Spanish Cognates

Spanish Cognates

The Spanish you already know

What are cognates? They are words that share similar meanings and spellings in two or more languages.

Cognates help!

When learning a new language, it's helpful to look for cognates and use them to guess the meaning of what you are reading or hearing.

Watch out!

Watch out for FALSE Cognates that look like cognates but are actually FAKE. For example:

1. embarazada - pregnant not embarrassed

2. librería - bookstore not library. 

3. Asistir - to attend not to assist/help

4. largo - long not large

5. ropa - clothes not rope

English to Spanish

• words that end in -ous change to -oso

• words that end in -tion or -sion change to -ción

• words that end in -al are usually the same

• words that end in -ct change to -cto

• words that end in -ic change to -ico

Now, let's practice!

Use the previous rules to find the correct Spanish words

Multiple Choice

Magic

• mágico

• magical

Multiple Choice

Fantastic

• fantástico

• fantasticu

Multiple Choice

Perfect

• Perfecto

• perfección

Multiple Choice

Fabulous

• fabula

• fabuloso

Multiple Choice

Delicious

• delicia

• delicioso

Multiple Choice

Presentation

• presentar

• presentación

Multiple Choice

Organization

• organización

• organizado

Multiple Choice

Animal

• Animal

• Animales

Multiple Choice

Casual

• Casual

• casuales

How did you do? Need more practice? Type in the English cognate for the following Spanish words.

Recap:

As you can see, cognates have similar or identical spelling and the same meaning. Around 30-40% of the words in Spanish look and sound similar to English, and have the same meaning. Take advantage of this moving forward!!