Cognate Cognizance Podcast

vivify — this is a verb meaning to give life to or to endow with life; to animate something

vivificar — this is the Spanish cognate of the same meaning

In my 30 years of teaching high school Spanish, I will honestly tell you that I did not teach the word “vivificar;” however, I did teach the verb “vivir.”

Hopefully, you see the similarity between “vivificar” and “vivir.” “Vivificar” means to animate with life, like I mentioned above. “Vivir” means “to live.” It’s a very simple, yet very important and useful, verb.

When learning Spanish, you will come across the verb “vivir” very early in your lessons, and you will use the verb quite often. Usually, my students wouldn’t see any connection between “vivir” and any English word until I pointed them out, and you might not either, unless you look a little.

One of those connections is clear with the cognate duo seen above. Granted, “vivify” isn’t a commonly used English word, but that’s the point of this newsletter — to get you to recognize and know more words. I’m trying to vivify your dormant vocabulary. Ha, ha.

If you already have a strong command of the language, you may have made some other connections. Perhaps you’ve seen that “vivir” looks a lot like our word “vivid.” That’s because they all go back to the same Latin root of vivere which also means “to live.” If you describe something as “vivid,” it is “lively” and has the appearance of “life.”

Animals in a “vivarium” are placed there to be kept “alive” in conditions that simulate their natural environments. If you are “vivacious,” you are a “lively” person. If you happen to be a “vivisectionist,” you cut into people or animals while they are “alive” to do medical or scientific investigations. If you happen to be Scottish, you might use the word “vivers” to refer to food — you know, the stuff that keeps us “alive.” Interestingly, the rather old-fashioned word of “viands” for “food” also goes back to the same Latin verb. If you’re a human female who has born a child, you are considered “viviparous” because the baby came out of you fully formed and “alive,” and you didn’t have to lay an egg to create it.

These are many of the words that begin with that “life-giving” prefix of “vivi-.” Knowing them in English makes learning the verb “vivir” quite easy. Learning “vivir” in Spanish makes recognizing words in English that begin the same way easier to figure out. I consider the learning of cognates to be “vital” to any productive language study — yep, “vital” is related to all the words I’ve shared so far.

Thus, when Doctor Frankenstein “vivified” his monster and endowed it with “vitality,” it was quite fitting for him to shout, “It’s alive! It’s alive!”

"It's alive!" (YouTube link for a short clip)

Thanks for joining me. Until next time. Viva vocabulary!

Tammy Marshall

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comestible — an adjective meaning that something is edible or eatable

comestible — the Spanish cognate of the same definition

If you pluralize the word to “comestibles” it then becomes a noun and refers to food, which is, by its very nature, an edible product.

Interestingly, this particular word has the same spellings and meanings as an adjective or as a noun in both English and Spanish. That’s pretty rare because there’s usually some variation in either the spelling or within the usages of most cognate pairs. Naturally, there is a difference in the pronunciation of the word between English and Spanish, but it’s not a significant difference.

“Comestible” is an easy word to remember once you know Spanish because the extremely common and important verb for “to eat” is “comer.” That verb goes back to Latin.

“Comer” is taught very early on in any Spanish curriculum and used over and over to the extent that it becomes easy to recall simply from its usage. Knowing “comer” makes it easy to remember “comida” for “food” in Spanish, too; however, anyone who knows the English word of “comestible” prior to taking a Spanish lesson will have an advantage to those who do not know that word. If you don’t know the word “comestible” prior to studying Spanish, then your Spanish lessons will aid you in learning and remember that word.

Where you tend to encounter the word “comestibles” in a Spanish textbook is in a vocabulary list of places you’d find in a city. Most textbooks I’ve seen have used the expression “tienda de comestibles” for “grocery store.” (There are other, native-speaker preferred words, but textbooks tend to use this three-word expression.) “Tienda” means “store,” and then “comestibles” is used for “groceries” as they are consumable items.

Since my students were well-versed in the verb of “comer” by the time they learned the expression of “tienda de comestibles,” inevitably some would argue that you don’t eat everything you buy in a grocery store — things like paper towels or even things you drink — so I would have them focus on the fact that the things we buy at a grocery store are all things we consume in some way. We use them up. Just as we use up anything we might eat. Thus the connection.

So, something “comestible” is able to be eaten. It is something edible or eatable. “Comestibles” are food or our groceries.

