Congratulations! You know Spanish!

Expect (Verb)

2011-03-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

Level 1:
Expect - Expecto

You can see this one, easily. It's even fairly easy to catch when listening to spanish. This is, in fact, a stereotypical Level 1... Take the English word and add an "-o" to the end, just as you might expect.

Pronounced: "ex - PECT - oh"

Object (Verb)

2010-10-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

Level 1:
Object - Objetar

This is probably a Level 2, as there is a dropped letter from the root of the word. Take the English word, drop the "c" and add an "-ar" to the end and add a small accent difference and you've go the Spanish version. This may be more difficult to see than nouns, since verbs can have several different endings, based on noun subject agreement.

As you can see in the spelling, the "c" in the English version of the word is not present in the Spanish spelling, "Objetar." Also note, the "j" is spoken as an English "h".

Pronounced: "ob-HAY-tar"

Symbol (Noun)

2010-02-18T01:39:00.000-08:00

Level 1:
Symbol - Símbolo

Easy to see, easy to hear, this is a stereotypical Level 1... Take the English word and add an "-o" to the end and add a small accent difference and you've go the Spanish version.

As you can see in the spelling, the "y" in the English version of the word is replaced by an "í" in the Spanish spelling, "Símbolo." This "í" has a sound almost like a long "E", making the pronunciation much like "SEEM-bo-lo".

Pronounced: "SEEM-bo-lo"

Group (Noun)

2009-10-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

Level 1:
Group - Grupo

You can see this one, easily. It's even fairly easy to catch when listening to spanish. This is, in fact, a stereotypical Level 1... Take the English word and add an "-o" to the end... at least in the pronunciation.

As you can see in the spelling, the "o" in the center of the word is not present in the Spanish spelling, "Grupo." Actually, when you look at it, you have to ask yourself why there's an "o" in the English version and why it's not "grupe" - but English is funny that way.

The fact that "Group" and "Grupo" contain exactly the same letters, in a slightly different order make this pair that much easier to recognize and translate.

Pronounced: "GROUP - oh"

Opposite (Adjective)

2009-10-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

Level 4:
Opposite - Contrario

This would have been a Level 1 if "Contrary" were more popular in the English language. Regardless, Something that is contrary to something else is its opposite. That's something that is familiar in English and unites the words "Opposite" and "Contrario." The "-io" ending is an adjective ending.

Pronounced: "con TRAR ee oh"

Dear (Adjective)

2009-10-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

Level 4:
Dear - Quierdo

This is a level four. These are either really tricky or actually require some knowledge of something Spanish to make the connection... as is the case here.

If you already know that "Quiero" means "I love / I care for / I want" (as in, "Yo quiero Taco Bell") then it's easy to see that Quierdo is merely a modified version of Quiero. In this case, changing it into an adjective, as in: "chica quierdo" (Dear girl).

Pronounced: "Key Air Doe"

Blue (Adjective)

2009-10-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Level 4:
Blue - Azul

While at first this looks like it comes completely "out of the blue," this is yet another case of a poorly matched word pair.

True, "Blue" looks nothing like "Azul," but it's very close, indeed, to "Azure" (a blue-cyan color on the HSV color wheel). Also, Azure/Azul can be seen in certain gemstone names, such as Azurite and Lapis Lazuli.

If you're not familiar with the English word, Azure, however, this makes Azul harder to pick up on. So, why not familiarize yourself with Azure a bit?

Check out Wikipedia for more on Azure's origination

Act (Verb)

2009-10-07T10:38:00.000-07:00

Level 2:
Act - Actuar

This is the verb, as in "Don't act surprised."

Spanish adds a "u", followed by a very typical "ar" verb ending: Actuar.

Pronounced like: "Act You Are"

Experience (Noun)

2009-04-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

Level 2:
Experience - Experiencia

Simple ending swap, here... replace the "-e" with a "-ia" to arrive at the Spanish word for experience.

Evidently, In Spanish, "Experience" is feminine. We can tell the gender from the "-ia" ending. Don't worry, you'll learn to pick up on gender quickly, once you've had some experience with Spanish.

Instant (Noun)

2009-04-17T07:07:00.001-07:00

Level 2:
Instant - Instante

This is the noun, as in "It happened in an instant."

