10 Most Common Spanish Nouns (Words You ACTUALLY Need)

Read: The Top 10 Most Common Spanish Nouns

Let’s start with just a list of the top 10 nouns. Some of these might surprise you!

These words are listed in order of how frequently they’re used in native Spanish conversations:

• #1: vez
• #2: casa
• #3: favor
• #4: señor
• #5: tiempo
• #6: verdad
• #7: hombre
• #8: vida
• #9: año
• #10: cosa

Before we dive in and practice using all of these, notice something about this list: Most of these words are abstract and general. We don’t have nouns for things like “bird” and “desk”; instead we have nouns for “thing” (cosa), “time”(vez and tiempo), and “truth” (verdad).

There’s a reason for that. These words can express much more than a bunch of animal names or colors ever could.

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Easy, General-Use Nouns

Let’s start with some of the easiest words on the list, and we’ll kick off with casa.

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Casa (Rank: #2)

Casa literally means “house”, but it can also mean “home”. So let’s start with a simple example that you’ve probably heard before:

• My house is your house. → Mi casa es tu casa.

Any time you say “the house”, you’ll say la casa, because casa is a feminine noun. For example:

• She is at the house. → Ella está en la casa.

But you’ll also use the word casa any time you would say “at home” in English. This translates to en casa. Here are a couple of examples:

• My friend is at home. → Mi amiga está en casa.
• I feel at home. →  Me siento en casa.

Now time for a little practice!

Try to predict the blank portion in Spanish — it will be either la casa, en casa, or mi casa.

• This is my house. → Esta es ____. 
• She is at home. → Ella está ____. 
• I’m at home. → Estoy ____. 
• This is the house that you saw? → ¿Esta es ____ que viste?

ANSWERS

1. mi casa
2. en casa
3. en casa
4. la casa

Cosa (Rank: #10)

The word cosa literally means “thing”. This is a super handy word, especially when you don’t know the name of something; you can just vaguely say “the thing” (la cosa).

For example:

• I don’t have the thing. → No tengo la cosa.

It’s also useful to point and say “that thing”, which is esa cosa. For example:

• What is that thing? →  ¿Qué es esa cosa?

As one more way to use this: To say “the things”, in the plural, you’ll say las cosas. For example:

• The things are fine! →  ¡Las cosas están bien!

Let’s practice la cosa, esa cosa, and las cosas. I’m also going to throw in one or two examples of casa just to make sure you can choose between them.

• I want that thing. → Quiero ____.
• These are the things that she had. Estas son ____ que ella tenía.
• The house isn’t here. → ____ no está aquí. 
• The thing isn’t here. → ____ no está aquí.

ANSWERS

1. esa cosa
2. las cosas
3. La casa
4. La cosa

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Hombre (Rank: #7)

Next, let’s look at the word hombre, which means “man”. This is super frequently used, and it’s useful because it can refer vaguely to someone when you don’t have a more specific word. Check out all of these examples in English.

• I didn’t like the politician.
• The waiter was very nice to us!
• Who was the actor that looks like your dad?

In all of these cases, if you’re talking about a man, you could simply replace all of these with “man” if you don’t have the specific word.

• I didn’t like the man.
• The man was very nice to us!
• Who was the man that looks like your dad?

Of course, it’s eventually helpful to have more specific vocabulary. The point here is that these high-frequency words, like hombre, are extremely handy to fall back on in all kinds of situations.

Here are the Spanish versions of those sentences:

• I didn’t like the man. → No me gustaba el hombre.
• The man was very nice to us! → ¡El hombre fue muy bueno con nosotros!
• Who was the man that looks like your dad? → ¿Quién era el hombre que se parece a tu papá?

Let’s also throw in the word for “woman”, which is mujer. Here are some similar sentences that might use mujer.

• I didn’t like the woman. → No me gustaba la mujer.
• The woman was very nice to us! → ¡La mujer fue muy buena con nosotros!
• Who was the woman that looks like your mom? → ¿Quién era la mujer que se parece a tu mamá?

