Learn Top 100, 500, 1000+
Most Frequent Russian Words

Research on language understanding shows that learning Russian efficiently depends on learning the most frequent words first, not on memorizing long vocabulary lists. In our large-scale study measuring how understanding grows with vocabulary size, we analyzed how much real Russian learners can comprehend at each stage of learning.

According to the research, learning the top 100 Russian words gives you about 39% language understanding, the top 500 words around 57%, and the top 1000 words about 65% of real-world Russian. This page focuses on the very first step: the Top 100 most frequent Russian words, which form the foundation of everyday comprehension.

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Top 100 Most Frequent Russian Words

Below is a representative list of the Top 100 most frequent Russian words, ordered by real-world usage frequency.

#	Word	#	Word	#	Word	#	Word
1	и	26	свой	51	да	76	раз
2	в	27	ты	52	до	77	сказать
3	не	28	же	53	время	78	есть
4	на	29	бить	54	мой	79	какой
5	что	30	их	55	ему	80	со
6	я	31	о	56	сам	81	очень
7	с	32	меня	57	даже	82	люди
8	он	33	они	58	нет	83	под
9	а	34	мне	59	знать	84	там
10	это	35	мы	60	вот	85	жизнь
11	быть	36	который	61	чем	86	будет
12	его	37	ещё	62	ни	87	первый
13	как	38	говорить	63	этот	88	ли
14	но	39	такой	64	хотеть	89	после
15	к	40	только	65	рука	90	просто
16	то	41	для	66	над	91	этого
17	по	42	если	67	стать	92	тебя
18	из	43	когда	68	тот	93	нас
19	она	44	весь	69	эта	94	день
20	у	45	мочь	70	себя	95	делать
21	все	46	уже	71	наш	96	где
22	за	47	чтобы	72	другой	97	видеть
23	так	48	один	73	может	98	теперь
24	её	49	вы	74	дело	99	друг
25	от	50	или	75	человек	100	ну

What to Do Next

The top 100 words establish the core of Russian understanding. The largest gains come as learners move to the top 300 and 500 words, where comprehension grows steadily, and then to 1000+ words, where Russian becomes comfortable to read and understand in real contexts.

WRD is built on the same research and tracks language understanding precisely as each word is learned, guiding learners from the top 100 Russian words to higher levels in the most efficient way possible.

The WRD app offers a methodical approach to vocabulary growth, from the top 100 words onward.

→ Download WRD and start learning today

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