4. Estrategia: Uso de cognados — Incrementa tu vocabulario en español, usando palabras en inglés

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 but in Spanish have one consonant and two consonants in English. Let’s see some examples:

• Capital = Capital ç same word, different in pronunciation
• Instructions = Instrucciones ç same origin: from the Latin: instructĭo,- ōnis.
• Impossible = Imposible ç In Spanish we have only NN and CC as double consonants.

RR and LL are considered consonant groups as of 1992.

In linguistics, a cognate (COGNADO) is a word that has the same origin or root; it can be Latin, Greek, German, etc.

• Accident = accidente 
• Banana = banana
• Cabin = cabina
• December = diciembre 
• Elephant = elefante 
• Family = familia
• Idea = idea
• Galaxy = galaxia
• 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 will help you to succeed in spelling Spanish.