Since there are about 20,000 Spanish-English cognates, it would be silly to try to memorize them all. However, because recognizing cognates is an excellent way to use your knowledge of Spanish to learn new English words and vice versa, let’s talk about ways you can recognize cognates when you are reading unfamiliar words.
The following three types of cognates are relatively easy to recognize:
Since words that are spelled exactly the same are the easiest to identify, let’s spend some time identifying the other two types of cognates.
Spelling patterns can help you identify Spanish cognates that are spelled slightly differently from the English word. Some of the most common patterns are numbered below. Tip: When you encounter an unfamiliar word, read the sentence aloud. Often, hearing the word will help you identify a cognate.
Spanish | English |
---|---|
restaurante | restaurant |
musica | music |
grúpo | group |
When you’re reading and you encounter a word that looks like a Spanish word you know, but it’s missing an -a, -e, or -o, then it’s probably a cognate like the next example.
Denny recorded the results of his experiment every day.
If you are unfamiliar with the word experiment, but you know the Spanish word experimento, then you can conclude that experiment is the same as experimento.
Spanish | English |
---|---|
información | information |
declaración | declaration |
Spanish | English |
---|---|
teléfono | telephone |
foto | photo |
Spanish | English |
---|---|
historia | history |
tragedia | tragedy |
laboratorio | laboratory |
Reading aloud can be very helpful in recognizing Spanish-English cognates that are spelled differently but sound similar. Let’s take a look at a few words that fall into this category.
Spanish | English |
---|---|
igual | equal |
inicial | initial |
hipótesis | hypothesis |
Now, let’s see if you can recognize the three different types of cognates. Complete the activity below by dragging and dropping each cognate pair into the correct column.