Lexical and grammatical similarities between English and Spanish
English and Spanish belong to the same larger language family called Indo-European, however, they are in different branches, i.e. while English is Germanic, Spanish is a Romance language derived from Latin. Both languages are related like distant cousins sharing some common ancestry and influencing each other over time but, in fact, they have evolved along different paths.
The most obvious linguistic correlation between English and Spanish is that both languages use the Latin alphabet as their common root is Latin. The English language’s typical Latin alphabet contains 26 letters, whereas the Spanish alphabet has 27 letters.
The main similarities between and English and Spanish seem to fall under two categories i.e. vocabulary and grammar.
1/ VOCABULARY
Some common English-Spanish cognates*
*Cognates are words that have the same or similar meaning, spelling and pronunciation in two languages.
Below is a list of 120 words which look exactly the same in English and Spanish and which have the same meanings in both languages.
The words are organised alphabetically.
Spanish | English |
Actor | Actor |
Admirable | Admirable |
Altar | Altar |
Animal | Animal |
Area | Area |
Artificial | Artificial |
Cáncer | Cancer |
Capital | Capital |
Carbón | Carbon |
Cartón | Carton |
Central | Central |
Chocolate | Chocolate |
Circular | Circular |
Civil | Civil |
Collar | Collar |
Colonial | Colonial |
Coma | Coma |
Combustión | Combustion |
Conclusión | Conclusion |
Conductor | Conductor |
Confusión | Confusion |
Considerable | Considerable |
Cordial | Cordial |
Criminal | Criminal |
Crisis | Crisis |
Cultural | Cultural |
Debate | Debate |
Decisión | Decision |
Diagonal | Diagonal |
Dimensión | Dimension |
Director | Director |
División | Division |
Doctor | Doctor |
Durable | Durable |
Elemental | Elemental |
Enigma | Enigma |
Error | Error |
Excursión | Excursion |
Experimental | Experimental |
Extensión | Extension |
Exterior | Exterior |
Factor | Factor |
Familiar | Familiar |
Fatal | Fatal |
Federal | Federal |
Festival | Festival |
Funeral | Funeral |
Flexible | Flexible |
Fundamental | Fundamental |
General | General |
Global | Global |
Grave | Grave |
Habitual | Habitual |
Hospital | Hospital |
Hotel | Hotel |
Ideal | Ideal |
Individual | Individual |
Industrial | Industrial |
Inevitable | Inevitable |
Inferior | Inferior |
Inseparable | Inseparable |
Inspector | Inspector |
Invasión | Invasion |
Invisible | Invisible |
Irregular | Irregular |
Judicial | Judicial |
Kilo | Kilo |
Legal | Legal |
Liberal | Liberal |
Literal | Literal |
Local | Local |
Manual | Manual |
Material | Material |
Medieval | Medieval |
Miserable | Miserable |
Mortal | Mortal |
Municipal | Municipal |
Natural | Natural |
Normal | Normal |
Nostalgia | Nostalgia |
Oral | Oral |
Oriental | Oriental |
Original | Original |
Particular | Particular |
Pasta | Pasta |
Peculiar | Peculiar |
Perfume | Perfume |
Personal | Personal |
Popular | Popular |
Principal | Principal |
Probable | Probable |
Provincial | Provincial |
Radio | Radio |
Región | Region |
Regional | Regional |
Regular | Regular |
Religión | Religion |
Reunión | Reunion |
Revisión | Revision |
Rural | Rural |
Serial | Serial |
Similar | Similar |
Simple | Simple |
Social | Social |
Solar | Solar |
Superficial | Superficial |
Superior | Superior |
Televisión | Television |
Terrible | Terrible |
Tropical | Tropical |
Unión | Union |
Universal | Universal |
Usual | Usual |
Verbal | Verbal |
Vertical | Vertical |
Visible | Visible |
Visual | Visual |
Vital | Vital |
Vulnerable | Vulnerable |
Suffixes
Typically words ending with -ITY in English, end with -DAD in Spanish.
E.g.
ENGLISH SPANISH
Opportunity – opportunidad
Popularity – popularidad
Tranquility – tranquilidad
Capacity – capacidad
Prosperity – prosperidad
Words ending with -LY (adverbs) in English, end with -MENTE in Spanish.
E.g.
ENGLISH SPANISH
Exactly – exactamente
Correctly – correctamente
Constantly – constantemente
Rapidly – rapidamente
Habitually – habitualmente
Prefixes
-in
ENGLISH & SPANISH
Invisible
Inseparable
Inevitable
-ir
ENGLISH SPANISH
Irresponsible – irresponsable
Irregular – irregular
-im
Impossible – imposible
Impatient – impaciente
2/ GRAMMAR
Both English and Spanish follow the same syntax i.e.
Subject + verb + object
e.g. My dog lives in my house. ENGLISH
Mi perro vive en mi casa. SPANISH
Subject: my dog ( = mi perro)
Verb: lives ( = vive)
Object: in my house (= en mi casa)
PRESENT CONTINUOUS = el presente progresivo or el presente continuo
Both present continuous in English and el presente progresivo in Spanish are formed in a similar way i.e. they both take the verb be in the present and gerund.
To be + verb-ing (English) / estar + verbo-ndo (Spanish)
Ahora estoy preparando el desayuno. = I’m preparing breakfast right now.
Estoy leyendo ahora un libro interesante. = I’m reading an interesting book now.
¿Qué estás haciendo? = What are you doing?
Estar / To be
Spanish | English |
Yo estoy | I am |
Tú estás | You are |
Él, ella, usted está | He, she, it is |
Nosotros estamos | We are |
Ustedes están | You are |
Ellos, ellas están | They are |
Present Participle = also known as a gerund
For example:
hablando – speaking
comiendo – eating
viviendo – living
PRESENT PERFECT (el pretérito perfecto)
Just like in English, present perfect tense is Spanish (el pretérito perfecto) is formed in a similar way, it follows the same pattern as English i.e.
Have + Past Participle (English) / Haber + PP (Spanish)
SPANISH
Haber (to have):
yo he | nosotros hemos |
tú has | vosotros habéis |
usted, él, ella ha | ustedes, ellos, ellas han |
Past Participle
-AR verbs | -IR/-ER verbs |
-ado | -ido |
ex.: olvidar (to forget) = olvidado (forgotten) | ex.: partir (to leave/to divide, share) = partido (left) |
He comido paella antes. I have eaten paella before.
He perdido las llaves esta semana. I have lost my keys this week.
Hoy hemos bebido té tres veces. We have drunk tea three times today.
¿Has practicado lo suficiente con el pretérito perfecto? Have you had enough practice with the present perfect?
PAST CONTINUOUS (Pasado continuo / Pretérito imperfecto progresivo)
Similarly to the English past continuous tense, in Spanish el pasado continuo or pretérito imperfecto progresivo is used to describe an ongoing action or event in the past. It is formed using the imperfect tense of the verb „estar” followed by the gerund form of the main verb.
Was/were + verb-ing (English) / estaba (estabas, estaban) + verbo-ndo (Spanish)
Example: I was studying when the phone rang.
Estaba estudiando cuando sonó el teléfono.
As we can see on the basis of the lexical and grammatical analysis above, English and Spanish have a lot in common. Without a doubt, knowing one language e.g. English can facilitate the process of acquiring another language i.e. Spanish as it’s easier and faster to learn from analogy, comparison and associations.