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English speakers learning Spanish may come across Spanish cognates—a word in Spanish that looks similar to a word in English—and this may feel like a lucky break. Most often it is! 

Thousands of Spanish words are written the same or nearly the same in Spanish and English. These Spanish-English cognates can make learning Spanish a lot easier. Fortunately for you, many of these word pairs have the same meaning in both languages. But don’t be fooled: A few of these words have slightly different meanings or even completely different ones. This post will teach you about the different types of cognates, mostly “friendly” ones, and how they can help you learn Spanish faster. We also include some handy lists to get started.

The good thing is that at Rosetta Stone, you can grasp the different kinds of cognates in no time at all without relying on memorization! If you learn the cognates and use them with some basic Spanish words and phrases, you will already be well on your way to communicating in Spanish.

What is a cognate in Spanish?

Cognates are English-Spanish word pairs that are similar in their form, which is to say, the way they are spelled. Most often they have the same meaning. This is because they usually have the same origin or root, which is called “etymology.” In the case of English and Spanish, this is because they may originally come from Greek or Latin words. Many good dictionaries provide etymologies for words below the main entry.

Spanish and other Romance languages—such as French, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, and Catalan—all have a common origin in Latin, so they belong to the same language family. English, while not a Romance language, is part of the same broad language group as Spanish, called the Indo-European languages. While English is Germanic in origin, it shares a great deal of influence from Latin.

Talk around language families can be dense, but you don’t have to be a trained linguist to benefit from all this history! Recognizing cognate words is easier than you think. The bottom line is this: as an English speaker, you have a leg up on learning Spanish because you will easily recognize cognates. 

Today, you’ll learn about the difference between the cognate types: true cognates, false cognates, loanwords, and false friends. All this will help you sort out how to use cognates to improve your Spanish. 

>>Want a primer on cognates for all languages? Check this out. 

Perfect Spanish cognates

Perfect cognates are spelled the same in both languages and have the same meaning. They make Spanish a breeze! Just be aware that the pronunciation of these words will inevitably be different in Spanish. To master these easily, use our TruAccent tool to practice your pronunciation until you get it right.

Here is a list of some perfect cognates in Spanish, written with their accents when applicable.

• alcohol
• animal
• área
• bar
• chocolate
• criminal
• cultural
• decisión
• disco
• doctor
• drama
• error
• formal
• gas
• general
• idea
• individual
• informal
• kilo
• legal
• local
• melón
• motel
• natural
• normal
• original
• pasta
• personal
• plural
• popular
• sexual
• simple
• singular
• social
• taxi 
• televisión
• terrible
• total 

Near-perfect cognates

Like perfect cognates, near-perfect cognates are word pairs that share the same etymology and have the same meanings, but there are minor differences in the way they are written.

Identify Spanish near-perfect cognates with common word endings 

These kinds of cognates have a few basic rules. Once you learn them, you’ll be able to quickly understand hundreds of vocabulary words.

1. Cognates ending in -ario

If a word ends in -ario in Spanish, it ends in “-ary” in English. For example: salario in Spanish would be “salary” in English, and glosario in Spanish would be “glossary” in English. 

Note: Double letters in English change to a single letter in Spanish, and some Spanish words will need an accent. 

2. Cognates ending in -ción 

Spanish words ending in -ción get converted to “-tion” in English. An example of this is the word “attention.” In Spanish, that would be atención.

3. Cognates ending in -ico

When words in Spanish end in -ico, just take off the “o” to make it an English word! For instance, take the word heroico. In English, it’s simply “heroic. 

4. Cognates ending in -oso

Spanish words that end in -oso get changed to “-ous” in English. For example, delicioso is “delicious” in English.

5. Cognates ending in -cto

Words in Spanish with -cto at the end are converted to the “-ct” ending in English. The word contacto means “contact.” 

6. Cognates ending in -mente 

If a word in Spanish ends in -mente, the English equivalent will typically have an “ly” at the end instead. In some cases, you may need to remove a letter from the Spanish word before adding the “ly.” For example, exactamente is “exactly” in English. 

7. Cognates ending in -dad

For Spanish words ending in -dad, change them to “-ty” in English. For example, solidaridad means “solidarity.”

