Eureka!!!
I know many more Spanish words than I realized!
If you are an English speaker, you have a huge advantage, because what you have is a huge, long list of what is known as English to Spanish cognates.
So what is a cognate? Strictly speaking, cognates are words that have the same etymological origin. That means, when you see one word in one language and it looks a lot like another word in another language and they share the common root from an old language such as Latin, thus these two words are cognates.
In this article, we are going to stray a little bit from the strict linguistic definition of the word cognate because of situations such as English word ‘much’ which came from proto-germanic, which is the language they used in Northen Europe around 500BC. Then take the Spanish word mucho, which actually came from Latin, so therefore under the technical definition of cognates, these two words are actually cognates but, they are extremely similar, they are almost spelt and sound exactly the same and almost mean exactly the same thing.
The main difference between two cognates is their pronunciation….in this respect, you have to be careful!
So, in this article we are going to define two terms:
Perfect English to Spanish cognates
Near perfect English to Spanish cognates
For perfect English to Spanish cognates we have words that are spelled exactly the same in both in English and Spanish, and they mean exactly the same thing but their pronunciation is different.
So, for example:
English > Spanish
Chocolate > Chocolate
Animal > Animal
Regular > Regular
Please, read and, most importantly, listen to the list-based words here.
Now, the next group of words are near perfect English to Spanish cognates. These are words that mean the same thing in both English and Spanish but are not quite spelt the same but almost the same. You will be able to see that there are certain patterns that form with near perfect cognates that allow you to potentially predict when a near cognate is likely to exist if, of course, you don’t have this list handy.
The main difference between two near perfect cognates is the pronunciation and this is where you have to be careful!.
So, for example you have the English word ‘basic’ which in Spanish is básico.
Also, you have the English word ‘information’ which in Spanish is información.
And the last example in this category ‘vocabulary’ which in Spanish is vocabulario.
So the question is, how can you predict when English to Spanish near perfect or perfect cognate is likely to exist?
There are few rules that can help you to think about for near perfect cognates:
1st Rule
For English nouns ending ‘-tion’ in English, these can be converted to Spanish by replacing with -ción.
Abstraction = Abstracción
Celebration = Celebración
Formation = Formación
Please read, and most importantly listen to the list based words here.
2nd Rule
For English nouns ending ‘-ary’, these can be converted to Spanish by replacing with –ario.
Adversary = Adversario
Commentary = Comentario
Secretary = Secretario
Please read, and most importantly listen to the list based words here.
3rd Rule
For English adjectives ending with ‘-ic’, these can be converted to Spanish by replacing with a -ico.
Artistic = Artístico
Classic = Clásico
Economic = Económico
Again, please read, and most importantly listen the list based words here.
4th Rule
For English adjectives ending ‘-ous’, these can be converted to Spanish by replacing with ‘-oso’.
Curious = Curioso
Numerous = Numeroso
Delicious = Delicioso
Please read, and most importantly listen to the list based words here.
5th Rule
For English nouns ending in ‘-ct’, these can be converted to Spanish by replacing with a -cto.
Artefact = Artefacto
Conflict = Conflicto
Except = Excepto
Please read, and most importantly listen to the list based words here.
6th Rule
For English adverbs ending ‘-ly’, these can be converted to Spanish by replacing with -mente.
Absolutely = Absolutamente
Completely = Completamente
Directly = Directamente
Please read, and listen to the list based words here.
7th Rule
For English nouns ending ‘-ty’, these can be converted to Spanish by replacing with -dad.
Atrocity = Atrocidad
University = Universidad
Variety = Variedad
Please read, and most importantly listen to the list based words here.
There is also a heap of false cognates or false friends, which will be a topic for another post but note here that they are words that are spelt the same or similar but mean completely different things. For example one of the most famous Spanish-English false friends is embarazada which doesn’t mean ‘embarrassed’, it means ‘pregnant’!
Now, are you feeling that you know more Spanish words than you ever realized??
Great!! Now is the time to go and practice them…
I am glad if this cognates and near perfect cognates could help you to easily increase your Spanish vocabulary.
What have I missed? Can you think of any others?
Please feel free to add any others in the comments below.
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