Monogr

afía
Lengua
V
Alumno:
Fran
Cúnsulo
Profesor
a:
Silvina
Carrillo
Año: 3º

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General Index:

Introduction 03

Chapter 1: A little history 03

Chapter 2: Basic similarities between Spanish and English 03

Chapter 3: Phonemic and phonological differences 04

Chapter 4: Vocabulary 04

Chapter 5: Syntax 05

Chapter 6: Negation 05

Chapter 7: Pluralisation 06

Chapter 8: Verb tenses 06

Chapter 9: Contractions 07

Chapter 10: Capitalization and punctuation 07

Conclusion 08

References 09

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Introduction

English and Spanish are two languages that, in some ways, are very different
from each other, yet, in other ways, are very similar. As a matter of fact,
Spanish is one of the most closely related languages to English.

In the modern world, it’s important to be open to other cultures, and in order to
do so, we must concentrate in what we have in common with these cultures,
instead of what separates us. The language barrier can be an obstacle big
enough for some people to desist in this effort for unity, but with this piece of
work I intend to prove that these two languages (English and Spanish) are far
more connected than some people think.

I chose to compare the structures of these two languages to which I’m deeply
connected. As these are important international languages, maybe this analysis
will come handy to someone in the dozens of countries where they are both
spoken.

Development

1- A little history

To explain why these two languages are so related to each other, we must first
go back to their origins. Both belong to the Indo-European language family. But
while Spanish is a Romance language (meaning is derived from Latin), English
is Germanic, a completely different language group.

However, during a certain period of time, a portion of the English language was
influenced by Romance sources and vice-versa. Many centuries ago, as these
languages were still fairly new, they began to merge as the Germanic and
Roman people increased communication after the fall of the Western Roman
Empire and the subsequent conversion of the Germanic people to the Catholic
Church. Because of this, there are still quite a few similarities between modern
Spanish and modern English today.

2- Basic similarities between Spanish and English

First of all, both languages use the Roman alphabet. That knowledge helps
build a phonemic and phonological foundation.

Secondly, 30% to 40% of all words in English have a related word in Spanish.
With similar sound, appearance, and meaning, these cognates help students
transfer that word knowledge into their second language.

Thirdly, except for a couple of word order exceptions (adjective before noun in
English and noun before adjective in Spanish), sentences in both languages
have the same basic structures (as compared to English and Chinese or other
non-Latin derived languages).

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And fourth, learning to read and write uses the same basic processes
(phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, comprehension, writing mechanics).

3- Phonemic and phonological differences

There are also some differences between the two languages that may interfere
with English pronunciation (phonemic differences) and with decoding or spelling
(phonological differences).

Perhaps the greatest difference between English and Spanish is that Spanish
has only five vowel sounds while English has more than 14, depending on
regional dialects. This is the reason Spanish speakers have difficulty
differentiating between vowel phonemes in words like “seat” and “sit” where the
length of the vowel sound plays an important role. This, in turn affects spelling,
because Spanish speakers could confuse the pronunciation of the word they
meant, thinking it is other.

Combinations in Spanish that are pronounced differently: que, qui, güe, güi. For
example: the u is not pronounced unless it is written as ü; therefore, learners
may not be sure how to pronounce words like queen, quiet, or quick

Spanish does not have the following sounds (listed by category):

 Vowel digraphs: ou, ow, eigh, au, aw, oo

 Consonant digraphs: sh, th, wh, ph
 Consonant blends: sl, sm, sts, scr, spr, str
 Initial sounds: kn, qu, wr, sk
 Final sounds: ck, ng, gh
 Endings: -ed (pronounced /d/ or /t/ or /ded/ or /ted/)
 Endings: -s (pronounced /s/ or /z/ or /ez/ or /es/)
 Endings without a vowel: -ps, -ts

4- Vocabulary

Due to their shared Latin influence, Spanish and English have over 20000
cognates, that is, words in their vocabulary that are spelled nearly the same and
have often the same meaning. Something that really comes handy is that
identifying cognates is somewhat systematic. There are certain word endings
that will almost always translate to the same word from Spanish to English,
such as the Spanish ending -ción to the English -tion.

