A
cognate is something that is considered the same or similar. When we talk about Spanish cognates then, we are referring to words that are the same or very similar to their English counterparts.
We have already indirectly mentioned cognates back in POST #52 where we took a look at
false friends. These are words that would lead us to believe that they are indeed cognates; yet are not. So today we are going to take a closer look at both identical and non-identical cognates and learn some simple rules which can help us form non-identical cognates based on the English words we already know.
Identical cognates Some Spanish cognates are identical to English. This is great news, as it means we stand a good chance of recognising the meaning of these words immediately. In fact, with the exception of “actual” which means
current or
present-day in Spanish and
real or
effective in English, I can’t think of an identically spelt word that turns out to be a
false friend. Even with this example the meaning is extremely similar, thus we can deem it a cognate.
However, even though there are plenty of identically spelt cognates, we must always remember their pronunciation in Spanish will almost certainly be a little different. Take “ideal” for example and take a moment to consider how we should pronoun this word in both English and Spanish, and we soon realise how different that can sound. Certainly with identical cognates, the sticking point usually originates around a mispronunciation of the word and not its meaning.
The following is a short list of some identical cognates:
actual, alcohol, casual, cereal, digital, doctor, escape, funeral, horrible, hospital, hotel, ideal, inevitable, metro, motor, original, perpendicular, plural, rural, similar, singular, sociable, solar, temporal, tropical, vital, visa, vulgar. Infinitive verb cognates Spanish verb cognates tend to be fairly easy to recognise when we consider the
infinitive forms, remembering that Spanish infinites must end in either
-ar, -er or
-ir. Many infinitives in English and Spanish are identical but with these additional endings (most commonly in
-ar verbs, and some
-ir verbs). Let’s see a few examples:
English | Spanish |
(to) abandon | abandonar |
(to) calm | calmar |
(to) cancel | cancelar |
(to) convert | convertir |
(to) insist | insistir |
(to) limit | limitar |
(to) present | presentar |
(to) represent | representar |
Of course, once the verbs are conjugated then the similarities tend to be less obvious, but knowing that there are plenty of infinitives that are almost identical can be a great help.
Cognates ending in -o This continues to be a running joke between my English and Spanish speaking friends, that we can take almost any English word and simply append an
-o to the end to create the Spanish version. Sadly though, it is not that simple, but it does appear to work with a surprising number of nouns and adjectives.
Whilst there is no single rule that tells us when we should append or change an ending into an
-o, English words that end in
-ic, -ct, -ism, -ment and
-id typically will change to end in
-ico, -cto, -ismo, -mento and
-ido respectively in Spanish. Let’s see a few different examples of these and other cognates ending in
-o. English | Spanish |
academic | académico |
artistic | artístico |
dynamic | dinámico |
lunatic | lunático |
romantic | romántico |
act | acto |
contract | contacto |
direct | directo |
exact | exacto |
perfect | perfecto |
idealism | idealismo |
organism | organismo |
argument | argumento |
document | documento |
moment | momento |
acid | ácido |
fluid | fluido |
rapid | rápido |
timid | tímido |
bank | banco |
ocean | océano |
car | carro |
Notice that in some of the above examples, not only do these endings change to incorporate endings in
-o but also that there are, at times, some subtle spelling changes and/or accents over vowels.
Changing -tion endings to -ción English | Spanish |
acceleration | aceleración |
action | acción |
classification | clasificación |
definition | definición |
function | función |
tradition | tradición |
Changing -nt endings to -nte English | Spanish |
agent | agente |
constant | constante |
distant | distante |
efficient | eficiente |
elephant | elefante |
president | presidente |
tolerant | tolerante |
urgent | urgente |
Changing -nce endings to -ncia English | Spanish |
abundance | abundancia |
ambulance | ambulancia |
distance | distancia |
importance | importancia |
independence | independencia |
tolerance | tolerancia |
Changing -ity endings to -idad English | Spanish |
activity | actividad |
community | comunidad |
electricity | electricidad |
generosity | generosidad |
nationality | nacionalidad |
necessity | necesidad |
university | universidad |
velocity | velocidad |
Changing -ous endings to -oso English | Spanish |
ambitious | ambicioso |
curious | curioso |
famous | famoso |
mysterious | misterioso |
nervous | nervioso |
numerous | numeroso |
Changing -y endings to -ía English | Spanish |
academy | academía |
astronomy | astronomía |
battery | batería |
company | compañía |
energy | energía |
family | familia |
photography | fotografía |
urgency | urgencia |
Changing -ly endings to -mente English | Spanish |
absolutely | absolutamente |
correctly | correctamente |
naturally | naturalmente |
normally | normalmente |
recently | recientemente |
totally | totalmente |
Spelling differences Whilst we’ve mainly focused today on how to form cognates based on changing the endings, we should also keep a keen eye out for those subtle spelling changes. For instance, with the exception of
rr and
ll which are considered letters in their own right, Spanish words almost never have a double consonant.
Typically, English words containing the letter
y change to use an
i in the Spanish version.
Accents over vowels are also commonplace and are used to maintain the point at where we should stress the word.
Conclusion | En conclusión Cognates are a fantastic way for us to expand our Spanish vocabulary very quickly. There are literally hundreds of words we already know in Spanish by virtue of knowing their English counterparts.
By following a few simple rules as to forming their endings correctly, we can very quickly find that we are able correctly use and understand some really very advanced and nuanced words with little or no effort at all.
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