50 Common Bangla Words Every Beginner Should Know
A starter list of everyday Bangla (Bengali) words with English meanings, grouped by theme, to build a working vocabulary fast.
Bangla (Bengali) is spoken by around 230 million people, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world — the primary language of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, with a literary tradition that produced Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Building a working vocabulary starts with small, high-frequency word groups rather than long memorised lists.
Greetings and courtesy
Nomoshkar (a respectful hello/goodbye), dhonnobad (thank you), aapni kemon achen? (how are you, formal), bhalo achi (I'm well) — the everyday courtesy phrases that open most conversations.
Family and people
Ma (mother), baba (father), bhai (brother), bon (sister), bondhu (friend) — Bangla family vocabulary, like many South Asian languages, distinguishes relationships more specifically than English does in some cases.
Numbers
Ek (one), dui (two), tin (three) through dosh (ten) — Bangla numerals in Bengali script look visually distinct from Devanagari numerals used in Hindi, despite both languages sharing historical roots.
Everyday life
Jol (water), khabar (food), bari (house), rasta (road/street), dokan (shop) — practical daily vocabulary.
Time
Aaj (today), kal (tomorrow or yesterday, context-dependent), shomoy (time), shokal (morning), raat (night).
Why script matters here
Bengali script is a distinct writing system with its own set of characters, not simply a variant of Devanagari (used for Hindi and Marathi) despite some shared historical origin — looking up words in proper Bengali script, rather than Roman transliteration alone, helps you build accurate reading recognition from the start.
A simple way to build from this list
- Pick five to eight words a day rather than the whole list at once.
- Look each one up in Bengali script and read it aloud.
- Use each new word in a short sentence of your own.
- Review yesterday's words before adding today's.
Look up any Bangla word instantly, in proper script, offline, with English Bangla Dictionary →
English Bangla Dictionary
Offline English–Bangla dictionary with meanings in proper Bengali script
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