Prior to writing this, I bought some comestibles at the grocery store, and I happen to have a puppy who thinks everything in and around the house is comestible, so I spend a lot of time taking pillow stuffing, shoes, pieces of wood, clods of dirt, and the occasional rock out of her mouth.

Until next time.

Tammy Marshall

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pantofle — a slipper

pantufla — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning

pantaloons — loosing-fitting, shorter trousers

pantalones — the Spanish cognate that simply means “pants”

You may wonder why I’m including “pantaloons” and “pantalones” as cognates when the meanings seem to be different, even though only slightly different. Well, that’s because we get our word “pants” from the word “pantaloons.” “Pants” is simply a shorter version of the same word even though we use “pants” to refer broadly to any kind of two-legged item of clothing for our lower half in which the fabric of each generally goes past the knees. So, while “pantaloons” brings to mind an old-fashioned style of dress, “pants” are for everyone — as are “pantalones” in Spanish.

The word comes from Italian and then through French to English. When learning Spanish, the word “pantalones” is fairly simple to remember because of the very familiar word of “pants” in English. While we usually don’t refer to that clothing item as “pant,” it can be expressed that way in Spanish with the word “pantalόn.”

Also coming to us from French is the word “pantofle.” This word, unlike “pants,” is not commonly used in English; however, its Spanish cognate of “pantufla” is commonly used. Like “pants,” we tend to speak of “slippers” in the plurality, so you’ll generally use the word as “pantuflas” in Spanish and “pantofles” in English.

Confusing things a bit more is the fact that “pantofles” can be pronounced a few different ways in English. That’s one of the things I like best about Spanish — its pronunciation is very simple. Once you understand some of the rules, and there aren’t too many, then it makes pronouncing words quite easy. There is only one way to pronounce “pantuflas” in Spanish. Granted, I’m not a native Spanish speaker, and I don’t have the right accent, so to any Spanish-speaking person who hears me saying the word, I probably don’t sound like I’m saying it correctly, but I am.

“Pantuflas.” “Pantuflas.” It’s such a fun word to say, isn’t it? “Pantalones.” That’s a fun one, too. Spanish, by and large, is an enjoyable language to speak, so I hope I’m adding to your own ability to use it. Even more, though, I hope I’m adding to your English vocabulary.

Oh, and as I write this, I’m wearing a warm pair of pantofles and some super comfy sweat pants (not pantaloons).

Until next time.

Tammy Marshall

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enamored — an adjective meaning that you are “in love” with someone or something or charmed/captivated by someone or something

enamorado/enamorada — the masculine and feminine Spanish adjectives that mean “in love”

In honor of today being Valentine’s Day, I thought it fitting that my post be about loooove. Are you “enamored” of anyone or anything special? Hopefully, you’re becoming a bit more enamored of words thanks to me.

The word “enamored” doesn’t come up a lot in English, at least in the U.S. It kind of sounds highbrow or like a word you’d read in an older piece of literature, but one of my readers recently used it in a comment about this newsletter, so kudos to her for helping to keep the word alive here.

In Spanish, on the other hand, “enamorado” is a very common word. When I would teach the word to my students, they often had a hard time remembering it, and they usually had no interest in learning the cognate of “enamored” to help them, so I used a different approach. Literally, the word breaks down to “in love” when you know that the word “en” means “in” and the word “amor” means “love.”

Many people are familiar with the Italian word for “love” —“amore” — from the famous Dean Martin song “That’s Amore.” “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.” I’m no Dean Martin. I’d usually play his version for my students because it’s quite catchy, and then they’d easily remember the word “amore” and could equate that with “amor” and then with “enamorado.” Naturally, it’s much easier if you already know the word “enamored.”

You can see the same combination of “en” and “amor” in the word “enamored.” It and its Spanish cognate go back to the Latin word for love, which is also amor. They come to us, though, via French, which is regarded by people worldwide as the “language of love.” Ooh la la.

Now, go find whomever you are enamored of, and give him or her a big old kiss. Say “I’m so enamored of you” in your sexiest voice and enjoy the rest of your Valentine’s Day. You can thank me later.

Until next time.

