Unidad 1: Los sonidos del español
4. ¡Aprendamos los cognados!
As we end this chapter about vowels and consonants, we have a nice surprise for you—you may already know more Spanish than you think! Many Spanish words have the same origin as English words. In fact, some words are the same word, but are pronounced differently. We have many words that are the same that in Spanish have one consonant but have two consonants in English.
Let’s see some examples:
- Capital in English = Capital in Spanish → same word different in pronunciation.
- Instructions = Instrucciones → same origin: From the Latin: instructĭo,-ōnis.
- Impossible = Imposible → In Spanish, we have only NN and CC as double consonants*
*Notice: ch, rr, ll are consonant groups.
In linguistics a cognate (COGNADO) is a word that has the same origin or root as in another language; it can be Latin, Greek, German, etc.
How many Spanish words do you already know?
- Accident = Accidente
- Banana = Banana
- Cabin = Cabina
- December = Diciembre
- Elephant = Elefante
- Family = Familia
- Galaxy = Galaxia
- Idea = Idea
- List = Lista
- Magic = Mágia
- Natural = Natural
- Object = Objeto
- Paper = Papel
- Radio = Radio
- Secret = Secreto
- Telephone = Teléfono
The next table gives you some equivalents between English and Spanish. These are very helpful to have a better understanding of the COGNADOS and also help you to succeed in spelling Spanish. As you remember, there are some words that need to have an acento ortográfico. We didn’t study the rules for the acentos ortográficos yet; but when you memorize these equivalents you are learning also that all Spanish words that end in ción, sión or ión use an acento ortográfico. When you learn a new Spanish word, always learn it with the correct spelling including the orthographic stress.
| Inglés | Equivalencia en Español | Ejemplos |
|---|---|---|
| -ade | -ada | limonada |
| -ant | -ante | instante |
| -cy | -cia | infancia |
| chl | cl | cloro without H |
| -ic | -ica/-ico | música/público |
| -ion | -ión | religión |
| -ist | -ista | artista |
| mm | nm | inmovil |
| s + consonant | es + consonante | especial |
| (s)sion | -sión | pasión |
| th | t | teología without H |
| -ty | -ad | universidad |
| -tion | -ción | nación |
| ph | f | filosofía |
| psy | psi | psicología |
JUST FOR FUN!
Although it may seem improbable, you can learn 100 Spanish words in record time! We’re just talking about the cognates! As you remember, cognates are words that are identical or nearly identical in spelling in both languages because they have the same origin or root.
Empecemos—let’s get started…
| Español | Inglés |
|---|---|
| accidente | accident |
| actor | actor |
| analizar | to analyze |
| ángel | angel |
| artístico | artistic |
| banana | banana |
| banco | bank |
| balance | balance |
| cabina | cabin |
| carro | car |
| canal | channel |
| colección | collection |
| combinar | to combine |
| concierto | concert |
| cultura | culture |
| curioso | curious |
| delicado | delicate |
| detalle | detail |
| distancia | distance |
| dividir | to divide |
| enorme | enormous |
| esencial | essential |
| excelente | excellent |
| expreso | express |
| extremo | extreme |
| familia | family |
| fantástico | fantastic |
| general | general |
| guía | guide |
| hospital | hospital |
| hotel | hotel |
| importante | important |
| imposible | imposible |
| individual | individual |
| infinito | infinite |
| interactivo | interactive |
| invención | invention |
| ilusión | illusion |
| isla | island |
| letra | letter |
| león | lion |
| máquina | machine |
| material | material |
| melodía | melody |
| memoria | memory |
| miserable | miserable |
| momento | momento |
| música | music |
| nación | nation |
| necesidad | necessity |
| nota | note |
| objetivo | objective |
| océano | ocean |
| opinión | opinión |
| opción | option |
| orden | order |
| original | original |
| papel | paper |
| parque | park |
| personal | personal |
| foto | photo |
| pino | pine |
| planta | plant |
| posibilidad | possibility |
| posible | possible |
| presidente | president |
| el problema | problema |
| proyecto | project |
| promover | promote |
| público | public |
| radio | radio |
| rancho | ranch |
| real | real/royal |
| razón | reason |
| recibir | to receive |
| reducir | to reduce |
| relación | relation |
| repetir | to repeat |
| reservación | reservation |
| restaurante | restaurant |
| romántico | romantic |
| rosa | rose |
| ruta | route |
| secreto | secret |
| sensación | sensation |
| silencio | silence |
| especial | special |
| estructura | structure |
| teléfono | telephone |
| terrible | terrible |
| tráfico | traffic |
| unido | united |
| urgente | urgent |
| usual | usual |
| verbo | verb |
| vibración | vibration |
| vacaciones | vacation |
| virgen | virgen |
| visitar | to visit |
| vocabulario | vocabulary |
We just learned 100 words in Spanish!!!
