Spanish and English, both have similar Latin origin, however, they both differ in many aspects. Especially, in the aspects of vocabulary, the difference and similarities that both these languages share are very much interesting. There are two group of words in English – Spanish loan words and False cognates.
Spanish loan words: Spanish loan words are the words of English that are directly taken from Spanish. They look similar in structure and in meaning in both the languages. As these words are derived from Spanish, these are called as Spanish loan words. Let us see a list of few Spanish loan words.
- Alligator (via ‘el lagarto’)
- Booby (from ‘bobo’)
- Banana (from ‘Banana’)
- Tomato (from ‘tomate’)
- Abalone (from ‘abulon’)
- Alpaca (from ‘aymara’)
- Amigo (from ‘amigo’)
- Amole (from ‘amolli’)
- Burro (from ‘burro’)
- Cafeteria (from Cafeteria)
- Committee (from ‘comite)
- Morphine (from ‘morfina’)
False Cognates: False cognates are the words which are the words which have same structure in both English and Spanish but vary in the meaning. These are often confusing and learners often mistake their meaning. Some of the false cognates in Spanish are:
- Molester (in Spanish it is brother whereas in English it is to molest or sexually abuse)
- Asister (in Spanish means to attend, whereas in English it is to assist)
- Sano (in Spanish means healthy, whereas, in English it is similar to sane)
- Actualmente (in Spanish means currently whereas in English it is actually or ‘in reality)
- Embarazada (in Spanish means pregnant, whereas, in English it means embarrassed)
The above are the list of Spanish loan words and false cognates, which are very much necessary to know in order to understand the etymology of the Spanish vocabulary.
