Cognates in Spanish
Fun with friends
Pronunciation fun with cognates
Los cognados – cognates
A cognate is a word that looks the same or similar between 2 languages AND it means the same.
¡Tienes muchos amigos en español! – You have lots of friends in Spanish!
Más de 5.000 – More than 5,000
En español, hay 3 grupos de cognados – In Spanish, there are 3 groups of cognates
1. Spelled exactly the same
hotel
humor
simple
extra
doctor
hospital
natural
normal
2. A slight spelling change, yet easily recognizable (this is the largest group)
música
arte
teléfono
clase
importante
historia
oportunidad
universidad
3. Other have a greater spelling change, can be harder to recognize
amplio – ample
avanzado – advanced
descuento – discount
Fun with friends – Have you ever noticed how kids, when they are 3-5 years old, love to pronounce and say big long dinosaur names or other long scientific words?
Have you also noticed that they often say those same words with ease while us adults struggle to get our mouth around all of the vowels and consonants?
Well, today we are going to play like kids!
Using some of the longest cognates that I could find, I thought we’d combine them with a little pronunciation review.
¿Listos?
The rule here is, 10 or more letters
-ante
participante – participant
relajante – relaxing
tranquilizante – soothing
gratificante – gratifiying
fertilizante – fertilizer
inevitable – inevitible
subterráneo – subway
kilometraje – mileage
sostenible – sustainable
insostenible – unsustainable
macrobiótico
macroeconomía
la tranquilidad – tranquility
la ciudad – city
ciudadano – citizen
ciudadanía – citizenship
estadounidense – la nacionalidad de una persona de los Estados Unidos
canadiense – la nacionalidad de una persona de Canadá
costarisense – la nacionalidad de una persona de Costa Rica
nicaragüense – la nacionalidad de una persona de Nicaragua
arquitecto (qui=key)
arquitectura
arqueología (que=k)
la antropología – anthropology
equivocado – incorrect / wrong
me equivoco – I’m wrong
civilización
industrialización
urbanización – urbanization
el suburbio – the suburb
meteorología – meteorology (may tay o dough low HE ah)
meteorlógo – meteorologist
metropolitano
cosmopolita
forforescente – phosphorescent
fotocopiadora – photocopier
-mente = -ly
aproximadamente
afortunadamente – fortunately
desafortunadamente – unfortunately
inteligentemente
diligentemente- diligently
Action Steps:
1. Read these aloud on your own and then listen again
¡Gracias por pasar por the Spanish Blog 365 y hasta manaña!
