Free Spanish Lesson #5 – How to Instantly Learn Hundreds of Spanish Words!

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:

1. “-ty” = “-dad”: university (universidad), activity (actividad), intensity (intensidad), ability (abilidad)
2. “-tion” = “-ción”: activation (activación), penetration (penetración), station (estación), vacation (vacación)
3. “-ssion” = “-sión”: session (sesión), passion (pasión), depression (depresión), aggression (agresión)
4. “-ction” = “-cción”: action (acción), attraction (attracción), fiction (ficción), reaction (reacción)
5. “-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
6. “-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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Written by Dave Clark with Try a Free Spanish Lessons

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.