| Hello there! 👉🏻Do you know that one way to expand your English vocabulary is learning to recognize the word patterns seen in many English-Spanish cognates. It is said that 29% of English vocabulary comes from Latin, this makes learning 29% of the English vocabulary fairly (bestante) easy to learn for Spanish speakers. As you learn the following word patterns, remember that in some cases the meanings of the words have changed over time. Sometimes the English and Spanish meanings can cause confusion – FALSE FRIEND, as we call it 😬 For example, a discusión refers to a discussion (una conversacion) in English, BUT it refers to an argument in Spanish. But an argumento in Spanish can refer to the plot of a story in English… Keep reading😉 |
| Let’s take a look at the most common patterns of similarity you’ll find: 1. Word Endings ⭕ Words that end in “-tion” in English often end in -cion in Spanish: nation, nación station, estación fraction, fracción publication, publicación ⭕ Words that end in “-ty” in English often end in -dad in Spanish: fidelity, fidelidad felicity, felicidad faculty, facultad liberty, libertad authority, autoridad ⭕ Names of occupations that end in “-ist” in English often end in the Spanish -ista (other endings also are used): dentist, dentista artist, artista orthopedist, ortopedista ⭕ Names of fields of study that end in “-ology” often have a Spanish cognate ending in -ología:geology, geología ecology, ecología archaeology, arqueología ⭕ Adjectives that end in “-ous” may have a Spanish equivalent ending in -oso: famous, famoso nervous, nervioso fibrous, fibroso precious, precioso ⭕ Words ending in -cy often have an equivalent ending in -cia: democracy, democracia redundancy, redundancia ⭕ English words ending in “-ism” often have an equivalent ending in -ismo:communism, comunismo capitalism, capitalismo atheism, ateísmo hedonism, hedonismo ⭕ English words ending in “-ture” often have an equivalent ending in -tura. caricature, caricatura aperture, apertura culture, cultura rupture, ruptura ⭕ English words ending in “-is” often have Spanish equivalents with the same ending. symbiosis, simbiosis pelvis, pelvis crisis, crisis 2. Word Beginnings ⭕ Nearly all common prefixes are the same or similar in English and Spanish. For example:antipathy, antipatía autonomy, autonomía bilingual, bilingüe exportation, exportación counterattack, contraataque contend, contender disobedience, desobediencia homosexual, homosexual paramedic, paramédico polygamy, poligamia prefix, prefijo pseudoscience, seudosciencia supermarket, supermercado unilateral, unilateral ⭕ Some words that begin with an “s” followed by a consonant in English start with an es in Spanish:stereo, estéreo special, especial snob, esnob ⭕ Many words ending in “ble” in English have Spanish equivalents that are identical or very similar:applicable, aplicable comparable, comparable divisible, divisible malleable, maleable terrible, terrible 3. Patterns in Spelling Some English words that start with a silent letter are not in the Spanish word:psalm, salmo ptomaine, tomaína psychology, sicología ⭕ Many English words that have a “ph” in them have an f in the Spanish version:photo, foto metamorphosis, metamorfosis graph, gráfica ⭕ A few words in English that have a “th” in them have a Spanish equivalent with a t: empathy, empatía theater, teatro theory, teoría ⭕Some English words that have double letters have a Spanish equivalent without the letter doubled (although some words with “rr” may have an rr equivalent in Spanish, as in “correspond,” corresponder):difficulty, dificultad essence, esencia collaborate, colaborar common, común ⭕Some English words that have a “ch” pronounced as “k” have Spanish equivalents that use a qu or a c, depending on the letter that follows: architecture, arquitectura chemical, químico charisma, carisma echo, eco technology, tecnología chaos, caos 4. Other Word Patterns Adverbs that end in “-ly” in English sometimes have a Spanish equivalent ending in -mente:rapidly, rápidamente profusely, profusamente prudently, prudentemente 🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅🔅 If you feel that you would like to take your English FURTHER – finding your fluency and building your confidence – book your FREE DISCOVER your ENGLISH session with us TODAY! Here we will: -Send you a questionnaire -Discover your English needs and challenges -Practice your English! -Inform you of the way forward. We will help YOU improve your English skills, strategically. Looking forward to chatting with you! Lindri and The Roll your English Team. P.S: Curious to see what other students are saying about our services? CLICK HERE |
