The 100 most common Esperanto verbs (with examples)

The most common Esperanto verbs are esti "to be", povi "can", havi "to have", fari "to do", diri "to say" and voli "to want". The 100 most frequent verbs in our list of 1,000 common words make up 14.2% of all words in a corpus of 5.8 million words of everyday Esperanto sentences, and the ten most frequent alone make up 8.1%. Every verb has the same endings for all persons, so one short lesson on verb endings opens the whole table.

#Six endings, one form for every person

Every verb below is shown as an infinitive in -i. To use it, replace -i with an ending; the ending is the same for "I", "you", "he", "we" and "they".

There are no irregular verbs, not even esti: mi estas, vi estas, ili estas. See verbs for compound tenses and participles.

#The 10 verbs to learn first

This is our own choice, not an official list. Eight of the ten are among the ten most frequent verbs in the table. The other two verbs of that top ten, devi and ŝati, come next: devi works like povi and voli, and ŝati is used the same way (Mi ŝatas legi. – "I like reading."). Kompreni and paroli are added because a beginner needs them in the first conversation.

#The 100 most common Esperanto verbs

Rank is the position of the verb among all 1,000 words of the list, so esti at 3 comes right after la and mi. The column Transitive? follows the labels of ReVo, the Reta Vortaro: T means transitive (the verb can take a direct object with -n), I means intransitive, T/I means ReVo marks both uses, and – means ReVo gives no label. The examples are our own; look up any verb in the dictionary.

Of the 100 verbs, 57 are marked T, 27 I and 14 T/I, and ReVo gives no label for necesi and ebli. Three notes on the labels:

• Modal verbs count as transitive. After povi, voli and devi, the infinitive is the direct object (PMEG), and ReVo says so for devi. Of the three, only voli also takes an ordinary noun object: Mi volas kafon.
• Suffix verbs follow the suffix. ReVo has no label for troviĝi and fariĝi; we show I because a verb with -iĝ- never takes an object. Pasigi, igi and mortigi with -ig- always do.
• Compounds can differ from their base. Alveni, reveni and foriri are veni and iri with a preposition or prefix (see prefixes) and stay intransitive. ReVo labels eliri and eniri T/I, because the place can be an object (eniri la ĉambron, an example in ReVo) or follow a preposition (eniri en la ĉambron).

#Pairs like komenci and komenciĝi

English "start", "end" and "change" work with or without an object. Esperanto splits them: komenci takes an object, komenciĝi does not. Six pairs from the list are below. The full rule, with more than 30 pairs, is on -ig- and -iĝ-.

A bare La leciono komencis is a mistake; say La leciono komenciĝis. The two suffixes are also verbs: iĝi "to become" and igi "to cause", as in Tio igis ŝin ridi. – "That made her laugh."

#Esti, havi, povi, voli and devi with an infinitive

When a second verb follows, it stays in the infinitive, without "to" and without a preposition.

With povi, voli and devi, the person who can, wants or must is also the person who does the action (PMEG). If the doer is someone else, use a ke clause: Mi volas, ke vi venu. – "I want you to come." Many other verbs in the table take an infinitive too: ŝati, bezoni, deziri, provi, komenci, lerni, decidi, scipovi and sukcesi.

#How we counted

We counted on 8 October 2026 in our file esperanto-1000-common-words.csv. It comes from 822,296 Tatoeba sentences with 5,831,657 words, and every verb form counts under its infinitive; the method is on the common words page.

• 313 of the 1,000 entries are verbs (31.3%). Their per_million values add up to 175,641 per million, so verbs are 17.6% of all words in the corpus.
• 19 of the 100 most common words are verbs, and 88 of the first 300.
• The 100 most frequent verbs sit at ranks 3 to 326 of the list. Their per_million values add up to 141,900, which is 14.2% of all words and 80.8% of all verb occurrences covered by the list.
• The first 10, 20 and 50 verbs make up 8.1%, 9.7% and 12.1% of all words. Esti alone makes up 4.1%.

The word classes come from the endings: an entry ending in -i counts as a verb, and a derived form is counted separately, so komenci and komenciĝi are two verbs. Tatoeba holds short, written, often translated sentences; novels or speech would give another order, as the list on Vocabulary shows.

#Common questions

#What are the most common verbs in Esperanto?

In our list the ten most frequent verbs are esti, povi, havi, fari, diri, voli, scii, devi, iri and ŝati. Together they make up 8.1% of all words in the Tatoeba corpus; esti alone makes up 4.1%.

#How many Esperanto verbs do I need to know?

The 20 most frequent verbs cover 9.7% of all words in our corpus, the 50 most frequent cover 12.1% and the 100 most frequent cover 14.2%. Every verb takes the same endings, so each new verb costs you only its root. For the other word classes, see the 1,000-word list.

#Are there irregular verbs in Esperanto?

No. All verbs, including esti "to be", use the endings -i, -as, -is, -os, -us and -u, and the form does not change for person or number: mi iras, ili iras.

#How do I know if an Esperanto verb takes an object?

Look it up in ReVo, which marks verbs as transitive, intransitive or both. You can also ask "what?" or "whom?" after the verb. A verb with -ig- always takes an object, and a verb with -iĝ- never does; see -ig- and -iĝ-.

#How do you say "I have to" in Esperanto?

Use devi: Mi devas iri. – "I have to go." The verb havi means "to possess" (Mi havas libron) and is not used for obligation.

#Sources

• Esperantopedia: 1000 most common Esperanto words (CSV, rank, part of speech, English meaning, frequency per million), counted on 8 October 2026; method on this page
• Tatoeba: downloads – Esperanto sentences, downloaded 7 October 2026; licence CC BY 2.0 FR
• Reta Vortaro (ReVo): abbreviations tr, ntr, x; entries such as esti, povi, devi, paroli, komenci and troviĝi, read on 8 October 2026
• PMEG: I-verboj kune kun povi, devi kaj voli, I-verboj kiel subjekto, I-verboj kune kun aliaj verboj, IĜ-verboj
• Wiktionary: Esperanto lemmas (CC BY-SA 4.0) and ESPDIC by Paul Denisowski (CC BY 3.0), the sources of the English meanings in the list