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.
Last updated September 2011 by Adam N. Letchford.