Play
"The Name Game"
Discover the Spanish you already know
One
of the essential elements of the Accelerated Learning foreign
language systems is the "Name Game" which quickly
shows you that you already know many more words of Spanish
than you thought you knew.
It
challenges you to work out for yourself (with a little help)
the many ways in which Spanish and English are similar:
they both have common roots.
Understanding the similarities is a tremendous motivator
because you come to realize that there are thousands of
Spanish words you can immediately identify through just
a few simple principles.
For
example, if you spoke no Spanish whatsoever you would still
almost certainly be able to translate the following sentence:
El professor es inteligente. = The professor is
intelligent.
and
La decisión es final. = The decision is final.
By
gradually working through plenty of examples you are not
only learning a lot of vocabulary very quickly, but you
are also building up a mental picture of how Spanish is
constructed.
Here´s
how you can recognize thousands of Spanish words at a glance
through applying some very simple principles.
Principle 1.
Many
Spanish words are very similar to their English equivalents.
Look
at these Spanish words. Can you guess the English word?
|
colosal
aceptar
aparente
afectado
gorila
esencial
efecto
eficiencia
|
|
colossal
accept
apparent
affected
gorilla
essential
effect
efficiency |
Principle 5.
In
Spanish you often add an e to the beginning of words that in English would start with an s.
|
la estatua
la escuela
España
especial
|
|
the statue
the scale
Spain
special
|
Principle
6.
If the Spanish
word ends in -oso, it´s equivalent is -ous in English.
|
precioso
religioso
curioso
famoso
|
|
precious
religeous
curious
famous
|
There
are many, many more.
Just
one more example
Many Spanish
words are almost identical with English except for the final letter. So I do not suppose
you will have any trouble figuring out the meaning of the following examples.
|
brillante
completo
cencepto
continente
elegante
importante
la rosa
|
|
brilliant
complete
concept
continent
elegant
important
the rose
|
You're
on your way to learning Spanish!
