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English audio system studying Spanish could come throughout Spanish cognates—a phrase in Spanish that appears much like a phrase in English—and this will likely really feel like a fortunate break. Most frequently it’s!
1000’s of Spanish phrases are written the identical or almost the identical in Spanish and English. These Spanish-English cognates can make studying Spanish so much simpler. Thankfully for you, many of those phrase pairs have the identical that means in each languages. However don’t be fooled: A couple of of those phrases have barely totally different meanings and even fully totally different ones. This put up will educate you concerning the various kinds of cognates, principally “pleasant” ones, and the way they will help you be taught Spanish quicker. We additionally embrace some helpful lists to get began.
The nice factor is that at Rosetta Stone, you possibly can grasp the totally different sorts of cognates very quickly in any respect with out counting on memorization! In case you be taught the cognates and use them with some fundamental Spanish phrases and phrases, you’ll already be effectively in your technique to speaking in Spanish.
What’s a cognate in Spanish?
Cognates are English-Spanish phrase pairs which are comparable of their type, which is to say, the way in which they’re spelled. Most frequently they’ve the identical that means. It is because they normally have the identical origin or root, which is named “etymology.” Within the case of English and Spanish, it’s because they could initially come from Greek or Latin phrases. Many good dictionaries present etymologies for phrases beneath the primary entry.
Spanish and different Romance languages—similar to French, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, and Catalan—all have a typical origin in Latin, in order that they belong to the identical language household. English, whereas not a Romance language, is a part of the identical broad language group as Spanish, known as the Indo-European languages. Whereas English is Germanic in origin, it shares an excessive amount of affect from Latin.
Discuss round language households may be dense, however you don’t need to be a educated linguist to learn from all this historical past! Recognizing cognate phrases is simpler than you assume. The underside line is that this: as an English speaker, you might have a leg up on studying Spanish as a result of you’ll simply acknowledge cognates.
At the moment, you’ll be taught concerning the distinction between the cognate varieties: true cognates, false cognates, loanwords, and false mates. All this can enable you type out find out how to use cognates to enhance your Spanish.
>>Need a primer on cognates for all languages? Examine this out.

Excellent Spanish cognates
Excellent cognates are spelled the identical in each languages and have the identical that means. They make Spanish a breeze! Simply remember that the pronunciation of those phrases will inevitably be totally different in Spanish. To grasp these simply, use our TruAccent software to observe your pronunciation till you get it proper.
Here’s a record of some excellent cognates in Spanish, written with their accents when relevant.
- alcohol
- animal
- área
- bar
- chocolate
- legal
- cultural
- decisión
- disco
- physician
- drama
- error
- formal
- gasoline
- basic
- thought
- particular person
- casual
- kilo
- authorized
- native
- melón
- motel
- pure
- regular
- unique
- pasta
- private
- plural
- common
- sexual
- easy
- singular
- social
- taxi
- televisión
- horrible
- complete
Close to-perfect cognates
Like excellent cognates, near-perfect cognates are phrase pairs that share the identical etymology and have the identical meanings, however there are minor variations in the way in which they’re written.
Determine Spanish near-perfect cognates with frequent phrase endings
These sorts of cognates have a number of fundamental guidelines. When you be taught them, you’ll be capable of rapidly perceive a whole bunch of vocabulary phrases.
1. Cognates ending in -ario
If a phrase ends in -ario in Spanish, it ends in “-ary” in English. For instance: salario in Spanish can be “wage” in English, and glosario in Spanish can be “glossary” in English.
Notice: Double letters in English change to a single letter in Spanish, and a few Spanish phrases will want an accent.
2. Cognates ending in -ción
Spanish phrases ending in -ción get transformed to “-tion” in English. An instance of that is the phrase “consideration.” In Spanish, that will be atención.
3. Cognates ending in -ico
When phrases in Spanish finish in -ico, simply take off the “o” to make it an English phrase! As an illustration, take the phrase heroico. In English, it’s merely “heroic.
4. Cognates ending in -oso
Spanish phrases that finish in -oso get modified to “-ous” in English. For instance, delicioso is “scrumptious” in English.
5. Cognates ending in -cto
Phrases in Spanish with -cto on the finish are transformed to the “-ct” ending in English. The phrase contacto means “contact.”
6. Cognates ending in -mente
If a phrase in Spanish ends in -mente, the English equal will usually have an “ly” on the finish as a substitute. In some instances, you could have to take away a letter from the Spanish phrase earlier than including the “ly.” For instance, exactamente is “precisely” in English.
7. Cognates ending in -dad
For Spanish phrases ending in -dad, change them to “-ty” in English. For instance, solidaridad means “solidarity.”
8. Cognates ending in -io, -ia, or ía
Lastly, phrases that finish in -io, -ia or ía in Spanish finish in “-y” in English: memoria interprets to “reminiscence.”

