English Words for Kids: The First 200 Words, With a Sentence for Each (Free Printable)

It is written for families where English is not the home language: you might live in France, Germany or the Gulf, speak Arabic or another language at home, and want your child to have English too. You do not need perfect English yourself to use it. The method is built on things you already do every day: handing your child a cup of water, putting on their shoes, pointing at a cat in the street. A word is learned in its place, not at the table.

Why these 200 words first?

Because they are the words your child already says dozens of times a day in your home language: mum, water, hungry, ball, sleep. When a child learns the English word for something they see, touch and ask for, it sticks, because they use it straight away. The rare words that fill alphabet posters (zebra, umbrella, xylophone) get memorized and forgotten, because they never come up in the child's life. This list follows one rule: things your child sees, actions they do, and the numbers and colours they need at school.

With these 200 words a child understands a good part of what they hear in a first English class and in early picture books, and can build short sentences of their own, such as I want water, I like cats or My tummy hurts, without memorizing them. That next step is in our guide to simple English sentences for kids.

English words for kids: 200 words in ten themes

Each word comes with a short sentence a young child can say. Use the sentence, not the word alone, whenever you can: your child learns the word and where it goes in a sentence at the same time. The themes run from closest to the child (family, body, food) to furthest (nature and weather), which is a good order for starting, but follow what your child loves: if they adore animals, start there.

How your child can learn ten words a week at home

Ten words a week covers the whole list in about five months, a pace a five-year-old can manage and that leaves them really knowing the words rather than holding them for a day. The secret is not a clever method but consistency, and this is the plan we suggest to the parents of our students.

The routine: five minutes at the same time every day

Pick one theme and ten words from it (or the whole theme over two weeks). Stick the words on the fridge and keep five minutes at the same time each day: after breakfast, in the car, or before bed. Regularity beats length. Five minutes a day beats an hour at the weekend, because memory needs spaced repetition, not cramming.

The word in its place

The golden rule: say the English word when you see the real thing. In the kitchen you say water as you hand over the cup; in the park you say tree as you point at one. Whenever you can, put the word in a short sentence, It's an apple rather than the word on its own, so your child learns the word and its place in a sentence together.

Three games that need no preparation

• The memory game: turn the sheet over and ask your child to remember as many of the week's words as they can in one minute. Write down the score and try to beat it tomorrow.
• Touch it: you say the English word, your child runs to touch the thing. Then swap: they call out the word, you run, and sometimes you get it wrong on purpose so they can correct you.
• I spy: say I see something red and your child hunts for the red thing in the room. Perfect for the colours and home themes.

Labels: on things, and on a progress chart

Two kinds of labels make a difference. The first go on the things themselves: door on the door, window on the window, chair on the chair, so your child sees them twenty times a day with no effort. The second is a progress chart: a star for every ten words mastered, meaning said by your child on their own in the right moment, not repeated after you. Make the reward something you do together, not sweets.

The Friday review

At the end of the week, review the last two weeks of words, not only this week's. A word your child forgets goes back on the fridge for another week; a word they have mastered moves to a box of known words they can be proud of. Praise effort, not perfection, and never test them in front of guests.

The spelling trap: hear the word before you read it

English is not written the way it sounds. Eight, two, knee, laugh, school: a child who meets these words on paper first will often say them the way they are spelled, and then repeat that version hundreds of times. Children whose home language is written more regularly, such as Arabic, French or German, are especially likely to sound out English letter by letter. Children of this age pick up the right pronunciation with amazing ease if they hear it, and pick up the wrong one just as easily.

The fix is three steps. Hear each word from a real source (an audio dictionary, a read-aloud story, or a teacher) before you look at it written down. Let the spoken word come first for a week or two, and the written word after. And let someone who knows the right sound correct it: in our lessons the tutor corrects pronunciation in the moment, kindly and without embarrassment, because fixing a word in week one is far easier than fixing it after a year. If your own English has an accent, keep speaking it with your child anyway; your daily warmth matters more, and other voices balance it out.

Where lessons fit in

The list builds the stock; a lesson turns it into speech. A child who knows 200 words but never uses them with anyone stays at recognition: they understand the word when they hear it, and it does not come out when they need it. In our English program for kids lessons are live and 1-on-1, 25 or 45 minutes long, and your child talks more than the tutor, using the week's words in questions, answers, games and stories. You get a short note after each lesson and a progress report every month. The subscription is month to month with no commitment, and brothers and sisters can share the same lessons. If you are raising your child with more than one language, our guide to raising a bilingual child abroad shows how the pieces fit together.

Start with a free trial lesson, no card needed, and in the meantime download the 200-word list and begin week one today.

Common questions from parents