Recognising Words
Spanish: KS3, topic 1.1.3
Recognising Words in Spanish
These are some easy tips to help you recognise word patterns in Spanish.
Adverbs in Spanish
- Often, we create adverbs in Spanish by adding 'mente' to the end of an adjective.
- Eg. Rápida > rápidamente, lenta > lentamente, ruidosa > ruidosamente.
- As you can see, the adjective should always be in its feminine form when transforming it into the adverb.
- Note that fácil does not end in 'o' or 'a' - it has the same ending whether it is referring to a masculine or feminine object.
- Therefore, fácil becomes 'facilmente'.
Words ending in 'dad'
- Words ending in ‘dad’ are always feminine.
- Almost all of the time, these words translate to words in English which end 'ty' or 'ity':
- Universidad = university
- Posibilidad = possibility
- Probabilidad = probability.
Words ending in 'ción'
- Words in Spanish that end in 'ción' are usually feminine too.
- These words are equivalent to 'tion' words in English:
- Ficción = fiction
- Acción = action.
Test yourself on Recognising Words
How do words ending in 'ción' Spanish end in English?