Transparent Cognates
Welcome to our blog post about English to Spanish cognate hacks. What is a cognate you might ask? As we mentioned in our previous post, cognates are words that are “born together” or share a common history. If you haven’t already, check out our other post on cognates in a more general sense.
Of the top 5,000 words in Spanish, 2,700 are cognates to words in English and 1,000 are words derived from other words. This means you only need to learn 1,300 words to hit that 5,000 mark.
in theory
But how do you recognize cognates, and take advantage of these 2,700 free words?
You just need to learn a few sound or spelling correspondences!
The charts below don’t need to be memorized, just go over them and prime yourself to recognize the relationship between sounds and changes in your immersion.
| Y – > I | Ph -> F | Th -> T | -tion -> cion |
|---|---|---|---|
| mito myth | telefono telephone | teatro theater | ficcion fiction |
| cinico cynic | farmacia pharmacy | atleta athlete | opcion option |
| sicofanta sycophant | alfabeto alphabet | matematico mathematics | situacion situation |
| -ize -> izar | -ous -> oso/a | -ble -> -ble | add -o, -a, or -e |
|---|---|---|---|
| organizar organize | nervioso nervous | responsable responsible | moderno modern |
| autorizar authorize | curiosa curious | memorable memorable | grafico graphic |
| especializar specialize | famosa famous | favorable favorable | importante important |
| sion -> s￭on | -ity -> idad | -sim -> ismo | -ist -> ista |
|---|---|---|---|
| exclusión exclusion | sociedad society | racismo racism | artista artist |
| decisión decision | responsabilidad responsibility | turismo tourism | ortodoncista orthodontist |
| agresión agression | comunidad community | organismo organism | optimista optimist |
| -ary/ory -> -ario/orio | -ate -> ato/ado/ar | -cy -> -cia | -age -> -aje |
|---|---|---|---|
| categoria category | privado private | agencia agency | coraje courage |
| diccionario dictionary | validado validate | fluencia fluency | porcentaje percentage |
| enfermario enfermary | inmediato immediate | urgenci aurgency | mensaje message |
| alegoria allegory | lobulado lobate | relevancia relevency | masaje massage |
| -fy -> -ficar | -ance/-ence -> -ancia/-encia | -er -> -ador/edor/idor/ero | No Change (-al/-ar) |
|---|---|---|---|
| identifica identify | corespondencia correspondence | mensajero messenger | nacional national |
| clasificar classify | licencia license | socializador socializer | ordinal ordinal |
| justificar justify | importancia importance | organizador organizer | particular particular |
| rectificar rectify | pacencia patience | encubridor cover | original original |
Obscure Correspondencies
Up to this point, we mostly covered correspondencies that were very clear and easy to understand. Just as English has borrowed from Latin and French, Spanish also borrowed from Latin! Words directly from Latin are called cultismos, and words that are partially borrowed from Latin are called semicultismos.
However, unlike English, Spanish not only borowed from Latin but also descended directly from it! This means that it has a large bank of vocabulary that underwent hundreds of years of sound changes. These words can be much trickier to identify, but being aware of them can be a huge boon!
Below you’ll see a list of English cognates, the inherited Spanish form, and the Latin borrow or semiborrowed forms if they exist:
Latin in Italics
Learned Borrowings Underlined
Sound changes in bold
| F ~ H | T ~ D | C ~ G | P ~ B |
|---|---|---|---|
| fungus fungus hongo | minute minuto menudo | aqua aqua agua | super- super– sobre- |
| furnace furnus horno | delicate delicado delgado | lake lacus lago | people populus pueblo |
| ferrus ferrus fierro hierro | fate fātum fado hado | sacred sacrātus sagrado | opera opera obra |
| folia folia hoja | Peter Petrus Pedro | state (e)status estado | lupu slupus lobo |
| P ~ W | CT ~ CH | D/R ~ L/N | Dipthongization of Vowels |
|---|---|---|---|
| baptist baptista bautista | noct– i.e. nocturnal nocturno noche | coda coda cola | port portus puerto |
| capital capital caudal | oct– i.e. octopus ocho | anima alma | feast fiesta |
| anchor ancora ancla | terra tierra | ||
| arbor arborem arbol | record recuerdo |
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