Spelling is nearly identical; Spanish adds an "-e" to the end: Instante.

Pronounced like: "In STAN tay"

Depend (Verb)

2009-04-17T07:04:00.000-07:00

Level 2:
Depend - Depender

"-er" and "-ar" are popular verb endings in Spanish. Tack on "-er" to the English "Depend" and you get the Spanish version: "Depender".

History (Noun)

2009-04-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

Level 2:
History - Historia

Spelling differs only by the ending, replacing the "y" with "ia", making History female, I believe.

Pronounced "Hist or eeya"

Experiment (Verb)

2009-04-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

Level 2:
Experiment - Experimentar

Instead of adding an "-o" here, you add an "-ar", which is a common ending for Spanish verbs.

Solution (Noun)

2009-04-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Level 2:
Solution - Solución

This word is almost spelled the same; the difference is a "c" instead of a "t" and an accent on the "o".

This is pronounced "So LOU see-on"

Current (Noun)

2009-04-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

Level 2:
Current - Corriente

This is what Level 3 is all about; It's based on the same word, but there's little differences that could throw you off... The first vowel is an "o" instead of a "u", there's an "i" after the r's and there's an "-e" added at the end.

Pronounced "Core ee in tay" or "Core yen tay"

This is referring to the noun... so, electric current (corriente eléctrico)

Map (Noun)

2009-04-16T20:12:00.001-07:00

Level 2:
Map - Mapa

This is a pretty easy one to recognize when reading or hearing.
Instead of adding "-o" to the end, you add "-a".

Evidently, maps are female. Who knew?

Sentence (Noun)

2009-04-16T20:07:00.000-07:00

Level 2:
Sentence - Sentenciar

Okay, so it's not as simple as adding an "-o", but it's just replacing the ending "e" with "-iar" and you've got the Spanish word. Pronounced "Sentence ee are".

The "-iar" ending is pronounced much like in "caviar"

Real (Adjective)

2009-04-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

Level 1:
Real - Real

That's right... what's real in English is still real in Spanish. That's got to be a real comfort, right?

Notice (Verb)

2009-04-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

Level 2:
Notice - Noticia

While the concept of gender in words is mostly absent in English, most English speaking people would expect a person named, "Maria" to be female and a person named, "Mario" to be male. My point, here, is that "-ia" is the feminine version of the "-o" ending and in Spanish, the concept of a "notice" is, evidently, feminine.

So, instead of Notice-o, you get Notic-ia or "Noticia." It is pretty much pronounced "Notice ee uh" or "No TEES ee uh"

Effect (Noun)

2009-04-16T11:41:00.000-07:00

Level 2:
Effect - Efecto

In addition to having the "-o" appended to the end, the Spanish version features one "f" instead of two, having the effect of making the length of the word the same.

Similar (Adjective)

2009-04-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

Level 1:
Similar - Similar

It seems that similar in Spanish is quite similar to similar in English.
While they look identical, the Spanish pronunciation is more like "See-Me-Lar."

Note: Here is a Spanish word that starts with an "S" not "Es."

Dictionary (Noun)

2009-04-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

Level 2
Dictionary - Diccionario

Spoken aloud, the Spanish word for Dictionary pretty much sounds like "Dictionary-o."
The spelling is actually very similar, as well.

Plane (Noun)

2009-04-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

Level 4:
Plane - Avión

Level fours are tricky. However, if you think of things related to planes: avionics, aviation, etc., then you can see where the Spanish word, "Avion," is coming from.

Boat (Noun)

2009-04-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

Level 1:
Boat - Bote

Boat gets its Level 1 status based on being spoken, not on being written. However, there's not a lot of difference there, either.

"Boat" and "Bote" are pronounced the same way, excluding differences based solely on accent, but "Bote" looks like it is "Boat" spelled incorrectly.

Stupid (Adjective)

2009-04-16T11:07:00.001-07:00

Level 3:
Stupid - Estupido

If you were to add an o to the end, getting "stupido," you would not be using correct Spanish, but a Spanish-speaking person would likely understand you, as the Spanish word for "Stupid" is actually "estupido."

Most words starting in "S" in English that have a very similar counterpart in Spanish start with "Es," instead. Much like Spanish and Espanol.