Kilo Lingo
Spanish grammar Part of Chapter 4

CEFR A2

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Test yourself (20 questions)

Spanish Cognate Patterns: Turn English Words into Spanish

By Michael McGettrick and Sergio Linares-HernandesUpdated 12 October 2026

Most words English and Spanish share differ only in the ending. Swap the ending and you can read words nobody taught you:

Quick check

Three quick questions on what you have just read. The full practice is further down.

Spot the mistake

0/3

Each sentence has one mistake. Tap it.

  • - information
  • - university
  • - famous

The conversion table

the Spanish endingmasculinefeminineWhat do the colours mean?
-tion becomes -ción

Nouns first. These eight cover most of the cognates on any page of Spanish:

EnglishSpanishExample
-tion-ción nation
-sion-sión decision
-ty-dad, -tad society
-ence, -ance-encia, -ancia science
-ist-ista artist
-ism-ismo tourism
-y (Greek)-ía biology
-ment-mento moment

Adjectives, adverbs and verbs:

EnglishSpanishExample
-ous- famous
-ic, -ical-ico public
-ent, -ant-ente, - important
-ary-ario necessary
-ive-ivo active
-ly- finally
-ise, -ize-izar organise
-ate (verb)-ar celebrate

Three endings cross over unchanged:

EndingExamples
-, ,
-ble,
-or, ,

Not every swap is equally safe. From the ones you can trust blind to the ones to check first:

Trust itCheck it
  1. -tion → -ciónalmost never wrong
  2. -ty → -dadvery reliable
  3. -ous → -ososerious is serio
  4. -ise → -izarrealizar is a trap
  5. -ment → -mentogovernment is gobierno

The spelling swaps

Spanish spells by sound, so the Greek and Latin spellings English kept get simpler:

SwapEnglishSpanish
ph to fphoto
th to ttheatre
ch (a k sound) to quchemistry
y (a vowel) to itype
double to singlepossible
s + consonant: -school

A Spanish word does not start with s plus a consonant, so Spanish puts an e in front: , , . Double letters survive only where Spanish says both: the cc in .

The accents come with the ending

Two endings nearly always carry a written accent, and learners drop it constantly.

-ción and -sión are stressed on the last syllable and end in n, so the singular always has an accent. The plural loses it, because the stress has not moved:

the accent goes in the plural
  • - the nation; - the nations
  • - the decision; - the decisions

-ico cognates are stressed three syllables from the end, so they carry one: , , , . The accent rules page explains why.

The gender often comes free

Several cognate endings tell you the gender, and the article that goes with it:

EndingGenderExample
-ción, -siónfeminine
-dad, -tadfeminine
-ismomasculine
-ma (from Greek)masculine
-istaeither ,

The -ma group is the trap: , , , and are masculine despite the -a. The noun gender page has the general rules, and noun suffixes the endings Spanish builds itself.

Where the patterns break

Three kinds of word wear the disguise and break the rule:

TrapSpanishWhat it means
new endinggovernment
new endingdevelopment
false friendpregnant
false friendcurrent
false friendbookshop
false friendsuccess
false friendto carry out
rarer wordmatter (a question is )
  • . - I'm going to the library.
  • . - The current situation is difficult.

A library is , and to realise is . The full sets are on false friends, part 1 and part 2.

Mistakes English speakers make

WrongRightWhy
-ción always has its accent
Greek -ma words are masculine
rápidomente- goes on the feminine
. . is pregnant, not embarrassed
... ... is to carry out
(library) is a bookshop

What to do next

  1. Next time you meet an unknown word, strip the ending and swap it before you reach for a dictionary.
  2. Do the word-build and gender drills below.
  3. Then false friends, part 1, so the disguise does not catch you out.

Practise: test yourself

Build the word

0/4

Swap the English ending for the Spanish one.

  1. nation (-tion becomes -ción)

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

  2. society (-ty becomes -dad)

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

  3. curious (-ous becomes -oso)

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

  4. finally (-ly becomes -mente)

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

Sort into groups

0/7

Which article goes in front of each noun?

Tap a word, then the group it belongs in.

Spot the mistake

0/3

Each sentence has one mistake. Tap it.

Translation drill

0/6

Read each Spanish word and write the English. You have never been taught these: work them out from the ending.

  1. la conversación

  2. la actividad

  3. generoso

  4. rápidamente

  5. la comunidad

  6. delicioso

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Frequently asked questions

What is a cognate in Spanish?
A word Spanish and English share, usually because both took it from Latin: and information, and university, and famous. The overlap is heaviest in formal and technical vocabulary, which is why a Spanish newspaper is often easier for an English speaker to read than a Spanish conversation is to follow.
Do Spanish cognate patterns always work?
No. Some words pass every pattern and mean something else: is pregnant, actual means current, is a bookshop. Some swaps give a real but rarer word: exists, but a question you ask is . And a few endings go elsewhere: government is . Use the patterns to read and to guess; check before you rely on one in speech.
Which cognate pattern is the most useful to learn first?
-tion to -ción. It is the most common, it is almost never wrong, and every -ción noun is feminine, so it hands you the gender too: , . Then -ty to -dad, -ous to -oso and -ly to -mente.
Why does have an accent but does not?
Because the stress stays on the same syllable while the word grows. is stressed on its last syllable and ends in n, which Spanish marks with an accent. In the same syllable is second from the end, where Spanish expects the stress anyway, so the accent goes: , .
Is every Spanish word ending in -ma feminine?
No. A group of words from Greek end in -ma but are masculine: , , , , . They are nearly all cognates of English words in -m or -me, so when an English -em or -amme word turns into Spanish -ma, expect .