How
to Instantly Learn Hundreds of Spanish
Words!
By Dave Clark
Visual Link Spanish
I want to dispel a
myth about speaking Spanish. Many English speakers
mistakenly think you can just add the letter
"o" to English words and they'll
instantly become Spanish. Although this does work
once in a blue moon, more often than not it
doesn't work at all and just causes confusion. I
have heard many Americans in Latin America use this
flawed technique and suffer from a large
communication gap.
Here are a few
techniques you can use that will work most of the time (keep in mind
there are exceptions and these won't always work.) These techniques all involve suffixes
or word endings:
- "-ty" = "-dad": university
(universidad), activity (actividad), intensity
(intensidad), ability (abilidad)
- "-tion" = "-ción":
activation (activación), penetration
(penetración), station (estación),
vacation (vacación)
- "-ssion" = "-sión":
session (sesión), passion (pasión),
depression (depresión), aggression
(agresión)
- "-ction" = "-cción":
action (acción), attraction
(attracción), fiction (ficción),
reaction (reacción)
- "-ive" = "-ivo": active
(activo), passive (pasivo), relative (relativo),
intensive (intensivo), massive (masivo). Partly
because of this "ivo/ive" technique, people
try to ineffectively put an "o" on the end
of any English word to turn it into Spanish
- "-ly" = "-mente": recently
(recientemente), actively (activamente), relatively
(relativamente), effectively (efectivamente). This
technique ("ly/mente") isn't as
reliable in taking words from English into Spanish
but can help you better decipher the meaning of
written Spanish words.
Moral of the Story:
When you really need to guess a Spanish word, these
techniques can come in handy. They can also be very
useful in helping you decipher written messages.
However, you must remember that that are many
exceptions to these techniques. Unfortunately they
aren't fool-proof.
¡Buena suerte! (Good luck!)
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