8. Cognates ending in -io, -ia, or ía

Finally, words that end in -io, -ia or ía in Spanish end in “-y” in English: memoria translates to “memory.” 

Spanish near-perfect cognates that defy grammar rules

That said, not all perfect cognates follow these rules. Here is a list of some near-perfect cognates that don’t follow the rules above:

Why is it helpful to learn Spanish-English cognates?

1. Avoid memorization

Learning to recognize cognates is a great way to increase your vocabulary with ease. You don’t have to do any rote memorization. You’re basically training your eye and mind to be receptive to words that look similar to your native language: English. You’ll also allow yourself to try converting words you already know in English to Spanish. It’s a two-way street! 

Many language learners expect everything to be about memorizing, and that can take time. But with cognates you rely on your previous knowledge to build your vocabulary in Spanish. Just be aware that pronunciation will differ in your new language. Still, you’re one step ahead of the game because you already know so many words.

2. Communicate sooner

With cognate recognition, you can get a jump on vocabulary quickly. As you begin seeing the commonalities between Spanish and English, you’ll realize you know quite a bit. With a few simple concepts and rules, you will be on your way to listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish. That means you’ll spend less time worrying about vocabulary and more time just communicating. See? Comunicación es básico. No doubt you can figure that phrase out by relying on your English!

3. Understand overall meaning

Listening to a podcast or reading an article in Spanish might feel a bit overwhelming at first. However, if you understand the concept of cognates, you’ll be less nervous. You’ll probably recognize some words as you listen or read, allowing you to feel more confident. When you grasp the meaning of these recognizable words, you can start with a general understanding of the material. Beginning language learners often feel frustrated because they want to get every single word down. Yet, if they allow their power of cognate recognition to take over, they’ll realize they might already understand the overall meaning of what they’re reading or listening to.

How does a Spanish cognate differ from a loanword?

Loanwords are grouped together with cognates because they often look similar in English and Spanish—they also happen to have the same meaning. The difference is that rather than looking similar due to having the same origin, loanwords are words “loaned” from one language to another. 

In some cases, a language lacks the vocabulary to name an item, whether it’s concrete or abstract. For instance, expressing “influencer” in Spanish isn’t possible—yet—so Spanish speakers use the English word. This is a huge help for English speakers.

Some loanwords actually become part of a language. Did you know that “patio” and “ranch” actually come from Spanish? Loanwords often get slightly adapted in the “borrowing” language. Sometimes a letter is dropped or added. At other times an accent is placed. There are many loanwords from English in the Spanish language, and you should have no trouble recognizing them.

Loanwords in Spanish that come from English

What is a false cognate?

So far, we’ve identified words with shared meaning that are similar in English and Spanish. But there are some word pairs that are false cognates—they look similar but have different meanings. 

Sometimes the difference is only slight, but sometimes their meaning is completely different. In this first list of common false cognates in Spanish, we’ll take a look at words that are somewhat related but still have different meanings. 

Common false Spanish cognates

What is a false friend?

When it comes to language learning, a false friend is a word that looks similar to a word in your native language but actually means something completely different…to the point you might make a faux pas if you use it incorrectly. 

“Faux pas”—there’s a loanword in English that comes from French! 

Just as with people, you want to be particularly attentive to those words that appear to be your friends but aren’t. Thankfully though, they aren’t all too common. 

Common Spanish false friends

Learn even more Spanish cognates with Rosetta Stone 

As you can see, there are a plethora of words in Spanish that are cognates: words that are spelled the same or nearly the same in English. 

While there are several different types of cognates, most Spanish cognates—perfect, near-perfect, and loanwords—are your friends and have the same meaning, and only a few—false cognates and false friends—require some level of wariness. 

Because of their ties to English, true cognates can help you learn Spanish more quickly. Want to accelerate your learning journey even further? You can expand your vocabulary and grammar knowledge and prepare for real-life conversations with Rosetta Stone. 

Rosetta Stone’s Dynamic Immersion approach makes language learning feel natural and intuitive. Plus, with an easy-to-use app, you can start mastering one or all 25 languages today. 

Written by Rowena Galavitz

Rowena Galavitz is a Spanish translator, bilingual copy editor, and language and literature instructor with three master’s degrees who loves Spanish and all things Mexico.