Let’s get some practice with these. Translate “the man” as el hombre and “the woman” as la mujer. I’ll also throw in some uses of cosa and casa to keep practicing those. Try to predict the Spanish!

• She liked the man. → Le gustaba ____.
• The woman is here. → ____ está aquí.
• The woman is at home. → ____ está ____.
• The man has the thing.  → ____ tiene ____.
• The man and the woman are at my house.  → ____ y ____ están en ____.

ANSWERS

1. el hombre
2. La mujer
3. La mujer / en casa 
4. El hombre / la cosa 
5. El hombre / la mujer / mi casa 

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Señor (Rank: #4)

The next noun that we’ll learn is similar to hombre, but it’s a bit more formal. The word señor means something like “mister” or “gentleman”.

You’ll often use this word to be polite; for example, it might sound a bit rude to say “that man over there”. So instead, you might say something like “that gentleman”, which would be ese señor.

Here’s an example:

• The gentleman has not been here. → El señor no ha estado aquí.

Pro tip: Make sure to pronounce this as SE-ñor, not SI-ñor, unless you really want to sound like a gringo! Think of the word “send” when pronouncing this, and you’ll get it right.

Now let’s get some practice with this. Try to predict hombre or señor in these sentences. I recommend saying the sentences out loud for the best possible practice.

• The gentleman went home. → El ____ fue a casa. 
• The man has a nice house. → El ____ tiene una buena casa.
• I didn’t see that gentleman. → No vi a ese _____.

ANSWERS

1. señor
2. hombre
3. señor
   
   

Vida (Rank: #8)

Next, let’s look at the word vida, which means “life”.

For a random example:

• I have a good life. → Tengo una vida buena.

It’s interesting that both English speakers and Spanish speakers talk about “life” all the time. Here are several typical examples:

• That’s life! → ¡Así es la vida!
• Life is good. → La vida es buena.
• I’ve wanted this all my life! → ¡He querido esto toda mi vida!

It’s important to notice something about the first two sentences. When talking about “life” in general, in English we just say “life”, but in Spanish we say la vida, literally “the life”. A lot of times Spanish uses these little words, called articles (el, la, etc.), where we would just leave them off in English.

Lets’ get some practice with this. In each case, you’ll either say mi vida or la vida.

• Life is short. → ____ es corta.
• My life here has been strange. → ____ aquí ha sido extraña.
• She loves life. → Le encanta ____.

ANSWERS

1. La vida 
2. Mi vida
3. la vida.

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Part 2: Nouns for Time

Now that we’ve worked on some easy nouns, let’s learn a few nouns that are more abstract.

We’ll start with three nouns that refer to time, which is something both English speakers and Spanish speakers talk about all the time. (See what I did there?)

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Año (Rank: #9)

We’ll start with a simple one, the word for “year”, which is año. As a simple example:

• I was there for a year. → Estuve ahí por un año.

Since the word año is masculine, to say “the year” you’ll say el año. Sometimes you’ll do this even when you just say “year” in English (so that’s a lot like what we’ve done with vida).

For example:

• It’s open all year. → Está abierto todo el año. 

Literally, “It’s open all the year.”

To say “this year”, you’ll use este año. For example:

• I want to go to Mexico this year. → Quiero ir a México este año.

Let’s practice this. Try to predict whether to use un año, todo el año, or este año.

• I want to be here all year.  → Quiero estar aquí todo _____.
• She worked here for a year. → Trabajó aquí por ______.
• This year, I want to speak more Spanish. → ____, quiero hablar más español.

ANSWERS

1. el año.
2. un año.
3. Este año

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Tiempo (Rank: #5) & Vez (Rank: #1)

Next, let’s learn how to say the English word “time” in Spanish.

Spanish has two different words that mean “time”. First we have tiempo, which represents the passage of time and amounts of time. For example:

• We have a lot of time. → Tenemos mucho tiempo.

• I lived there for a long time. → Viví allí por mucho tiempo.

But if we want to talk about a specific instance in time, like when we say “one time” or “the first time”, we use the word vez. Here are some examples:

• I went there one time. → Fui allí una vez.

• That time we went to my house. → Esa vez fuimos a mi casa. 

