Spanish Lesson Forty-Two: Cognates

Buenas noches!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. So I'm so happy about writing this article. It's a bit lighter than the ones I have written lately. This article pertains to cognates and how they can make learning Spanish a lot easier. So last week we discussed the Future Tense and how it's used when describing things that shall or will happen sometime in the future. I hope you all enjoyed that lesson and we will be learning another tense by lesson Forty-Five. Every time I write a new lesson, I think about others I could write. Any suggestions on what you'd like to learn? I'd love to hear from you!

So with learning about Cognates, I'll tell you what they are and why they're important. I'll also provide a list of common cognates for you to learn. It's easy, I promise.

Today's Goals: To learn and understand cognates. To be able to recognize cognates when reading Spanish language.

Hey everyone. Today's vocabulary is same ol' same ol'. Take a look at today's hodgepodge for new words to add to your vocabulary. I'm still thinking of new ways to incorporate new vocabulary so thinks may change soon, not certain of that though. Once we've gone through all the regular verbs on my list to share, I will be looking for new ways to incorporate them. Thanks for reading, check out today's list.

Today's Tips: Start making flashcards with pictures and seeing if you can identify the word on the other side.

Verbs

To Grumble/To Grunt/To Growl/To Creak: Gruñir

To Lead/To Guide: Guiar

To Be Pleasing (to)/To Like

To Have (as an auxilary, helping verb to form the compound tenses): Haber

To Inhabit/To Dwell/To Live/To Reside: Habitar

To Talk/To Speak: Hablar

To Do/To Make: Hacer

Reflexive Verbs

To Make Up (one's face)/To Tint/To Color (one's hair, lips, etc.): Pintarse

To Put On (clothing)/To Become/To Set (of sun): Ponerse

To Be Concerned/To Worry/To Be Worried: Preocuparse

To Be Prepared/To Get Ready/To Prepare Oneself: Prepararse

To Try On (clothes): Probarse

To Remain/To Stay: Quedarse

To Complain/To Grumble: Quejarse

Nouns

Winter: El Invierno

Spring: La Primaver

Summer: El Verano

Fall: El Otoño

Twilight: El Crepúsculo

Midnight: La Medianoche

Adjectives

Smart: Listo(a)

Fun: Divertido(a)

Talkative: Hablador(a)

Funny: Chistoso(a)

Friendly: Amistoso(a)

Today's Warm-Up is a three question quiz from Lesson Thirteen. Use that lesson to research your answers if you need to. Also don't forget you can always practice aloe or with a friend. I always suggest watching a show that immerses you into a language. Think of a TV drama, sitcom, or soap opera in Spanish and watch it like you watch other shows. You'd be amazed as to your ability to comprehend what is being said. I surprised myself! :)

Thanks for reading! If you took a peek at the chart below this section, you'll already know that cognates are words that look EXTREMELY similar to their English equivalents. These words are the words that an English speaker can look at and immediately be able to guess the meaning of the word. These words can be spelled exactly the same as their English counterparts are look nearly exact. There are, however, false cognates that can deceive a person. Take a look at these regular cognates.

Universidad. University

Brutal. Brutal

Animal. Animal

Inmediamente. Immediately.

When looking at cognates one can see that certain Spanish sounds are equivalent to certain English sounds. Words that end in -mente are equivalent to our -ly ending. So if the beginning of that word looks similar to English, you've got the meaning of the word. Here are some other ending equivalents.

-cion. -tion

-ista. -ist

-ia, ía, or io. -y

There are so many others to look for. Look at the links provided for more information. Also remember about false cognates as they can be deceiving. Check out the second chart for a few of those! Thanks for reading and see you all next week!

So last week I started the homework up again for everyone. I hope these practices are helping you to be able to familiarize and conjugate new verbs. If it isn't working, I'd love to hear about it! If it is, then that's great. Remember the verbs listed will need to be conjugate in the Present Indicative, Preterit, and Indicative Imperfect tenses. These tenses are important and I hope that everyone takes these practices seriously. You never know when you need to use a verb off the cuff!

If you need help refer to: Lesson Five, Lesson Twenty,Lesson Twenty-Five, and Lesson Thirty-Five.

Aclarar (To Explain, To Clarify, To Make Clear, To Rinse, To Clear)

Acompañar (To Accompany, To Escort, To Go With, To Keep Company)

Aconsejar (To Advise, To Counsel)

Oh! Next week I think we could stand to learn about Clothing and Apparel. This is a perfect theme considering Spring is starting. That one will be fun, don't miss it!