English Spanish Cognates

 

There are many English Spanish Cognates. When learning a new language, cognates can be easy words to remember because they look and mean the same thing as words you already know. For example, gratitude in English means the same as gratitud in Spanish. Cognates are words that have a shared origin — like gratitude and gratitud both come from the Latin word gratitudo, meaning “thankfulness”.

English Spanish Cognate Rule 1

English words that end in -ous change to –oso in Spanish.

Examples:

English	Spanish
delicious	delicioso
curious	curioso
religious	religioso
precious	precioso

 

English Spanish Cognate Rule 2

English words that end in –al are usually the same in Spanish.

Examples:

English	Spanish
hospital	hospital
medical	medical
animal	animal
final	final

 

English Spanish Cognate Rule 3

English words that end in -ct change to –cto in Spanish.

Examples:

English	Spanish
perfect	perfecto
insect	insecto
correct	correcto
conflict	conflicto

 

English Spanish Cognate Rule 4

English words that end in -ic change to –ico in Spanish.

Examples:

English	Spanish
basic	básico
fantastic	fantástic
generic	genéric
organic	orgánico

 

English Spanish Cognate Rule 5

English words that end in -ar usually are the same in Spanish.

Examples:

English	Spanish
popular	popular
regular	regular
similar	similar
familiar	familiar

 

English Spanish Cognate Rule 6

English words that end in -ance change to –ancia in Spanish.

Examples:

English	Spanish
distance	distancia
importance	importancia
abundance	abundancia
ambulance	ambulancia

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our workbook series English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker which provides practice using English Spanish cognates. Check out all of our easy to use workbooks for Spanish-speaking teens and adults at our website.