The Grapevine Issue 172 2014|
Lynn Cobb
!A FEW TIPS
& TRICKS!
Learn
Aprender
www.learn-aprender.blogspot.com.es www.facebook.com/LearnAprender
I’ve decided to give you a few tips &
tricks this time – ways of extending
your vocabulary without having to
work too hard!! With these tips &
tricks you have potentially 1000s of
new words!
OPPOSITES ATTRACT?
Maybe that’s true of people – but this
is all about words in Spanish.
There are some ‘tricks’ for making
opposites (antonyms) - & while they
don’t work with everything – they are
useful nonetheless.
This is done by adding a prefix - a
few letters to the beginning of the
word - & hey presto, you have the
opposite!
The most common of these prefixes
are a, anti, des, in.
normal – anormal
constitucional – anticonstitucional
empleo – desempleo
frecuente - infrecuente
SHOPS & SHOPPING
Lynn Cobb
You’ve probably noticed that the
names of a lot of shops make it
obvious what is sold there. This
is just one thing I love about the
Spanish language – it’s so logical!
You might not realise that this logic
extends to the person who either
makes the goods or works in the
shop. The words are formed by
adding something to the end of the
name of the item - by adding a suffix.
It doesn’t work with all of them – but
it does seem to with most!
ITEM, MAKER / SHOPKEEPER
and SHOP
pan
panadero panadería
helado
heladero heladería
café
cafetero cafetería
cerveza cervecero cervecería
pelo
peluquero peluquería
carne carnicero carnicería
BUENOS AMIGOS
I few months ago I wrote about ‘False
Friends’…English & Spanish words
which sound the same but mean
something totally - & sometimes
embarrassingly – different.
However, there are literally thousands
of words in Spanish & English which
sound the same, & pretty much mean
the same too.
I have no intention of listing them all,
but here are some guidelines. I’ve
called them BUENOS AMIGOS Good Friends – technically they are
known as cognates.
We have them because both English
& Spanish have Latin & Greek roots.
I’ve given just a few examples for
each – but there are many more!