Navajo — top 40 words
High-frequency vocabulary for English speakers. Reveal each card, then rate your recall — the schedule adapts (SM-2) and is stored on your device.
Loading deck…
Full word list
| # | Navajo | English |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hello / It is good — the all-purpose greeting (yah-AH-tay) | |
| 2 | Thank you | |
| 3 | Goodbye (informal) | |
| 4 | Good morning | |
| 5 | Good afternoon | |
| 6 | Beauty / harmony / balance — the central concept of Navajo philosophy | |
| 7 | The People — how Navajo people refer to themselves | |
| 8 | Language / speech (Diné bizaad = the Navajo language) | |
| 9 | In a beautiful / harmonious way (adverbial form of hózhó) | |
| 10 | Beautiful / it is good-looking | |
| 11 | I / me (first person singular) | |
| 12 | We / us (first person plural) | |
| 13 | Anglo / white person — from Spanish 'Americano' | |
| 14 | Man / Mr. (respected form of address) | |
| 15 | Woman | |
| 16 | Water — high tone on the ó is essential | |
| 17 | Canyon | |
| 18 | Black Mountain (type of place name) | |
| 19 | Earth / ground / the land | |
| 20 | Sky / the blue above | |
| 21 | One | |
| 22 | Two | |
| 23 | Three | |
| 24 | Four | |
| 25 | Five | |
| 26 | Very / a lot / extremely | |
| 27 | Just / simply / right (emphatic particle) | |
| 28 | Not … (negation — the negative wraps the predicate) | |
| 29 | Where | |
| 30 | What | |
| 31 | I am walking (going on foot, away from speaker) | |
| 32 | I am reading / I am studying | |
| 33 | I am working | |
| 34 | There is / it exists (existential) | |
| 35 | There is not / it does not exist | |
| 36 | ł = voiceless lateral fricative, like Welsh 'll' — a key Navajo sound | |
| 37 | The apostrophe marks a glottal stop — a real consonant in Navajo | |
| 38 | Accent mark = high tone — tó (water) vs to (a different word entirely) | |
| 39 | Ogonek = nasalized vowel — tą́ means something different from ta | |
| 40 | Ejective lateral affricate — one of Navajo's most challenging sounds |