Most beginner word lists start with colours, animals and fruit. They are easy to picture, which is why they get taught — but they are almost never what you need in the first conversation you actually have.
Function words carry the sentence
In every language, a tiny set of words does most of the work: the equivalents of and, but, this, that, with, for, not, very, because. They are unglamorous and impossible to draw, so they get skipped. Learn thirty of them and the vocabulary you already have starts connecting. Without them you have a pile of nouns; with them you have sentences.
Pick verbs you use every day
Want, need, have, go, come, make, say, know, can, think. These ten verbs cover an enormous share of ordinary speech, and most of them are irregular — which is an argument for learning them early, not later. Pair each verb with the two or three nouns you would actually use it with. “I need water” is worth more than the word water alone.
Test the list against your own life
A good first hundred is personal. If you are learning for work, your list includes meeting, send, deadline. If you are learning to travel, it includes ticket, left, right, how much. Write down the last five things you said out loud today in your own language. Translate those. That is a better starting list than any generic one.
A hundred words chosen this way will carry a simple conversation. A hundred words of fruit and animals will not.