If you are are studying a romance language (Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, etc.) and are an English speaker, you already know more words than you realize. While taking an Italian class in college, I learned that many English words we have share the same root as their Latin cousins. By breaking apart words, it’s possible to quickly learn many words in little time at all. And you don’t need to be an etymologist or linguist to put two and two together. I don’t know how to better describe this than just diving right in:
For example- words ending in -pose in English come from the French poser. We don’t really use the word pose any longer in English, but we can add prefixes and have an entire list of words used in the language. Exponer in Spanish is expose in English.
| Spanish | English |
| -poner | -pose |
| componer | compose |
| proponer | propose |
| transponer | transpose |
| exponer | expose |
| imponer | impose |
| suponer | suppose |
| disponer | dispose |
| oponer | oppose |
The same thing applies with the verb tener. In Spanish it’s used to mean “to have.” English never used “tain” in this instance, however we have built words around tain. To Contain in English is contener in Spanish.
| -tener | -tain |
| entretener | entertain |
| sostener | sustain |
| abstener | abstain |
| mantener | maintain |
| retener | retain |
| contener | contain |
Tract/traer follows a similar pattern:
| -traer | -tract |
| distraer | distract |
| extraer | extract |
| contraer | contract |
| retraer | retract |
| atraer | attract |
These should be considered as guidelines, not hard lined rules. Some outliers are highlighted below in red:
| -ducir | -duce |
| introducir | introduce(scientific) |
| reproducir | reproduce |
| producir | produce |
| seducir | seduce |
| inducir | induce |
| traducir | traduce |
In Spanish, introducir is used to mean to insert/place. English also can use it in this context, (The machine introduced the hydrogen into the chamber, for example) however introduce in English much more commonly means presentar in Spanish. In Spanish, traducir means to translate- whereas in English, traduce is an old way of saying to slander someone. (As a nerdy side read, I found the etymology of traduce to be interesting.)
I could have gone on about what prefixes are and what they mean, the specific history of each verb, but I chose not to. I found it’s much more easier to follow intuition and to get a feel how to peel apart words naturally rather than looking up histories and definitions. How many words are actually apart of other words? Question each and every word, break them up, and you might just see all the little pieces that hold each word together.
Until next time,
Ross