Spanish 1/linguistic characteristics

Cognates, Borrowed Words, Pronunciation, & Other Rules

Cognates

In Spanish, there are several cognates that are extremely similar to those in English. Using cognates will help you understand surrounding words in a text even if you don't know what they entirely mean. The following is a list of a few cognates in Spanish to English.

• aire = air
• editor/a = editor
• médico = medical
• policía = police
• dentista = dentist
• similar = similar
• piano = piano

Borrowed Words

Most, if not all languages have at least one borrowed word from another language. Borrowed words also act as cognates. A list of words in English borrowed from Spanish include: rodeo, patata, corral, rancho. The words mean rodeo, potato, corral, and ranch respectively. A list of words in Spanish borrowed from English include: pudín, jersey. The words in respective order mean pudding and jersey.

Pronunciation

One of the easiest things about Spanish is its pronunciation: almost everything is pronounced as it is written. However, there are some exceptions. The following is a list of pronunciation rules in Spanish.

- a is pronounced as in English as ah.

- c is pronounced as in English as k; if the c is before e or i, is pronounced as in English as s in Latin America or as the-th-in-think in Spain.

- h, by itself, is never pronounced.

- e is pronounced like e in the English word hey.

- i is pronounced like i in the English word police.

- j is pronounced with a breathy huff of air from the throat (like a hard "h" sound).

- ll is pronounced like y.

- ñ is pronounced like the ny in canyon.

- o is pronounced as in English like the o in no.

- r is pronounced by tapping the tip of the tongue against the gum ridge in the back of the upper teeth.

- rr is pronounced as the same way as r but rolled—this may take some practice to get right.

- s is pronounced as the s in lesson.

- u is pronounced similar to the u in rule.

- x is pronounced as the Spanish j (i.e., like "h").

- v is pronounced as a slight b.

- ü is pronounced with a strong huff.

- accent marks are pronounced as the letter they are above, but with a strong huff of air in the throat. Accent marks are used to denote emphasis (stress) in Spanish where it may not be expected; for example, in the word "está", the last (accented) syllable is stressed.

All letters, except "h", are always clearly pronounced in Spanish.

Other Rules

• In Spanish, the adjective usually comes after the noun (unlike in English, where the adjective comes first). Most adjectives, like nouns, are classified by gender: masculine nouns and adjectives usually end in o and feminine nouns and adjectives usually end in a. Adjectives that have gender in this course will have the feminine form in parentheses.

• In Spanish, an upside down question mark or exclamation mark is placed before a question or exclamation. Examples: ¿Qué? ¡Hola!