The 100 Most Common Dutch Words

These are the 100 most common Dutch words, ranked by how often they appear in real Dutch text and speech, drawn from published word-frequency research. Frequency-first learning works: a small core of high-frequency words does most of the work in everyday sentences, so mastering this list with spaced repetition gives you the fastest possible start.

#	Word	Pronunciation	English meaning
1	de	duh	the (definite article)
2	het	het	it
3	een	uhn	one
4	zijn	zeyn	his
5	en	en	and
6	van	vahn	of
7	ik	ik	I
8	te	tuh	to
9	dat	daht	that
10	in	in	in
11	je	yuh	you
12	niet	neet	not (negation)
13	hij	hey	he
14	met	met	with
15	op	op	on
16	voor	vohr	for
17	hebben	HEB-ben	have
18	zij	zey	she
19	maar	mahr	but
20	om	om	for
21	aan	ahn	on
22	er	er	there
23	ook	ohk	also
24	als	ahls	if
25	dan	dahn	then
26	bij	bey	near
27	nog	nokh	yet
28	kunnen	KUN-nen	can
29	geen	khayn	no
30	gaan	khahn	go
31	zo	zoh	so
32	worden	VOR-den	to become
33	weten	VAY-ten	know
34	wat	vaht	what
35	mijn	meyn	my
36	zien	zeen	see
37	nu	noo	now
38	komen	KOH-men	come
39	willen	VIL-len	want
40	doen	doon	do
41	naar	nahr	to
42	uit	owt	out
43	dit	dit	this
44	maken	MAH-ken	make
45	tijd	teyt	time
46	jaar	yahr	year
47	zeggen	ZEKH-en	say
48	mens	mens	person
49	goed	khoot	good
50	dag	dakh	day
51	moeten	MOO-ten	must
52	wel	vel	indeed (emphasis particle)
53	waar	vahr	where (question word)
54	hier	heer	here
55	daar	dahr	there (that place)
56	meer	mayr	more
57	veel	vayl	much / many
58	heel	hayl	very / whole
59	toch	tokh	anyway / still (particle)
60	weer	vayr	again
61	even	AY-ven	just (for a moment)
62	echt	ekht	really
63	altijd	AHL-teyt	always
64	nooit	noyt	never
65	iets	eets	something
66	alles	AH-les	everything
67	niets	neets	nothing
68	iemand	EE-mahnt	someone
69	denken	DENG-ken	think
70	laten	LAH-ten	let / leave
71	krijgen	KREY-khen	get / receive
72	vinden	VIN-den	find
73	staan	stahn	stand
74	zitten	ZIT-ten	sit
75	kijken	KEY-ken	look / watch
76	horen	HOH-ren	hear
77	houden	HOW-den	hold / keep
78	praten	PRAH-ten	talk
79	misschien	mis-KHEEN	maybe
80	zeker	ZAY-ker	certainly / sure
81	jullie	YUH-lee	you (plural)
82	u	ew	you (formal)
83	man	mahn	man (adult male)
84	vrouw	vrow	woman
85	kind	kint	child
86	leven	LAY-ven	life
87	huis	hows	house
88	twee	tvay	two
89	keer	kayr	time (occasion)
90	eerste	AYR-steh	first
91	nieuw	neew	new
92	groot	khroht	big
93	klein	kleyn	small
94	ander	AHN-der	other
95	zelf	zelf	self
96	ons	ons	us / our
97	hun	huhn	their
98	nemen	NAY-men	take
99	geven	KHAY-ven	give
100	blijven	BLEY-ven	stay

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Ranked by lemma frequency in published Dutch corpus research; proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Pronunciation is a respelling guide, not phonetic notation.

Turn this list into flashcards Learn Dutch online How spaced repetition works

Frequently asked questions about Dutch words

How many Dutch words do you need for a basic conversation?

Frequency research shows the 1,000 most common words cover roughly 85 percent of everyday speech, and the top 100 alone appear in almost every sentence. You can manage simple exchanges with a few hundred words; this list is the foundation to build on.

What is the fastest way to memorize these 100 words?

Spaced repetition: review each word just before you would forget it, at growing intervals. It moves vocabulary into long-term memory far faster than rereading a list. Turn the 100 words into flashcards and review a small batch daily; the whole list fits into two to three weeks.

Are 100 words enough to speak Dutch?

No. One hundred words let you recognize the skeleton of most sentences, but not hold a real conversation. They are the right starting point: after this list, grow toward the most common 1,000 words and start speaking practice early, even with simple phrases.

Where does this Dutch word list come from?

From published Dutch word-frequency research: lemma-ranked corpus lists cleaned for learners, with proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Rankings are approximate, since real usage varies by region and register, but the core is stable across corpora.