So if it helps, think of tiempo as something that passes slowly, but vez is for one-time events. Here are a couple more examples of each one:

• We go there all the time. Vamos allí todo el tiempo.
• She will be there this time. Ella estará allí esta vez.
• I need more time. → Necesito más tiempo.
• One more time! → ¡Una vez más!

If this is confusing, don’t worry, you’ll catch on pretty quickly with some practice. Let’s drill this with a few more examples. 

• She did that one time. → Hizo eso una ___. 
• I don’t have a lot of time. → No tengo mucho ______.
• We can go another time. → Podemos ir otra ____. 
• I lived in Mexico for a long time. → Viví en Mexico por mucho _____.

ANSWERS

1. vez
2. tiempo
3. vez
4. tiempo

If you want even more practice on all the different ways to say “time” in Spanish, check out the LearnCraft Spanish Podcast. There, you can get some great quizzing on this and everything else we’ve learned in this guide.

Part 3: Nouns Used in Common Idioms

We’re down to the last two words in our list, and these might be surprising. The word favor means “favor”, and verdad means “truth”.

When I was first learning Spanish, I looked at these two words and was like — why are these so high on the frequency list? Do Spanish speakers really talk about favors and truth all the time?

But actually the reason these words are so common is that they’re used in some very common idioms.

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Favor (Rank: #3)

The word favor is most commonly used in the expression por favor, which means “please”.

Of course, favor can literally mean “favor” as well. For example:

• It was a favor. → Fue un favor.
• I need a favor. → Necesito un favor. 

But much more often it’s used in contexts more like this:

• We want more, please. → Queremos más, por favor. 
• I want you to be here, please. → Quiero que estés aquí, por favor.

Let’s get some practice! Try to predict where you should use favor and por favor.

She needs a favor. → Necesita un _____.

I need help, please. → Necesito ayuda, ____.

It’s a small favor. → Es un _____ pequeño.

ANSWERS

1. favor.
2. por favor.
3. favor

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Verdad (Rank: #6)

It’s the same thing with verdad — it means “truth”, but it’s more commonly used in idioms.

Here’s an example where it means “truth”:

• The truth is that I don’t like it. → La verdad es que no me gusta.

But more often, verdad is used in one of these little two-word combinations:

• de verdad: “really”
• en verdad: “actually”

Here’s a simple example.

• He really is Marcos? ¿Él de verdad es Marcos?

So you’ll use de verdad to express disbelief, just like we use “really” in English. It’s very often used in questions. Here’s another one:

• It was today? Really? → ¿Fue hoy? ¿De verdad?

And then here’s an example of en verdad:

• Actually, it’s very important. → En verdad es muy importante.

So you use en verdad the way you’d use “actually” in English, typically to say something you think is surprising. Here’s another example:

• Actually, I’ve never been there! → ¡En verdad nunca he estado allí!

Let’s get some practice in! Try to predict where you should use verdad, en verdad, and de verdad.

1. Really it’s that easy? → ¿____ es tan fácil?
2. Actually, I didn’t like it. → _____, no me gustó.
3. He said the truth! → ¡Dijo la _____!

ANSWERS

1. De verdad
2. En verdad
3. verdad

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How To Practice Spanish Nouns and Idioms

As you can see, the most important nouns in Spanish aren’t what you might think — they don’t refer to specific people, places, or things. Instead, the top ten nouns are the most useful and flexible nouns you can use in all kinds of situations.

These nouns are also harder to master than colors and animal names. To learn these deeply, you need to drill them to perfection and start using them in a wide variety of contexts.

If what you want to do is master Spanish for deep expression — not just dabble in vocabulary, but actually achieve expressive fluency — you can practice everything from this guide using the LearnCraft Spanish Podcast.

This podcast is a free course that will systematically take you through all the top 1,000 Spanish words, step by step, with 250 lessons designed for deep mastery. You’ll get tons of quizzing and sentence practice, so that the Spanish you’re learning becomes second nature — the kind of Spanish you can use in real life. You can access all 250 lessons for free here: LearnCraft Spanish Podcast.

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