Espangles

Espanglés is a term coined to describe the meeting point between the Spanish (Español) and English (Inglés) languages. This systemized study of English/Spanish cognates offers the learner a potentially huge stock of Spanish vocabulary words.

The cognates fall into suffix catagories which, for clarity and convenience, have been grouped under the following terms of grammar:

Nouns: Words which name things (woman, chair, city, dream etc.)

Adjectives: Words which describe things (pretty, happy, yellow etc.)

Verbs: Action words (kicked, smiled, goes)

Adverbs: Words added to verbs to describe an action (They ran quickly )

* The apostrophe (') in the Spanish words indicates the position of the stress.

Nouns

There are many Spanish nouns that are instantly recognisable to an English reader. With slight modifications (usually with some change to the word ending and pronunciation) many Spanish nouns can easily be converted into English nouns.

English nouns ending in '-or' are very often identical in Spanish:

#1. -or = -or
English	Spanish
actor color favor tutor error	ac'tor co'lor fa'vor tu'tor e'rror

English nouns ending in '-al' are very often identical in Spanish.

#2. -al = -al

English Spanish

animal

capital

hospital

metal

moral

ani'mal

capi'tal

hospi'tal

me'tal

mo'ral

Many English nouns ending with '-ist', can be converted into Spanish nouns by adding an 'a' to the end of the word.

#3. -ist = -ista

English Spanish

artist

dentist

novelist

optimist

tourist

ar'tista

den'tista

nove'lista

opti'mista

tu'rista

#4. -ism = -ismo
English	Spanish
idealism sexism budhism tourism optimism	idea'lismo se'xismo bu'dismo tur'ismo opti'mismo

#5. -nce = -ncia
English	Spanish
assistance licence experience distance intelligence	asis'tencia li'cencia experi'encia dis'tancia inteli'gencia

#6. -ty = -dad
English	Spanish
variety society electricity city university	varie'dad socie'dad electrici'dad ciu'dad universi'dad

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Adjectives

Many Spanish adjectives can be converted into English simply by changing the word ending.
Almost all Spanish adjectives are either masculine (ending in o) or feminine (ending in a). An adjective's gender is usually dictated by the gender of the noun to which it is refers.

#1. -ive= ivo
English	Spanish
negative expressive positive effective offensive	nega'tivo expre'sivo posi'tivo efec'tivo ofen'sivo

#2. -al= -al
English	Spanish
final usual local normal natural	fi'nal us'ual lo'cal nor'mal natu'ral

#3. -ous = -oso
English	Spanish
famous nervous delicious generous ambitious	fa'moso nervi'oso delici'oso gene'roso ambici'oso

#4. -ic = -ico
English	Spanish
romantic fantastic electric artistic automatic	ro'matico fan'tastico e'lectrico ar'tistico auto'matico

#5. -ble= -ble
English	Spanish
horrible impossible terrible probable notable	ho'rrible impo'sible te'rrible pro'bable no'table

#6. -nt= -nte
English	Spanish
ignorant convenient patient important excellent	igno'rante conveni'ente paci'ente impor'tante exce'lente

#7. -id= -ido
English	Spanish
stupid rapid splendid valid solid	estu'pido 'rápido esplen'dido va'lido so'lido

#8. -ile= -il
English	Spanish
fertile hostile mobile juvenile sterile	fer'til hos'til mov'il juve'nil este'ril

#9. -ary= -ario
English	Spanish
secondary literary ordinary necessary voluntary	secun'dario lite'rario ordi'nario nece'sario volun'tario

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Verbs

There are many English verbs that can be converted into Spanish, usually by changing the ending of the English verb and adding 'ar', 'er' or 'ir'.

Almost every English infinitive verb ending in '-ate' (eg. celebrate) can be coverted into a Spanish infinitive by replacing the final '-ate' with '-ar' (eg. celebrar).

English	Spanish
create	cre'ar
calculate	calcu'lar
concentrate	concen'trar
demonstrate	demo'strar
estimate	esti'mar
exaggerate	exage'rar
negotiate	negoci'ar
operate	ope'rar
participate	partici'par
terminate	termi'nar

Many English verbs (infinitive) ending in VOWEL + CONSONANT + T (eg. result) can be converted into Spanish verbs (infinitive) by adding '-ar', 'er' or 'ir' to the end of the English verb (eg. resultar).

English	Spanish
insult	insul'tar
consult	consul'tar
present	presen'tar
represent	represen'tar
comment	comen'tar
import	impor'tar
export	expor'tar
convert	conver'tir
insist	insis'tir

Many English infinitive verbs (of more than one syllable) ending VOWEL + CONSONANT + E (eg. examine) can be converted into Spanish infinitive verbs by dropping the final E and adding 'ar'. (eg. examinar).

English	Spanish
accuse	acu'sar
adore	ado'rar
authorize	autori'zar
complete	comple'tar
converse	conver'sar
escape	esca'par
ignore	igno'rar
invite	invi'tar
imagine	imagi'nar
prepare	prepa'rar
organize	organi'zar
utilize	utili'zar

Almost every English infinitive verb ending with '-ify' (eg. signify) can be converted into a Spanish verb by replacing the final 'ify' with '-ificar' (eg. significar).

English	Spanish
unify	unifi'car
simplify	simplifi'car
solidify	solidifi'car
amplify	amplifi'car
notify	notifi'car
modify	modifi'car
gratify	gratifi'car
justify	justifi'car
pacify	pacifi'car
certify	certifi'car

Nouns | Adjectives | Verbs | Top

Adverbs

In Spanish, "mente" combines with (feminine) adjectives to form Spanish adverbs.

In English, "-ly" combines with many adjectives to form adverbs.

Adjective		Adverb
English	Spanish	English	Spanish
normal	nor'mal	normally	normalmente
natural	natu'ral	naturally	natural'mente
final	fi'nal	finally	final'mente
probable	pro'bable	probably	probable'mente
absolute	abso'luta	absolutely	absoluta'mente
exact	e'xacta	exactly	exacta'mente
evident	evi'dente	evidently	evidente'mente
complete	com'pleta	completly	completa'mente

Nouns | Adjectives | Verbs | Adverbs | Top

What are cognates?

The 'convertable' English to Spanish words are known as cognates, words in both languages which share the same Latin root and which are visibly and often audibly very similar. It is important to bear in mind that these cognates do not always translate from one language to another precisely. For example: "inferior" in Spanish may be used to refer to a subordinate in the work-place, without carrying any of the derogatory meaning in the English usage. In Spanish, "informal" means unreliable rather than casual. In spite of these 'false cognates', there are thousands of English words which can be converted into Spanish along with much of their English meaning (especially the literal) by following a few simple steps.

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