Spanish and English cognates

I am sharing with you a document about cognates in Spanish and English. Download it here:

Cognates SPA-EN.pdf

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Cognates are words in two languages that are similar in appearance (the graphic structure of the word), pronunciation, and meaning. Let’s take a look at the following examples:

English word	Spanish word
Attitude	Actitud
Benevolent	Benevolente
Capricious	Caprichoso
Decisive	Decisivo
Economy	Economía
Federal	Federal
Gigantic	Gigantesco
Hippopotamus	Hipopótamo
Inevitable	Inevitable
Justified	Justificado
Kilogram	Kilogramo
Legislate	Legislar
Majesty	Majestad
Negligence	Negligencia
Obsession	Obsesión
Petal	Pétalo
Chimera	Quimera
Reason	Razón
Saxophone	Saxofón
Tranquility	Tranquilidad
Urban	Urbano
Variety	Variedad
Xenophobia	Xenofobia
Zone	Zona

As you can observe, the previous words are cognates between English and Spanish. When you are learning one of these languages, your brain could think in this way: 

• If you are an English speaker learning Spanish. Imagine that you are reading a text in Spanish and see the word doctor. You know that a doctor in your native language is a medical professional and could infer that a doctor in Spanish refers to the same concept. In this way, you are using your English knowledge to understand vocabulary in Spanish. 

• If you are a Spanish speaker learning English. You are reading an article written in English about cardiology. You notice that this word is similar to cardiología, the medical field referring to the study of the heart. You could deduce that cardiology is the equivalent Spanish word to cardiología.

While many words in both languages have the same meaning, we cannot solely rely on cognates to fully understand the language. One of the reasons is that there are words that look alike but have different meanings. These words are the false cognates, also called false friends. Without awareness of their existence, especially if we have begun to learn the language, we could find ourselves in embarrassing, funny, or even concerning situations, depending on the context. It is essential to know that the similarity between two false cognate words is deceptive and may appear to have a relationship in their meanings that does not exist. To illustrate it, let’s analyze the following situations:

• If you are an English speaker learning Spanish. Imagine you see this word in Spanish: embarazado, and you associate it with the English word embarrassed. Now you are talking to a group of Spanish-speaking friends and want to express you are embarrassed about something you did before. Then, you say, "Estoy embarazado". Your friends, who are laughing, look at you. “¿Estás embarazado?” – they ask. 

In Spanish, the word embarazado corresponds to pregnant in English. If our friend wanted to express he was embarrassed, he should have said he was avergonzado.

• If you are a Spanish speaker learning English. You have arrived in an English-speaking country and need to buy some clothes for your kids. You remember the word ropa in Spanish and relate it to the word rope in English. “Could you tell me where I could find rope for kids?” The seller takes you to the area where you find exercise-related items, such as dumbbells, exercise balls, a jump rope, resistance bands, etc.

The English word rope corresponds to cuerda in Spanish. The equivalent of ropa is clothes. Therefore, in this example, our friend should have asked, "Could you tell me where I could find clothes for kids?”

A moment of reflection

Do you notice the importance of knowing, understanding, and learning about false friends? For now, I would be happy for you to remember the following:

• Cognates are words in two languages similar in appearance, pronunciation, and meaning.

• False friends are words that look alike but have different meanings.

• Learners of languages should learn cognates and false cognates for accurate and correct communication. We can prevent serious misunderstandings.