Thousands of Spanish words you already know! Patterns that let you guess correctly: -tion, -ty, -ous, -al.
| English | Spanish | English | Spanish |
|---|---|---|---|
| nation | nación | education | educación |
| information | información | communication | comunicación |
| situation | situación | organization | organización |
| attention | atención | tradition | tradición |
| action | acción | revolution | revolución |
| English | Spanish | English | Spanish |
|---|---|---|---|
| university | universidad | city | ciudad |
| liberty | libertad | reality | realidad |
| quality | calidad | society | sociedad |
| opportunity | oportunidad | identity | identidad |
| English | Spanish | English | Spanish |
|---|---|---|---|
| famous | famoso | nervous | nervioso |
| delicious | delicioso | curious | curioso |
| religious | religioso | generous | generoso |
| English ending | Spanish ending | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| -al | -al | normal, animal, hospital, cultural, natural |
| -ble | -ble | possible, terrible, horrible, invisible |
| -ant/-ent | -ante/-ente | importante, inteligente, elegante, evidente |
| -ive | -ivo/a | activo, positivo, negativo, creativo |
| -ic | -ico/a | público, música, romántico, fantástico |
| -ism | -ismo | turismo, capitalismo, romanticismo |
| -ist | -ista | turista, artista, optimista, pianista |
Identical: chocolate, hotel, animal, hospital, color, error, horror, taxi, radio, idea, yoga, virus
Near-identical: teléfono, computadora, restaurante, problema, sistema, programa, televisión, música
About 30-40% of English words have a Spanish cognate. With the patterns above, you can often guess the Spanish word correctly. Just watch out for false cognates (see our False Cognates lesson).
1. -tion in English becomes _____ in Spanish.
2. university = _____.
3. famous = _____.
4. -ble words are usually _____ in Spanish.
5. positive = _____.
6. -ist becomes _____ in Spanish.
7. turismo comes from the English pattern -ism → _____.
8. About _____% of English words have Spanish cognates.
9. chocolate in Spanish = _____.
10. -ic becomes _____ in Spanish.
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