Start A1 Spanish with a few greetings and polite phrases, then put useful verbs to work in short sentences. Vocabcord's 625-entry A1 corpus assigns 111 entries to plain action verbs like trabajar (work), comprar (buy), and dormir (sleep), nearly double the next-biggest category, descriptive adjectives at 58. Greetings account for 12 entries. Those counts describe the list we built; they do not establish a universal teaching order. Our recommendation is to learn enough to open a conversation, then learn the verbs and other words for what you want to say next.
Verbs outnumber greetings nine to one
Open most beginner Spanish material and the first page is greetings and pleasantries. Vocabcord's A1 corpus, part of the 33,233-phrase corpus, grades 625 Spanish phrases across 29 topic categories, and gives action verbs plenty of space. Action verbs alone account for 111 of those 625 phrases, the single biggest category by a wide margin, while greetings hold 12. That is a ratio of more than nine to one. That says how many entries we have in each category, not how often each word is used. A greeting can be useful immediately even though the list has fewer of them.
The A1 word count, by category
| Category | Phrases at A1 | What it buys you |
|---|---|---|
| Verbs (actions) | 111 | Work, sleep, buy, arrive, help, wake up |
| Adjectives (qualities) | 58 | Good, big, new, old, young, nice |
| Numbers | 45 | Counting, prices, ages, times |
| Food | 41 | Meals, drinks, ordering, shopping |
| Places | 40 | Home, street, city, shop, station |
| Objects | 40 | Door, table, phone, key, bag |
| Everything else (23 categories) | 290 | Time, family, greetings, weather, and more |
Add the top two rows and verbs plus adjectives already cover 169 of the 625 A1 phrases, more than a quarter of the level, before a single noun for a person, a place, or a thing gets counted. The categories that feel like the obvious starting point, greetings (12), polite phrases (10), and family (20), come to 42 phrases combined, well under half of the verb count alone.
14 of the verbs that carry A1, with audio
These are ordinary, physical verbs: things you do with your day rather than things you say to be polite. Every row has audio, so tap the play button and hear the verb before you try to say it.
| Spanish | English | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| despertarse | wake up | I wake up at six. |
| levantarse | get up | Time to get up. |
| trabajar | work | I work in an office. |
| estudiar | study | I study English. |
| comprar | buy | I want to buy bread. |
| pagar | pay | I will pay later. |
| cocinar | cook | He cooks Italian food. |
| limpiar | clean | Clean your room. |
| jugar | play | Children play in the park. |
| ayudar | help | Can you help me? |
| llegar | arrive | When did you arrive? |
| volver | return | I'll return tomorrow. |
| dormir | sleep | I sleep eight hours. |
| gustar | like | I like ice cream. |
None of these fourteen need a subjunctive or a second clause to be useful. Trabajo en una oficina (I work in an office) and vuelvo mañana (I'll return tomorrow) are already complete, ordinary sentences. The verb endings identify the speaker; you do not need to add yo. Learn the form in the sentence alongside the infinitive in the table.
Adjectives and numbers: the next two categories
The 58 A1 adjectives are almost all everyday qualities rather than technical terms: bueno (good), malo (bad), grande (big), pequeño (small), nuevo (new), viejo (old), joven (young), agradable (nice). Choose an adjective that fits what you mean and match its ending to the noun: trabajo en una oficina pequeña, I work in a small office.
Numbers are the third-largest category at 45 entries. Prices, ages, phone numbers and times give you plenty of reasons to learn some early; your first conversation may need a place name or an object just as urgently. Counting itself is covered in how to count in Spanish, and the rules for building numbers all the way to 1,000 are their own guide.
The phrasebook categories are smaller than they feel
Greetings, polite phrases, and family words feel like the natural place to start because they are the words a phrasebook leads with, and because a first conversation usually opens with hello and a name. Their small share of our list is no reason to postpone them: greetings (12), polite phrases (10), and family (20) add up to 42 phrases, well under half of the 111 verbs alone, and close to the 41 phrases food gets on its own. Learn the greetings, then move on to what you want to talk about. Verbs deserve attention early because they let you describe actions. The category sizes show the material available here; they cannot tell us the best lesson order for every learner.
A realistic order to work through A1
A working order we recommend looks like this: the handful of greetings and polite phrases first, since they cost little and get used immediately, then the verbs, since a dozen of them (work, sleep, buy, help, arrive, return) help you describe parts of your day once you learn their forms and the words that go with them. Numbers and a few adjectives round out the sentences those verbs build. Add food, places, objects and family words as you need them. There is no reason to finish the verb category before learning the noun you need tomorrow. That habit continues past A1: at A2 abstract nouns become the biggest single category, and by B1 reasoning verbs take over from the plain action verbs learned here. The reasoning behind ranking by frequency instead of by topic or the alphabet is on the methodology page.
Vocabcord gives those words another place in your day. After setup, plugging in your phone plays a phrase from your selected pack, subject to the phone's background restrictions. The app favours entries you have not heard recently; it does not test your recall or know when a word is about to fade. Choose A1 Spanish to hear words such as trabajar and volver again. Set up charger playback, or get Vocabcord on the App Store.
Common questions
Which Spanish words should you learn first at A1?
Start with a few greetings and polite phrases, then learn useful verbs in short sentences alongside the nouns you need. In our 625-entry A1 Spanish corpus, action verbs form the largest single category at 111 entries, ahead of adjectives (58) and greetings (12). That is a description of our list, not proof that verbs must come first.
What vocabulary do you need for A1 Spanish?
Learn familiar words and expressions for introductions, personal details and everyday needs. The CEFR describes A1 through what a learner can do. Our A1 Spanish tier contains 625 entries across 29 categories, including verbs (111), adjectives (58), numbers (45), food (41), places (40) and objects (40). These are our curriculum counts, not an official A1 word requirement.
Is A1 Spanish mostly verbs or nouns?
Action verbs are the largest single topic category in our A1 list, with 111 entries. That does not mean verbs outnumber nouns overall: nouns are spread across categories such as food (41), places (40) and objects (40), which together already exceed the verb-category count. A topic breakdown is not a complete part-of-speech count.
How many words do you need to know for A1 Spanish?
There is no word count on this page that certifies A1 ability. Vocabcord's A1 Spanish corpus contains 625 entries; the CEFR level describes what you can understand and communicate. Verbs and adjectives account for 169 entries in our list, but knowing those entries alone would not establish the level.
What comes after A1 Spanish?
A2, where abstract nouns like razón and resultado become the level's biggest single category, followed by B1, where reasoning verbs take over from the plain action verbs learned at A1. See which words to learn first at A2.
