Why start Spanish? 100 common words and a couple of proverbs

 

Flag of Spain.

Why learn Spanish? Because it is simple, and widely spoken. With Spanish, you can easily read Italian and Portuguese.

Widely Spoken

Europe

Spain

Spanish Islands

Canaries (Tenerife and others)

Balearic Islands (in the Mediterranean sea, east of Spain in the western Med)

The four largest islands are Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera.

Majorca (j pronounced like y as in yellow) (the major or largest island)

Minorca (the mini or smaller island)

Tenerife

The eight main islands are (from largest to smallest in area) Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro and La Graciosa.

Other countries speaking Spanish are Cuba, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica.

Let's look at what wiki says in summary:

It is estimated that there are more than 437 million people who speak Spanish as a native language, which qualifies it as second on the lists of languages by number of native speakers.

 Instituto Cervantes claims that there are an estimated 477 million Spanish speakers with native competence and 572 million Spanish speakers as a first or second language—including speakers with limited competence—and more than 21 million students of Spanish as a foreign language.

Spanish is the official, or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, and 18 countries and one territory in the Americas. Speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. 

It is also an optional language in the Philippines as it was a Spanish colony from 1569 to 1899. In the European Union, Spanish is the mother tongue of 8% of the population, with an additional 7% speaking it as a second language.

The country with the largest number of native speakers is Mexico.

Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States. In 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over, 38 million speak Spanish at home.

American, Central America and South America

USA - lots of Spanish signs for Spanish speakers from Latin America

Mexico. 

Venezuela and most of South America, except Brazil which speaks Portuguese which is similar.

Using Spanish On Holiday

My husband and I and a group of people from Europe and Asia had a group holiday in Madeira and could read most of the road signs and tourist attraction signs. For example, garden was Jardim in Portuguese, easily recognized if you knew the Spanish and French are jardin. The Spanish is almost the same word as the English,  except for j instead of g, and i instead of e.

Familiar Spanish Words

Spanish - English

amigo - friend

cañón - canyon 

colorado - coloured or red

sierra - mountain range

sombrero - large hat creating shade (as in the word sombre)

turista - tourist

English - Spanish

canyon from cañón 

Colorado - coloured or red

English-to-Spanish loanwords[edit]

Wiktionary has a category on Spanish terms derived from English

All of the following loanwords are either nouns or gerunds. Words ending in -ing are gerunds in English and nouns in Spanish.

1. airbag(s)
2. antivirus
3. audiovisual
4. backup
5. banjo(s)
6. bit(s)
7. byte
8. camping
9. chat(s)
10. chip(s)
11. clip(s)
12. club(s)
13. collie
14. convoy
15. doping
16. email(s)
17. gag(s)
18. gene(s)
19. hangar
20. iceberg
21. input(s)
22. jersey^[9][10]
23. jumbo
24. magnate(s)
25. modem
26. motocross
27. multimedia
28. parking
29. picnic(s)
30. polo(s)
31. pop^[2]
32. pub(s)
33. punk(s)
34. radar
35. rail
36. rally
37. rifle(s)
38. ring
39. robot(s)
40. rock^[a]
41. rugby
42. shock(s)
43. shorts
44. show(s)
45. software
46. sprint(s)
47. surf
48. test(s)
49. unisex
50. whisky
51. windsurfing
52. yuppie
53. zoo(s)

54. Spanish-to-English loanwords[edit]

    

    Wiktionary has a category on English terms derived from Spanish
    Further information: List of English words of Spanish origin

    Although the meanings of the following loanwords overlap, most of them have different senses and/or shades of meaning in Spanish and English. Generally, loanwords have more diverse and nuanced meanings in the originating language than they do in the adopting language.

    1. armada(s)
    2. armadillo(s)
    3. arroyo(s)
    4. ayuntamiento(s)
    5. azulejo(s)
    6. bajada(s)
    7. balsa(s)
    8. banda
    9. banderilla(s)
    10. burro(s)
    11. caballero(s)
    12. cacao
    13. coca
    14. cria(s)
    15. esparto(s)
    16. guerrilla(s)
    17. hacienda(s)
    18. hidalgo(s)
    19. hombre(s)
    20. jalapeño(s)
    21. machete(s)
    22. macho
    23. mantilla(s)
    24. manzanilla
    25. maraca(s)
    26. margarita(s)
    27. marina(s)
    28. masa
    29. matador
    30. menudo(s)
    31. mestizo(s)
    32. mosquito(s)^[a]
    33. mulato(s)
    34. nacho(s)
    35. nada
    36. negro
    37. padre(s)
    38. paella(s)
    39. patio(s)
    40. peluca
    41. peseta(s)
    42. peso(s)
    43. picador
    44. pimiento(s)
    45. pinto
    46. piñata(s)
    47. plaza(s)
    48. pronto
    49. pueblo(s)
    50. rodeo(s)
    51. rumba
    52. salsa(s)
    53. suave
    54. taco(s)
    55. tango(s)
    56. tapa(s)
    57. tequila(s)
    1. ^ In Spanish, mosca means "fly"; mosquito literally means "little fly".