Tammy Marshall (a.k.a. Cupid for today)

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NOTE: Please notice that I’m including an audio version of this now. You can listen to it by clicking the play button above. Let me know if it is helpful and if I should continue doing it. There is a comment button at the bottom of the page.

scribe — as a verb, this can simply mean “to write”

escribir — this is the Spanish cognate and verb that means “to write”

At first glance, you may not see these two words as cognates, but in Spanish, the only time that words begin with the letter “s” is when the following letter is a vowel. Thus, any time the letter after the initial “s” is a consonant in English, the Spanish cognate must begin with a vowel, usually an “e.” That’s why you’ll see words like “escalar” for “to scale” and “espacio” for “space.”

And why you see “escribir” for “to scribe.” Now, I’d say that most English-speaking people think of “scribe” as a noun rather than a verb. “Scribe” is a noun, too, and it’s used more commonly that way. A “scribe” is a person who writes — in other words, a writer, like me. In olden times, the word was used for a person who copied manuscripts, and it can still be used that way, of course, but I prefer to think of it in a more general sense as simply a writer.

It sounds a bit fancier when someone asks, “What do you do for a living?” “Who, me? Why, I’m a scribe. I scribe for a living.” All right, so people might look at me oddly if I answered that way, but I still like it. Associating the word “scribe” with writing comes so easily to me because I’ve spoken and taught Spanish for so many years, and in Spanish, any time you want to speak about writing you have to use a form of the verb “escribir.”

My students often wouldn’t see the connection to the word “scribe” because they weren’t familiar with the word, but they would make the connection with the word “scribble,” and since most of their writing looked like scribbles, it was an apt comparison. Additionally, the words all go back to the same Latin beginning with the verb scribere which also means “to write.”

From that Latin verb, we also get the roots of the verbs “to describe” and “to inscribe.” Both of those verbs have Spanish cognates, too, in “describir” and “inscribir,” so you can see the similarities and connections and how easy it can be to memorize and/or learn these words from one language to the next when you have enhanced your cognate cognizance.

If you’re wondering whether the words “description” and “inscription” then have cognates in Spanish, you’d be right to believe they do. You’d easily recognize “descripciόn” and “inscripciόn.” Aren’t cognates fun?

You may have heard of or even used the writing software called Scrivener. It’s called that because the word “scrivener” is simply another word for “writer,” and that word comes to us from French which took its word from that Latin verb mentioned above. So, if you are a writer and don’t want to call yourself a scribe, you could call yourself a scrivener instead.

I very much enjoy scribing these missives for you and hope you are learning from them. Until next time on “Cognate Cognizance.”

Tammy Marshall

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SPECIAL NOTE: I am including an audio version of this. It should appear above. This is something I’m trying a time or two. I want feedback on it, please. My thought is that you could perhaps play it instead of read it if you are busy. It’s just something I’m experimenting with at the moment, so please do tell me what you think.

Disclaimer: I make no claim to knowing how to pronounce Latin words correctly.

Here’s the episode:

majuscule – a capitalized letter; a large letter

mayúscula – the Spanish cognate of the same meaning

I’ll admit right now that until I learned Spanish, I had never heard of the word “majuscule” in English. I’ve always heard and said either “use capital letters” or “use uppercase letters.” It would be much easier, more concise, and more precise to say, “use majuscules.”

In Spanish, if you want to indicate that a letter of a word should be capitalized, you use the word “mayúscula.” That’s it. There’s no other option, at least none that has presented itself in all the textbooks and readings I’ve done over the past thirty-plus years of studying and teaching Spanish. It makes perfect sense, too, and I really wish the use of “majuscule” was more common in English.

We use the word “minuscule” quite often, and “minuscule” originally was reserved to mean a lowercase letter. We now use that word for other things to indicate a tiny amount of something, but one of its meanings is “a lowercase letter.” In Spanish, it’s a cognate (“minúscula”) and that’s the word you use to indicate that a letter should be written in its lowercase form.

“Majuscule” and its Spanish cognate come from Latin majusculus which means “rather large,” and quite ironically is the diminutive of major. Major, in turn, comes from magnus which deals with something that is great or large.

The next time you feel the need to use all caps to shout at someone in a text message, think of those as all majuscules instead. That has a more regal sound, doesn’t it? Quite befitting the large size of those letters. Like saying “your majuscule” to them. Yep, “majesty” is a relative, as are other words dealing with the “majestic” qualities of something grand.

Those “majuscules” are large and important, so let’s bestow upon them their befitting title. The Spanish-speaking people have. Why don’t we?

Until next time. Please share this post or tell others about this bi-weekly newsletter. Thank you.

Tammy Marshall

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