Download Help with Spelling in Spanish

Help with Spelling in Spanish
If you can spell in English, you have a head start with spelling in Spanish. After all,
thousands of words are English-Spanish cognates, words in both languages that are spelled
identically or similarly because they share common origins.
For the English speaker learning Spanish as a second language, most of these words pose
little problem in spelling, as the differences between the two languages usually follow regular
patterns. Below are listed the most common regular differences in spelling as well as a
selection of words whose differences don't fit these patterns. The emphasis here is on words
that are likely to cause spelling problems, not ordinary differences in the languages such as
radio for the English "radium" and dentista for "dentist."
English "-tion" as the equivalent of Spanish -ción: Hundreds of words fit this pattern. The
English "nation" is nación in Spanish, and "perception" is percepción.
Avoidance of double letters in Spanish: Except for recent words of foreign origin (such as
express), the use of rr and, less commonly, the use of cc (where the second c is followed by i
or e), Spanish generally doesn't use double letters in English cognates. Thus the English
"libretto" is libreto in Spanish, "possible" is posible, and "illegal" is ilegal. Examples of rr or
cc in cognates include acción, acceso and irrigación. One Spanish word that doesn't fit this
pattern is perenne (perennial).
Avoidance of k in Spanish: Except for a few Greek words (such as kilómetro and some
words of other foreign origin such as kamikaze and various place names), Spanish cognates
of English words with a "k" usually use a c or qu. Examples include quimioterapia
(chemotherapy) and Corea. Some words are spelled both ways: caqui and kaki are both used
for "khaki," and both bikini and biquini are used.
Simplification in Spanish: A number of words, particularly ones whose English spellings
come from French, have more phonetic spellings in Spanish. For example, "bureau" is buró
and "chauffeur" is chófer or chofer, depending on the region.
Lack of "th" in Spanish: Cognates of English words with a "th" usually use a t in Spanish.
Examples are tema (theme), metano (methane), ritmo (rhythm) and metodista (Methodist).
Use of inm- instead of "im-" to start words: Examples include inmadurez (immaturity),
inmaterial and inmigración.
Use of es- for "s-" preceding a consonant: Native Spanish speakers have a difficult time
pronouncing words beginning with various letter combinations starting with s, so the spelling
is adjusted accordingly. Examples include especial, estéreo, escaldar (scald), escuela
(school) and esnobismo (snobbery).
Avoidance of y as a vowel: Except for some recently imported words such as byte and sexy,
Spanish usually doesn't use y as a vowel except in diphthongs, so i is used instead. Examples
include hidrógeno (hydrogen), dislexia and gimnasta (gymnast).
Use of cua and cuo instead of "qua" and "quo": Examples include ecuador (equator) and
cuota.
Dropping of English's silent letters: Commonly, the "h" in English words is dropped in the
Spanish equivalents, as in ritmo (rhythm) and gonorrea (gonorrhea). Also, it is common in
modern Spanish to not use ps- to start words. Thus sicológico is used for "psychologist,"
although the older forms such as psicológico are still used. (The cognate of "psalm" is always
salmo.)
Use of tras- for "trans-": Many English words that begin with "trans-," but not all, have
Spanish cognates that begin with tras-. Examples include trasplantar and trascender.
However, there are many Spanish words where both tras- and trans- are acceptable. Thus
both trasferir and transferir (transfer) are used, as are both trasfusión and transfusión.
Use of f for the English "ph": Examples include elefante, foto, and Filadelfia.
Other irregularly spelled cognates: Following are some other easy-to-misspell words that
don't fit any of the above patterns. The Spanish word is in boldface followed by the English
word in parentheses. Note that in a few cases the Spanish word doesn't have the same
meaning, or has other meanings, than the English word listed.
abril (April)
adjetivo (adjective)
asamblea (assembly)
automóvil (automobile)
billón (billion)
carrera (career)
circunstancia (circumstance)
confort (comfort)
coraje (courage)
coronel (colonel)
diciembre (December)
énfasis (emphasis)
erradicar (eradicate)
espionaje (espionage)
etcétera (et cetera)
femenino (feminine)
garaje (garage)
jirafa (giraffe)
glaciar (glacier)
gobernar, gobierno, etc. (govern, government, etc.)
gorila (gorilla)
gravedad (gravity)
huracán (hurricane)
Irak (Iraq)
jamón (ham)
jeroglíficos (hieroglyphics)
jonrón (home run)
lenguaje (language)
mensaje (message)
millón (million)
móvil (mobile)
noviembre (November)
objeto, objetivo (object, objective)
octubre (October)
pasaje (passage)
proyecto (project)
septiembre or setiembre (September)
siniestro (sinister)
subjuntivo (subjunctive)
tamal (tamale)
trayectoria (trajectory)
vagabundo (vagabond)
vainilla (vanilla)
vasco (Basque)
yogur or yogurt (yogurt)
Although you can tell by looking at nearly any Spanish word how it is pronounced, the
reverse isn't always true. Because of the silent h and the existence of letter pairs that can
sound alike, creating homophones, it is often possible to match more than one spelling with a
particular sound.
