Cognates are words in two languages that have a common development and thus are similar or identical in their meanings.

For example, without knowing any Spanish you could guess that the word apartamento means apartment in English.

This does not mean that you can simply and an “o” or “a” to the end of any English word and make it Spanish.

There are also false cognates. These are words that look like words in English, but have no common meaning.

For example, the Spanish word carpeta does not mean carpet in English, instead it means folder.

On your own paper, write what you think the following cognates mean:

1. diciembre 11. activo2. mapa 12. turista3. tomate 13. artista4. melón 14.

inteligente5. animales 15. acción6. diccionario 16. agosto7. falso 17. música8. estudiante 18. elefante9. accidente 19. historia10. autógrafo 20. pingüino

Some Spanish words look like English words but they have a very different meaning. These words are called false cognates. Here are a few examples :

actual - current (NOT actual) asistir - to attend (NOT to assist) largo - long (NOT large) embarazada - pregnant (NOT

embarrassed) la fábrica - factory (NOT fabric) la librería - bookstore (NOT library) exito – success (NOT exit)

Some Spanish words look exactly the same as they do in English, but you must pronounce them differently because you are speaking in Spanish (obviously).

For example, the word doctor is the same in English and in Spanish, but must be pronounced differently because vowels make different sounds in Spanish than they do in English.

Here are more words that are spelled exactly the same in Spanish and English but are pronounced differently:

Animal, actor, hotel, color, director, general, hospital and moral

There are several more, these are just a few examples.

If an English word ends in “ist” the Spanish rule is to generally add “ista” to the end of it.

turista – tourist socialista – socialist egoísta – egoist artista – artist lista - list

If an English word ends in “ty” generally change it to “dad.”

electricidad – electricity universidad – university identidad – identity actividad – activity curiosidad - curiosity

If an English word ends in "tion" generally change it to "ción".

acción – action instrucción – instruction condición – condition combinación – combination asociación - association

If an English word ends in "al" some of the time the Spanish word is identical.

criminal – criminal natural – natural usual – usual brutal – brutal local - local

For adverbs, which end in “ly” you change it to "mente".

difícilmente – difficultly exactamente – exactly naturalmente – naturally finalmente – finally normalmente – normally absolutamente - absolutely