Ask a Question

(Create a thread)
Go Back   Spanish language learning forums > Spanish & English Languages > Vocabulary


List of words that are the same in english and spanish

 

Ask about definitions or translations for Spanish or English words.


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old March 16, 2009, 08:10 PM
lingos lingos is offline
Ruby
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 53
lingos is on a distinguished road
List of words that are the same in english and spanish

hello

is there a list of words that are the same (more or less) in english and spanish?

for example: perfume

I don't know how big that list would be, but I reckon it will good a substantial advantage to increase one's spanish vocabulary

thanks
Reply With Quote
   
Get rid of these ads by registering for a free Tomísimo account.
  #2  
Old March 16, 2009, 08:20 PM
Rusty's Avatar
Rusty Rusty is offline
Señor Speedy
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
Posts: 11,370
Native Language: American English
Rusty has a spectacular aura aboutRusty has a spectacular aura about
The words that look alike in Spanish and English list into the thousands. Very few, in comparison, are spelled exactly the same. Some end up having different meanings, even though they look the same. For example, real and actual look exactly like English words, but these Spanish words don't mean the same thing as their English 'cousins'.

There is no one list that is exhaustive.

In my experience, learning a language from lists doesn't seem like a good approach.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old March 16, 2009, 09:01 PM
lingos lingos is offline
Ruby
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 53
lingos is on a distinguished road
thanks for your reply

what other approaches would you propose for quick learning and expanding vocabulary?

listing of items may be advantageous because it offers a mnemotechnic way to learn, furthemore it offers convenient way to make repetition [repetitio est mater studiorum] (for example trying to make repetition from a text, paragraphs etc, although may help some, for others would be more time-consuming), and although I could not learn the whole list, I would have a good idea, a first look of the words I can cross - use if I even need, without meaning that I will memorize lists

ofcourse any kind of lists would not be the main course, but just a tool, which for the above reasons I find it useful, and moreover lists seem to be unavoidable for any language learning (irregular verbs, etc)

and from your crucial information, I believe a list of words that are the same but have different meaning, is very helpful, it will save much trouble especialy for those that are considering giving some kind of exams

anyone would like to share learning methods that helped you, please feel free to post

thanks

Last edited by lingos; March 16, 2009 at 09:32 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old March 16, 2009, 10:15 PM
Rusty's Avatar
Rusty Rusty is offline
Señor Speedy
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
Posts: 11,370
Native Language: American English
Rusty has a spectacular aura aboutRusty has a spectacular aura about
Expanding vocabulary is often done by reading books. When you're just starting out, vocabulary building will be a daunting task, since you'll spend most of the time researching, and less time enjoying the story. But the really great thing about reading is that you'll apply semantics to the new words even before you look them up (this is actually how you learned your mother tongue). All of us assign meaning to a new word, even without thinking about it, by what we observe about it - how it is used - how it interacts with the words that surround it. We can't do that with a list of unrelated words!
If you can find books with pictures, this will help you learn more rapidly because more senses will be applied. For example, it's difficult to learn the meaning of ball if you see it in a list of unrelated nouns. It's hard to learn what roll means when it appears in a list of unrelated verbs. What's worse is that there is more than one word listed as a translation for each of those words! But if someone shows you a ball, says its name, rolls it to you and says "Roll the ball," you've learned a lot more than two vocabulary words. You'll associate those two words (they'll relate to each other). You'll have a phrase to use, based on what you saw, heard, touched and felt (emotion). If the story shifts gears and starts talking about the ball of your foot, or about a roll in the oven, you'll instantly recognize that the 'picture' is different, so new meanings will be crafted based on surrounding clues. The end result is much more than two unrelated vocabulary words in different lists, with more than one meaning each; it's three very different mental images - images that come complete with reusable phrases and all the grammar you'll need to convey the same 'picture' to someone else.

Items are certainly listed, and there are good reasons to have lists, but I personally think that the written word is the best 'list'.

Last edited by Rusty; March 16, 2009 at 10:33 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old March 16, 2009, 10:28 PM
poli's Avatar
poli poli is online now
rule 1: gravity
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: In and around New York
Posts: 7,860
Native Language: English
poli will become famous soon enoughpoli will become famous soon enough
I agree with Rusty, but everyone is different. If you are interested in lists,
a good one to form is a false cognate list. You can start it with Rusty's example real and actual.