This is especially true in the case of the b and v, which, except in a few types of nonstandard
speech, share the same sounds. Native speakers frequently mix up the letters in their writing,
and there are a few words (such as ceviche or cebiche, a type of seafood dish) that can be
spelled with either letter. If you hear a word with the b/v sound, here is a guide to making an
educated guess about which letter to use in spelling:
Most English cognates use the same letter as English does: Most of the cognates of
Spanish and English are derived from Latin, and generally the use of b or v remains
unchanged. Examples include botella (bottle), batalla (battle), avisar (to warn, related to
"advise"), vocabulario (vocabulary), vibrar (vibrate), versátil (versatile) and vicio (vice).
(Throughout this lesson, the definitions given aren't the only ones possible.) Exceptions:
Among the words that don't follow this rule are verbs related to probar (to try, related to
"probe"); words related to gobernar (to govern); some verbs ending in -bir such as recibir (to
receive), concebir (to conceive) and percibir (to perceive); alcoba (bedroom, related to
"alcove"); and haber (to have).
Words with prefixes: Although several much-used prefixes use a b, the only common prefix
using a v is vice- (meaning "instead of"), as in vicepresidente (vice president) or vicecónsul
(vice counsel). Prefixes using b include ab- (indicating negation or separation), bi- (two),
sub- (under), bene- (good) and bio- (life). Examples of such words are bilingüe (bilingual),
subordinar (to subordinate), abstinencia (abstinence), bendito (blessed) and biología
(biology).
Suffixes: Common suffixes with a b include -bilidad and -ble, both of which suggest having
a quality of some sort. Examples include culpabilidad (guilt), amabilidad (kindness), terrible
(horrific) and amable (friendly). There are also -fobia, indicating a fear, such as with
claustrofobia (fear of closed spaces) and entomofobia (fear of insects). The most common
suffix with a v is -ivo, which indicates having a certain quality, such as in activo (active) and
pasivo (passive).
With m and n: B can follow m and v can follow n, but the opposite is extremely rare. The
sound of -mb- and -nv- are identical. Examples include envasador (packer), embajador
(ambassador), enviar (to send), cambio (change), también (also), ambiente (environment),
inversor (investor) and envidiar (to envy).
Preceding r and l: The b can come before either of these consonants, although v cannot.
Examples include posible (possible), hablar (to speak), broma (joke), abrazo (embrace),
abril (April) and obligar (to require).
In verb conjugations: Conjugations of the imperfect tense use a b, as in comprábamos (we
were buying) and hablabas (you were speaking). Three verbs — andar (to walk), estar (to
be) and tener — use a v in the preterite tense. Examples: anduve (I walked), estuviste (you
were) and tuvieron (they had).
Quick exercise for review: To review this material, read the brief selection from the first
chapter of Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel Cervantes on the following page and see
how many times you can apply one of the above rules to the spellings of the words.
The following is a brief exercise to see how well you can apply the spelling rules from the
lesson on the previous page. Read the selection from the first chapter of Don Quijote de la
Mancha by Miguel Cervantes and see how many times you can find one of the rules in use
(there isn't always one). Don't worry if you struggle with the vocabulary; some of the words
are no longer in everyday use, and there's a translation immediately below (and not all the
English words are easy either) — after all, this lesson is about spelling words you don't
already know. Possible answers are given after the translation.
Extracto: En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho
tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo
corredor. Una olla de algo más vaca que carnero, salpicón las más noches, duelos y
quebrantos los sábados, lentejas los viernes, algún palomino de añadidura los domingos,
consumían las tres partes de su hacienda. El resto della concluían sayo de velarte, calzas de
velludo para las fiestas con sus pantuflos de lo mismo, los días de entre semana se honraba
con su vellori de lo más fino.
Translation of excerpt: In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to
call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lancerack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing. An olla (cooking pot) of
rather more beef than mutton, a salad on most nights, scraps on Saturdays, lentils on Fridays
and a pigeon or so extra on Sundays, made away with three-quarters of his income. The rest
of it went in a doublet of fine cloth and velvet breeches and shoes to match for holidays,
while on week-days he made a brave figure in his best homespun. (From the traditional
translation by John Ormsby, 1885.)
Parenthetical remarks in the selection below show how the rules apply to the spelling:
En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre (the "b" precedes "r") no quiero acordarme, no
ha mucho tiempo que vivía (related to English "viv" words such as "revive" and
"vivacious") un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo
corredor. Una olla de algo más vaca (related to the English "vaccine," which originally
came from cows) que carnero, salpicón las más noches, duelos y quebrantos (the "b"
precedes "r") los sábados (related to the English "sabbath"), lentejas los viernes, algún
palomino de añadidura los domingos, consumían las tres partes de su hacienda. El resto
della concluían sayo de velarte (related to "velum"), calzas de velludo (related to "velour")
para las fiestas con sus pantuflos de lo mismo, los días de entre semana se honraba
(imperfect tense) con su vellori de lo más fino.