Most frequent word forms out of ~160 million words

Rank	Word form	Occurrences	Part of speech	Translation
1	de	9,999,518	preposition	of; from
2	la	6,277,560	article, pronoun	the; third person feminine singular pronoun
3	que	4,681,839	conjunction	that, which
4	el	4,569,652	article	the
5	en	4,234,281	preposition	in, on
6	y	4,180,279	conjunction	and
7	a	3,260,939	preposition	to, at
8	los	2,618,657	article, pronoun	the; third person masculine direct object
9	se	2,022,514	pronoun	-self, oneself (reflexive)
10	del	1,857,225	preposition	from the
11	las	1,686,741	article, pronoun	the; third person feminine direct object
12	un	1,659,827	article	a, an
13	por	1,561,904	preposition	by, for, through
14	con	1,481,607	preposition	with
15	no	1,465,503	adverb	no; not
16	una	1,347,603	article	a, an, one
17	su	1,103,617	possessive	his/her/its/your
18	para	1,062,152	preposition	for, to, in order to
19	es	1,019,669	verb	is
20	al	951,054	preposition	to the
21	lo	866,955	article, pronoun	the; third person masculine direct object
22	como	773,465	conjunction	like, as
23	más	661,696	adjective	more
24	o	542,284	conjunction	or
25	pero	450,512	conjunction	but
26	sus	449,870	possessive	your
27	le	413,241	pronoun	third person indirect object
28	ha	380,339	verb	he/she/it has [done something]; you (formal) have [done something]
29	me	374,368	pronoun	me
30	si	327,480	conjunction	if, whether
31	sin	298,383	preposition	without
32	sobre	289,704	preposition	on top of, over, about
33	este	285,461	adjective	this
34	ya	274,177	adverb	already; still
35	entre	267,493	preposition	between
36	cuando	257,272	conjunction	when
37	todo	247,340	adjective	all, every
38	esta	238,841	adjective	this
39	ser	232,924	verb	to be
40	son	232,415	verb	they are, you (pl.) are
41	dos	228,439	number	two
42	también	227,411	adverb	too, also, as well
43	fue	223,791	verb	was
44	había	223,430	verb	I/he/she/it/there was (or used to be)
45	era	219,933	verb	was
46	muy	208,540	adverb	very
47	años	203,027	noun (masculine)	years
48	hasta	202,935	preposition	until
49	desde	198,647	preposition	from; since
50	está	194,168	verb	is
51	mi	186,360	possessive	my
52	porque	185,700	conjunction	because
53	qué	184,956	pronoun	what?; which?; how adjective
54	sólo	170,552	adverb	only, solely
55	han	169,718	verb	they/you (pl.) have [done something]
56	yo	167,684	pronoun	I
57	hay	164,940	verb	there is/are
58	vez	163,538	noun (feminine)	time, instance
59	puede	161,219	verb	can
60	todos	158,168	adjective	all; every
61	así	155,645	adverb	like that
62	nos	154,412	pronoun	us
63	ni	153,451	conjunction, adverb	neither; nor; no even
64	parte	148,750	noun (masculine / feminine)	part; message
65	tiene	147,274	verb	has
66	él	139,080	pronoun (masculine)	he, it
67	uno	136,020	number	one
68	donde	132,077	preposition	where
69	bien	130,957	adjective	fine, well
70	tiempo	130,896	noun (masculine)	time; weather
71	mismo	130,746	adjective	same
72	ese	127,976	pronoun	that
73	ahora	125,661	adverb	now
74	cada	124,558	determiner	each; every
75	e	123,729	conjunction	and
76	vida	123,491	noun (feminine)	life
77	otro	121,983	adjective	other, another
78	después	121,746	preposition	after
79	te	120,052	pronoun	to you, for you; yourself
80	otros	119,500	pronoun	others
81	aunque	115,556	conjunction	though, although, even though
82	esa	115,377	adjective	that
83	eso	114,523	pronoun	that
84	hace	114,507	verb	he/she/it does/makes
85	otra	113,982	adjective, pronoun	other; another
86	gobierno	113,011	noun (masculine)	government
87	tan	112,471	adverb	so
88	durante	112,020	preposition	during
89	siempre	111,557	adverb	always
90	día	110,921	noun (masculine)	day
91	tanto	110,679	adjective, adverb	so much
92	ella	110,620	pronoun	she, her; it
93	tres	109,542	number	three
94	sí	108,631	noun, pronoun	yes; reflexive pronoun
95	dijo	108,471	verb	said; told
96	sido	107,352	past participle	been
97	gran	106,991	adjective	large, great, big
98	país	104,568	noun (masculine)	country
99	según	104,204	preposition	as; according to
100	menos	103,498	adjective	less; fewer

A highlighted row indicates that the word was found to occur especially frequently in samples of spoken Spanish.

• 
  Near literal translation and English equivalent:    
• La vida no es un camino de rosas.

Life is not a path of roses.

Meaning/use:

It's normal to encounter all kinds of difficulties along the road of life.

• Todos los caminos llevan a Roma.

Literal translation and English equivalent:

All roads lead to Rome.

Meaning/use:

Goals can be achieved by different means.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_proverbs

duolingo.com

memrise.com

earworms.com

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages and gives talks and workshops on language and learning languages. For workshops contact annalondon8@gmail.com

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