Because there are so many words that translate directly between the two
languages, it's good to remember the ones that betray us. Recently I was surprized to find out that the word mundane's look-alike mundana means worldly. The two words have the same Latin root, but their meanings shifted. There's a lot like that.
__________________
Me ayuda si corrige mis errores. Gracias.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old March 17, 2009, 04:39 AM
lingos lingos is offline
Ruby
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 53
lingos is on a distinguished road
I agree, thinking of a situation, a context, etc makes the word written in memory easily, however listing (organizing) words does not have to lack this feature, for example in my lists I always use example phrases

but especially for english words that are the same in spanish and have the same meaning, there is no reason to try to memorize their meaning, since you already know it, so there is not that crucial to give an example phrase in order to try to remember it

ofcourse in case the word is used in other meaning or it is used differently (eg it's accompanied with a specific preposition, etc), then yes, an example phrase is essential, and seeing the word in a text would be better, but only in these cases, as for the english-spanish common words, in the other cases its advantage is diminished

texts surely add vocabulary and at the same time offer a way to learn to use the vocabulary, plus this may be mnemonic, especially for the people that use active way of learning (among the three types of learning, by hearing, seeing, or acting)

however one would wonder, if the mind remembers more easy a list of spoon, fork, knife, plate or if one sees each of these words in different texts in different time each others, in different text context, and given ofcourse the fact that it would be too inconvenient if he wants to do repetition

I often see people doing their own vocabulary lists from vocabulary that they extract from a passage and in most ocassions such vocabularies contain irrelevant words, eg fork and ball

if we accept that learning/memorizing vocabulary using passages, one would argue if remembering a word by the context, a whole phrase, would require more effort, time and memory than learning just the word, especially for nouns (for verbs, prepositions, etc may be more valuable to see in in use of a phrase) and moreover, it may be just indifferent to see the word fork in a phrase, eg 'he lfited the fork'

it would be very interesting if anyone know any research by linguisticians and learning psychologists (Psycholinguistics) about language learning, eg the article I once read about how fast one can forget a second language he learned

please don't misunderstand, I don't disagree that learning vocabulary from passages is both useful and essential, I just need to explore other learning toolsin order NOT to replace, but to expand and enrich the learning quiver

Quote:
Originally Posted by poli View Post
it's good to remember the ones that betray us
yes, that would be very useful, for example simpático means nothing like sympathetic and the fact that they share the same stem may mislead someone while he writes an essay for example

thanks
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old March 17, 2009, 11:17 AM
Fazor's Avatar
Fazor Fazor is offline
Emerald
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Middle of Ohio, USA
Posts: 626
Native Language: American English
Fazor is on a distinguished road
One thing that I've been doing is going to this comic strip site, and going to the "Comics in Spanish" section. The great part there is, they are short (so you don't burn yourself out); there's pictures to help you try to figure out the words you don't know, and once you think you understand it, you can go look at the English version and see if you are correct.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old March 17, 2009, 11:27 AM
laepelba's Avatar
laepelba laepelba is offline
Diamond
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Suburbs of Washington, DC (Northern Virginia)
Posts: 4,683
Native Language: American English (Northeastern US)
laepelba is on a distinguished road
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fazor View Post
One thing that I've been doing is going to this comic strip site, and going to the "Comics in Spanish" section. The great part there is, they are short (so you don't burn yourself out); there's pictures to help you try to figure out the words you don't know, and once you think you understand it, you can go look at the English version and see if you are correct.
How do you get to the Comics in Spanish section? ... I don't see it on the front page.....
__________________
- Lou Ann, de Washington, DC, USA
Específicamente quiero recibir ayuda con el español de latinoamerica. ¡Muchísimas gracias!
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old March 17, 2009, 11:32 AM
Rusty's Avatar
Rusty Rusty is offline
Señor Speedy
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
Posts: 11,370
Native Language: American English
Rusty has a spectacular aura aboutRusty has a spectacular aura about
Select the Comics link on the left-hand side. On the page that appears, the Comics in Spanish link is on the right-hand side.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old March 17, 2009, 11:33 AM
laepelba's Avatar
laepelba laepelba is offline
Diamond
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Suburbs of Washington, DC (Northern Virginia)
Posts: 4,683
Native Language: American English (Northeastern US)
laepelba is on a distinguished road
Thanks!
__________________
- Lou Ann, de Washington, DC, USA
Específicamente quiero recibir ayuda con el español de latinoamerica. ¡Muchísimas gracias!
Reply With Quote
Reply

 

Link to this thread
URL: 
HTML Link: 
BB Code: 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Site Rules

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Possible Spanish/English translations Cecile83 Translations 15 August 04, 2009 05:27 AM
Madid & some spanish words sosia Vocabulary 6 April 13, 2007 01:51 AM
The 500 Most Commonly Used Words in the English Language sosia Vocabulary 1 March 26, 2007 04:25 PM
List of English words of Spanish origin sosia Vocabulary 2 July 29, 2006 12:46 AM


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 10:01 AM.

Forum powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

X