning the most frequent roots first is the single most efficient vocabulary strategy.

Key insight: In most languages, the top 300 words cover ~65% of text, and the top 1,000 cover ~85%. Esperanto's word-building system makes frequency lists even more powerful — learning a top-100 root often gives you 10+ usable words.

Top 100 Most Frequent Roots

The following 100 roots form the absolute core of everyday Esperanto. Any learner should know these before anything else.

# Root Core Meaning Key Derivations
1 estas/esti to be estis, estos, estu, estado
2 la the (article — invariable)
3 kaj and (conjunction)
4 mi I, me mia (my), min (acc.)
5 vi you via (your), vin (acc.)
6 li he lia (his), lin (acc.)
7 ŝi she ŝia (her), ŝin (acc.)
8 ni we nia (our), nin (acc.)
9 ili they ilia (their), ilin (acc.)
10 en in (preposition)
11 de of, from, by (preposition)
12 al to, toward (preposition)
13 ne not, no (negation)
14 ke that (conj.) (subordinating conjunction)
15 sed but (conjunction)
16 por for (preposition)
17 kun with (preposition)
18 el out of, from (preposition)
19 sur on (preposition)
20 ĉu whether, Q-marker (yes/no question)
21 tio that, it tiom, tia, tiel, tiam
22 kio what kiom, kia, kiel, kiam
23 ili they ilia, ilin
24 hav- to have havas, havis, havos, havo
25 far- to do/make faras, faris, faros, faro
26 ir- to go iras, iris, iros, iro
27 vid- to see vidas, vidis, vidos, vido
28 dir- to say diras, diris, diros, diro
29 pov- to be able povas, povis, povos
30 vol- to want volas, volis, volos
31 sci- to know (fact) scias, sciis, scios, scio
32 veni to come venas, venis, venos
33 iri to go (see ir-)
34 doni to give donas, donis, donos, dono
35 trov- to find trovas, trovis, trovos
36 pren- to take prenas, prenis, prenos
37 paroli to speak parolas, parolis, parolos
38 lern- to learn lernas, lernis, lernos
39 kred- to believe kredas, kredis, kredos
40 pens- to think pensas, pensis, pensos
41 viv- to live vivas, vivis, vivos, vivo
42 mort- to die mortas, mortis, mortos
43 labor- to work laboras, laboris, laboro
44 vojaĝ- to travel vojaĝas, vojaĝo
45 manĝ- to eat manĝas, manĝo, manĝaĵo
46 trinki to drink trinkas, trinkis, trinko
47 ami to love amas, amis, amo, amiko
48 scii to know (fact) (see sci-)
49 koni to know (person) konas, konis, kono
50 hom- person, human homo, homoj, homaro
51 bon- good bona, bone, boneco
52 grand- big, great granda, grande, grandeco
53 nova new nova, nove, noveco
54 mult- many, much multa, multe, multaj
55 mal- (prefix: opposite) (see affixes)
56 temp- time tempo, tempa
57 lok- place, put loko, loka, loki
58 voj- road, way vojo, vojoj
59 lern- (see above) lernejo, lernisto
60 mondo world monda, mondano
61 land- country lando, landa
62 urb- city urbo, urba, urbano
63 dom- house domo, doma
64 fam- family familio, familia
65 patr- father patro, patrino (mother)
66 infan- child infano, infanoj
67 amik- friend amiko, amikino, amikeco
68 nom- name nomo, noma, nomi
69 tag- day tago, taga, tagaj
70 nokt- night nokto, nokta
71 jaro year jaro, jara, jaroj
72 maten- morning mateno, matena
73 vesper- evening vespero, vespera
74 akv- water akvo, akva
75 pan- bread pano, pana
76 mon- money mono, mona
77 libr- book libro, libroj
78 lingv- language lingvo, lingva
79 demand- to ask/question demandas, demando
80 respond- to answer respondas, respondo
81 help- to help helpas, helpis, helpo
82 kompren- to understand komprenas, kompreno
83 ŝat- to like/appreciate ŝatas, ŝatis, ŝato
84 pret- ready preta, preti, pretigi
85 antaŭ before, in front of antaŭa, antaŭe
86 post after, behind posta, poste
87 pri about, concerning (preposition)
88 tra through (preposition)
89 hodiaŭ today (adverb)
90 morgaŭ tomorrow (adverb)
91 hieraŭ yesterday (adverb)
92 nun now (adverb)
93 jam already (adverb)
94 ankoraŭ still, yet (adverb)
95 baldaŭ soon (adverb)
96 ĉiam always (correlative)
97 neniam never (correlative)
98 iam once, ever, sometimes (correlative)
99 ĉiu everyone, each ĉiuj, ĉiun
100 neniu nobody neniuj, neniun

Top 500 Overview

After mastering the top 100, the next 400 roots cover:

  • All major concrete nouns (furniture, food, clothing, body parts, nature)
  • Common abstract nouns (feeling, time, space, thought)
  • Productive verb roots (move, change, speak, work, create)
  • Core adjectives (colors, sizes, qualities)
  • Numbers (unu through mil, plus ordinals and fractions)

Recommended decks for top 500:

  • esperanto.cards Anki deck — well-organized with audio
  • Duolingo Esperanto course completion = approximately top 400

Top 3000 Overview

The top 3,000 roots represent B2+ mastery. Coverage includes:

  • Technical vocabulary (science, technology, medicine, law)
  • Abstract and philosophical concepts
  • Literary and cultural vocabulary
  • Regional and specialized terms

Recommended resource: The "6000 Most Frequent Esperanto Words" Anki deck (available on AnkiWeb) covers the top 3000 and beyond, with sentences from Tatoeba.

Note on Frequency Counting

Note: frequency lists for Esperanto are counted from different corpora (literary texts, Vikipedio, forum posts, etc.) and may differ between sources. The roots listed above reflect consensus across major frequency analyses.

Frequency files (top100.md, top500.md, top3000.md) in this directory are generated by CLI tools and contain the full tabular data.