Spanish near-perfect cognates that defy grammar guidelines
That stated, not all excellent cognates comply with these guidelines. Here’s a record of some near-perfect cognates that don’t comply with the principles above:
Spanish | English |
accidente | accident |
acento | accent |
adicional | extra |
aire | air |
arte | artwork |
banco | financial institution |
bicicleta | bicycle |
cámara | digital camera |
computadora | laptop |
confortable | snug |
desastre | disastrous |
diferente | totally different |
difícil | troublesome |
esencial | important |
especial | particular |
evento | occasion |
excepcional | distinctive |
famoso | well-known |
gasolina | gasoline |
grupo | group |
importante | necessary |
increíble | unbelievable |
magnífico | magnificent |
nota | notice |
parque | park |
problema | downside |
raro | uncommon |
renta | lease |
restaurante | restaurant |
silencio | silence |
sofá | couch |
teléfono | phone |
usado | used |
vehículo | car |
Why is it useful to be taught Spanish-English cognates?
1. Keep away from memorization
Studying to acknowledge cognates is a good way to extend your vocabulary with ease. You don’t need to do any rote memorization. You’re mainly coaching your eye and thoughts to be receptive to phrases that look much like your native language: English. You’ll additionally enable your self to strive changing phrases you already know in English to Spanish. It’s a two-way road!
Many language learners count on every thing to be about memorizing, and that may take time. However with cognates you depend on your earlier data to construct your vocabulary in Spanish. Simply remember that pronunciation will differ in your new language. Nonetheless, you’re one step forward of the sport since you already know so many phrases.
2. Talk sooner
With cognate recognition, you will get a soar on vocabulary rapidly. As you start seeing the commonalities between Spanish and English, you’ll notice you realize fairly a bit. With a number of easy ideas and guidelines, you can be in your technique to listening, talking, studying, and writing in Spanish. Which means you’ll spend much less time worrying about vocabulary and extra time simply speaking. See? Comunicación es básico. Little doubt you possibly can determine that phrase out by relying in your English!
3. Perceive general that means
Listening to a podcast or studying an article in Spanish may really feel a bit overwhelming at first. Nevertheless, when you perceive the idea of cognates, you’ll be much less nervous. You’ll most likely acknowledge some phrases as you pay attention or learn, permitting you to really feel extra assured. Whenever you grasp the that means of those recognizable phrases, you can begin with a basic understanding of the fabric. Starting language learners usually really feel pissed off as a result of they wish to get each single phrase down. But, if they permit their energy of cognate recognition to take over, they’ll notice they could already perceive the general that means of what they’re studying or listening to.

How does a Spanish cognate differ from a loanword?
Loanwords are grouped along with cognates as a result of they usually look comparable in English and Spanish—additionally they occur to have the identical that means. The distinction is that reasonably than trying comparable attributable to having the identical origin, loanwords are phrases “loaned” from one language to a different.
In some instances, a language lacks the vocabulary to call an merchandise, whether or not it’s concrete or summary. As an illustration, expressing “influencer” in Spanish isn’t attainable—but—so Spanish audio system use the English phrase. This can be a large assist for English audio system.
Some loanwords truly turn into a part of a language. Do you know that “patio” and “ranch” truly come from Spanish? Loanwords usually get barely tailored within the “borrowing” language. Typically a letter is dropped or added. At different occasions an accent is positioned. There are various loanwords from English within the Spanish language, and you should not have any hassle recognizing them.
Loanwords in Spanish that come from English
Spanish | English |
clic | click on |
membership | membership |
cóctel | cocktail |
esnob | snob |
gol | purpose |
interest | interest |
web | Web |
advertising | advertising |
sándwich | sandwich |
tuit | tweet |
váucher | voucher |
What’s a false cognate?
Up to now, we’ve recognized phrases with shared that means which are comparable in English and Spanish. However there are some phrase pairs which are false cognates—they give the impression of being comparable however have totally different meanings.
Typically the distinction is barely slight, however generally their that means is totally totally different. On this first record of frequent false cognates in Spanish, we’ll check out phrases which are considerably associated however nonetheless have totally different meanings.
Frequent false Spanish cognates
Spanish | English |
apreciar | to judge, to esteem |
carácter | persona, character (however not character in a literary or cinematic sense) |
emocionante | thrilling |
ignorar | to be unaware of, to be unaware of |
largo | lengthy |
lectura | studying |
pariente | relative |
quitar | to take away |
receta | recipe or prescription |
sensitivo | pertaining to the senses |
vaso | ingesting glass |

What’s a false pal?
On the subject of language studying, a false pal is a phrase that appears much like a phrase in your native language however truly means one thing fully totally different…to the purpose you may make a fake pas when you use it incorrectly.
“Fake pas”—there’s a loanword in English that comes from French!
Simply as with individuals, you wish to be notably attentive to these phrases that seem like your mates however aren’t. Fortunately although, they aren’t all too frequent.
Frequent Spanish false mates
Spanish | English |
advertencia | warning |
asistir | to attend (an occasion) |
educado | well mannered, well-mannered |
embarazada | pregnant |
éxito | success |
ganga | discount |
grosería | swear phrase |
explicit | non-public |
pretender | to strive |
rapista | barber |
remover | to combine or to stir |
sopa | soup |
Study much more Spanish cognates with Rosetta Stone
As you possibly can see, there are a plethora of phrases in Spanish which are cognates: phrases which are spelled the identical or almost the identical in English.
Whereas there are a number of various kinds of cognates, most Spanish cognates—excellent, near-perfect, and loanwords—are your mates and have the identical that means, and only some—false cognates and false mates—require some degree of wariness.
Due to their ties to English, true cognates will help you be taught Spanish extra rapidly. Wish to speed up your studying journey even additional? You may increase your vocabulary and grammar data and put together for real-life conversations with Rosetta Stone.
Rosetta Stone’s Dynamic Immersion method makes language studying really feel pure and intuitive. Plus, with an easy-to-use app, you can begin mastering one or all 25 languages right now.
Written by Rowena Galavitz
Rowena Galavitz is a Spanish translator, bilingual copy editor, and language and literature teacher with three grasp’s levels who loves Spanish and all issues Mexico.