Comparison of Italian and Spanish 2

Comparison of Italian and Spanish

Similar Vocabulary

In many (but by no means all) cases, the Italian and Spanish words for something are very similar. In fact there are some simple rules for converting one to the other which work in many cases:

Almost all words in Italian end in a vowel, whereas many Spanish words do not. Compare giardino/jardín, partire/partir, migliore/mejor.
Italian 'o' or 'uo' often becomes 'ue' in Spanish when the syllable is stressed. E.g. morto/muerto, posto/puesto.
Italian 'e' often becomes 'ie' in Spanish when the syllable is stressed. E.g. concerto/concierto, tempo/tiempo.
Italian 'f' often becomes 'h' in Spanish when at the start of a word. E.g. fumo/humo, figlio/hijo.
Italian voiceless consonants 'c' and 't' often become voiced ('g' and 'd' respectively) in Spanish. E.g. amico/amigo, colpo/golpe, pietra/piedra, potere/poder.
Italian 'sc', 'sf', 'sp' and 'st' often become 'esc, 'esf', 'esp' and 'est' in Spanish, when at the start of a word. E.g. scrivere/escribir, sforzo/esfuerzo, speciale/especial, studente/estudiante.
The Italian suffixes '-tà' '-tù' and '-zione' become '-dad', '-tud' and '-ción' in Spanish. E.g. università/universidad, virtù/virtud, informazione/información.

Armed with this knowledge, you can easily learn the following pairs, which involve the 'o' to 'ue' rule:

l'accordo/el acuerdo, il collo/el cuello, il conto/la cuenta, la corda/la cuerda, il corno/el cuerno, il corpo/el cuerpo, il fuoco/el fuego, il mobile/el mueble, la mostra/la muestra, la noce/la nuez, la porta/la puerta, il porto/el puerto, la risposta/la respuesta, il racconto/el cuento, l'ospite/el huésped, l'osso/el hueso, lo sconto/el discuento, il posto/el puesto, l'uovo/el huevo, il volo/el vuelo, buono/bueno, forte/fuerte, morto/muerto, nostro/nuestro, nuovo/nuevo, fuori/fuera, dopo/después.

And these ones, which involve the 'e' to 'ie' rule:

il cervo/el ciervo, il concerto/el concierto, il dente/el diente, la febbre/la fiebre, la festa/la fiesta, il governo/el gobierno, l'inverno/el invierno, la nebbia/la niebla, la pelle/la piel, il tempo/el tiempo, il vento/el viento, mentre/mientras, bene/bien, aperto/abierto, sempre/siempre, vecchio/viejo.

And these ones, which involve the initial 'f' rule:

la farina/la harina, la fata/el hada, il fegato/el hígado, il ferro/el hierro, il fico/el higo, il figlio/el hijo, il filo/el hilo, la foglia/la hoja, il fondo/el hondo, la formica/la hormiga, il forno/el horno, il fumo/el humo, fare/hacer, ferire/herir.

Another nice thing is that both languages have the same rule for forming adverbs. You take the feminine form of the adjective, and add 'mente'. Examples: fortunatamente/afortunadamente, felicemente/felizmente.

Last updated January 2021 by Adam N. Letchford.