Los Cognados

Cognates are words that are similar across related languages. Since both Spanish and English have Latin roots they have thousands of words in common. In fact, up to 1/3 of the words in Spanish and English are cognates. Cognates give you a huge head start in your language learning because they are so similar to words that you already know. By learning to recognize and use cognates, you can exponentially increase your Spanish vocabulary. You can use your English to leverage the learning of Spanish. Once you understand the concepts on the following slides, the only limit to your Spanish vocabulary will be the amount of English you know.

(THE POWER OF COGNATES: Using English to Learn Spanish Quickly and Easily-Bryce Hedstrom)

Los Cognados

-ción from –tionThere are many English words that end in –tion. The Spanish cognates

end in -ción.

English                           Spanishemotion                           emocióndedication  dedicaciónration raciónnation   nación

*Note that all of these cognate ends have the stress on the final syllable.

educación

*Also, all of these words are feminine in gender.

*Double consonants are not used in Spanish unless it is the –ll or –rr. So drop one of them in the Spanish cognate.

attention atención

*The exception is words that end in –ction. They will have a double consonant (cc).section sección

NOTAS IMPORTANTES

-dad from –tyThere are many English nouns that

end in –ty. The Spanish cognates end in –dad, and are always feminine.

English                           Spanishuniversity                        universidadcapacity  capacidadsociety sociedadcuriosity   curiosidad

*All of these words are feminine in gender. (–dad is feminine )

la eternidad la brutalidad

*You will again need to drop one of the letters if the English has a double consonant combination.

necessity necesidadpossibility posibilidaddifficulty dificuldad (notice this one is not –ity)community comunidad

NOTAS IMPORTANTES

-mente from –lyThere are many English words that end in

–ly. The Spanish equivalent is –mente. It is added to the feminine form

of adjectives to create these adverbs.

English adj      Spanish adj Spa adv

final         final finalmente

normal normal normalmente

rapid rapido rapidamente

English adj   Spanish adj Spa adv

exact exacto exactamente

correct correcto correctament

easy facil facilmente

natural natural naturalmente

evident evidente evidentemente

absolute absoluto absolutamente

NOTAS IMPORTANTES

These words are always adverbs. meaning they tweak the meanings of verbs or adjectives.

act normally. (describes how someone acts)

really weird (describes the adjective weird)

read quickly (tells how someone read)