Learn Spanish FREE - Cognates

Guide To The Spanish Language
An introduction to Spanish without the grammar - A new and fresh perspective with some interesting items on language and the similarities between Spanish and English 

1.   Learn Spanish Introduction
2.   Spanish Grammar
3.   The use of Language
4.   Spanish Pronunciation
5.   Common History of Spanish and English
6.   Learn to Listen
7.   Language is Musical
8.   Reading Spanish
9.   Spanish is NOT the Official Language of Spain
10. Language Courses
11. Interpretation
12. Some fun items
13. Vocabulary
14. Cognates - Do you know what a cognate is?
15. Learn Vocabulary
16. Efficient Study
17. Mnemotechnics
18. The 146 Most Used Words in Spanish
19. How Do We Make Real Spanish Sounds
20. Vowel Sounds
21. Consonant Sounds
22. Asking a Question in Spanish
23. Masculine Feminine Words
24. Direct Translation
25. Verbs
26. Spanish phrases
27. Cognates continued

Learning Spanish - Cognates

We mentioned that many English words have a lot in common with Spanish words and that these similarities could be used as shortcuts to learning Spanish. These similarities are because of the common roots of many words in both languages.

• Most English words that begin DIS will in Spanish begin DES
• Most English nouns ending in TION will in Spanish end in CION
• Most English adverbs ending in LY will end in Spanish MENTE
• Most English nouns ending in ANCE will end in Spanish ANCIA
• Most English nouns ending in ENCE will in Spanish end in ENCIA
• Most English adjectives ending in ATED will end in Spanish in ADO or ADA
• Most English nouns ending in ISM will in Spanish end in ISMO
• Most English nouns ending in SY or THY or CY will in Spanish end in SIA
• Most English nouns which begin PRE will have a corresponding word in Spanish
• Most English words which begin ANTI will have a corresponding word in Spanish
• Most English words which begin ANTE will have a corresponding Spanish word
• Many English words that begin RE will have a corresponding word in Spanish
• Most English nouns which begin IN will have a corresponding word in Spanish
• Most English nouns which end in ITE will in Spanish end in ITA or ITO
• Most English nouns that end in ATE will in Spanish end in ATO
• Most English verbs that end in ATE will in Spanish end in AR
• Many English words that end in ED will in Spanish end in ADO
• Many English words that end in IST will in Spanish end in ISTA

One other point is that Most English words which begin in S will in Spanish begin ES as they do not like to use “s” at the beginning of a word.

Also many English words that end in SION will in Spanish also end in SION, but there is a difference in pronunciation. In the Spanish they make the sound of sion more like “shon” and to show this in writing they put an accent over the letter “O” so they write “SIÓN” an English word such as conclusion will be written as conclusión. And pronounced as con-clu-she-on.

The English word decision will be written as decisión and pronounced as deci-she-on.

The above are commonalties between the two languages but any one word may have more than just the change highlighted above so although it is a useful reference guide, that is all it is.