Spanish/English Cognates
Jill
Kerper Mora, Ed.D.
San Diego State University
This
page is made available for those interested in the study of Spanish/English
cognates. Cognates are words that have similar pronunciations and spellings in
both languages, and frequently have the same meaning. There are thousands of cognates
shared by Spanish and English. Many of these are words with Latin or Greek
origins and words that have prefixes and suffixes derived from these ancient
languages. I have provided examples of fourteen different
categories or groups of cognates that have an English equivalent with only a few
spelling changes. I have given the Spanish examples so that investigators can
infer the rule or rules that govern the spelling changes to convert the Spanish
form to English. Be aware of internal spelling changes required because of
English spelling patterns and generalizations such as double consonants.
Click here for a presentation on Word Study in Biliteracy Classrooms for ideas about how to teach Spanish and English orthography.
Click here for an on-line dictionary of cognates and a categorization system for cognates from ESDICT.COM
Group 1
Atlántico
democrático
patriótico
romántico
sarcástico
Group 2
cliente
equivalente
indiferente
patente
suficiente
Group 3
atención
circulación
edición
indicación
proposición
Group 4
artista
florista
moralista
pianista
turista
Group 5
argumento
monumento
sacramento
suplemento
testamento
Group 6
abundante
constante
elegante
importante
significante
Group 7
clásico
cómico
histérico
metódico
técnico
Group 8
ambicioso
famoso
gracioso
laborioso
religioso
Group 9
aniversario
disciplinario
itinerario
literario
salario
Group 10
comunidad
necesidad
prosperidad
publicidad
universidad
Group 11
diagrama
idioma
problema
programa
sistema
Group 12
aristocracia
democracia
eficacia
farmacia
urgencia
Group 13
abundancia
conciencia
distancia
obediencia
permanencia
Group 14
admirable
animal
central
director
noble
Resources: Click here for a list of English prefixes and suffixes
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