Compar son of Ital an and Span sh

S m lar Vocabulary

In many (but by no means all) cases, the Ital an and Span sh words for someth ng are very s m lar. In fact
there are some s mple rules for convert ng one to the other wh ch work n many cases:

Almost all words n Ital an end n a vowel, whereas many Span sh words do not. Compare
g ard no/jardín, part re/part r, m gl ore/mejor.
Ital an 'o' or 'uo' often becomes 'ue' n Span sh when the syllable s stressed. E.g. morto/muerto,
posto/puesto.
Ital an 'e' often becomes ' e' n Span sh when the syllable s stressed. E.g. concerto/conc erto,
tempo/t empo.
Ital an 'f' often becomes 'h' n Span sh when at the start of a word. E.g. fumo/humo, f gl o/h jo.
Ital an vo celess consonants 'c' and 't' often become vo ced ('g' and 'd' respect vely) n Span sh. E.g.
am co/am go, colpo/golpe, p etra/p edra, potere/poder.
Ital an 'sc', 'sf', 'sp' and 'st' often become 'esc, 'esf', 'esp' and 'est' n Span sh, when at the start of a word.
E.g. scr vere/escr b r, sforzo/esfuerzo, spec ale/espec al, studente/estud ante.
The Ital an suff xes '-tà' '-tù' and '-z one' become '-dad', '-tud' and '-c ón' n Span sh. E.g.
un vers tà/un vers dad, v rtù/v rtud, nformaz one/ nformac ón.

Armed w th th s knowledge, you can eas ly learn the follow ng pa rs, wh ch nvolve the 'o' to 'ue' rule:

l'accordo/el acuerdo, l collo/el cuello, l conto/la cuenta, la corda/la cuerda, l corno/el cuerno, l corpo/el
cuerpo, l fuoco/el fuego, l mob le/el mueble, la mostra/la muestra, la noce/la nuez, la porta/la puerta, l
porto/el puerto, la r sposta/la respuesta, l racconto/el cuento, l'osp te/el huésped, l'osso/el hueso, lo sconto/el
d scuento, l posto/el puesto, l'uovo/el huevo, l volo/el vuelo, buono/bueno, forte/fuerte, morto/muerto,
nostro/nuestro, nuovo/nuevo, fuor /fuera, dopo/después.

And these ones, wh ch nvolve the 'e' to ' e' rule:

l cervo/el c ervo, l concerto/el conc erto, l dente/el d ente, la febbre/la f ebre, la festa/la f esta, l governo/el
gob erno, l' nverno/el nv erno, la nebb a/la n ebla, la pelle/la p el, l tempo/el t empo, l vento/el v ento,
mentre/m entras, bene/b en, aperto/ab erto, sempre/s empre, vecch o/v ejo.

And these ones, wh ch nvolve the n t al 'f' rule:

la far na/la har na, la fata/el hada, l fegato/el hígado, l ferro/el h erro, l f co/el h go, l f gl o/el h jo, l f lo/el
h lo, la fogl a/la hoja, l fondo/el hondo, la form ca/la horm ga, l forno/el horno, l fumo/el humo, fare/hacer,
fer re/her r.

Another n ce th ng s that both languages have the same rule for form ng adverbs. You take the fem n ne
form of the adject ve, and add 'mente'. Examples: fortunatamente/afortunadamente, fel cemente/fel zmente.

Last updated January 2021 by Adam N. Letchford.