Here are some examples of cognates:

 Accident/accidente
 Celebrate/celebrar
 Invitation/invitación
 Planet/planeta

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  Glory/Gloria
 Uniform/uniforme

Also, it must be considered that, unlike English, Spanish nouns have gender. In
the Spanish language, every noun is considered to be either masculine or
feminine, and the articles “the,” el (masculine) or la (feminine), will often
accompany the noun to demonstrate which gender the noun is.

5- Syntax

When compared to most other languages, the syntax of Spanish and English
are very similar. That being said, the syntax in Spanish is more flexible than in
English. If one word in English is said in a different order, it will sound very
strange and likely be noticed or even misunderstood. But in Spanish, there are
usually multiple ways that a sentence can be put together.

Example:

 El auto está sucio/Está sucio el auto (“The car is dirty”)

When asking a question in English, sometimes we need to add an auxiliary verb

(mostly a form of “be” and “have”) to make the sentence feel proper.

Examples:

 Does this taste good enough?

 Did you pass the test?

In Spanish, there is no such need for extra words in the question sentence.

 ¿Esto sabe lo bastante bien? (Literally “this tastes good enough?)

 ¿Pasaste el examen? (Literally “you passed the test?)

Usually, the subject is omitted in a question since the conjugation of the verb
already states the doer of the action

6- Negation

The production of negatives differs in Spanish and English. While in English

single negatives are always used, in Spanish it’s common to use double
negatives.

For example, a regular English speaker might say “I don’t want anything”, but
the Spanish translation would be “no quiero nada” (“No I want nothing “literally).
Yet the meaning of both sentences is exactly the same.

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7- Pluralisation

Both languages pluralize in the same way, by adding -s or -es to the end of
words, and not all languages do this (most East Asian languages don’t have a
plural form). In Spanish, however, in addition to the noun changing in its plural
form, the article before the noun and any accompanying adjectives must
change as well.

Pluralizing articles goes like this:

 El is the masculine singular form of “the,” and when used with a plural
noun, it will become los. “La” is the feminine singular form of “the” and
“las” is the plural.

The adjectives in front of the noun must also be pluralized. Pluralizing

adjectives is basically the same as pluralizing the noun, which means, in most
cases, just adding –s to the end of the word. Here are some examples to tie this
all together:

Masculine:

 “El gato negro” (the black cat) — “Los gatos negros” (the black cats)

Feminine:

 “La rosa roja” (the red rose) — “Las rosas rojas” (the red roses)

In English, there’s something unique called “irregular nouns” that follow no

specific rules regarding pluralisation. Here are some examples:

 child – children
 goose – geese
 man – men
 woman – women
 tooth – teeth
 foot – feet
 mouse – mice

8- Verb tenses

Although there are many aspects of verb grammar in English and Spanish that
are similar, there is no one-to-one correspondence in the use of tenses. That
can be confusing for Spanish- speaking English students, and may cause them
to use a simple tense instead of a future one. Here’s an example:

“I will help you with that” is the correct phrase in English. In Spanish it’s said “yo
te ayudo con eso” (literally “I help you with that”). This is a recurring issue for
learners of English, but with study and practise, it’s easy to fix.

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9- Contractions

Both languages make use of contractions (shortening of words or phrases by

dropping one or two letters), although English has dozens more than Spanish.
Also, when written, contractions in English make use of an apostrophe (‘) to
indicate the place of the missing letters. The most common contractions are
made up of verbs, auxiliaries, or modals attached to other words.

Here are some common contractions examples in English:

 I’m I am
 You’ll you will
 That’s that is
 Don’t do not
 Let’s let us

The use of contractions in Spanish mostly depends on the region, but almost all
Spanish speakers know these two: “del” and “al”.

The contraction “del” comes from the two extremely common words de + el,
which are very often next to each other in a sentence. De is the preposition
meaning “of” or “from” and el is the article meaning “the.”

Here is an example of this contraction being used in a sentence:

 “Este cuarto es del professor”. (This is the professor’s room.) (Literally:

This room is of the professor.)

The contraction “al” comes from a + el. The preposition “a” is used in a large
variety of ways, but most often in this case as “to.” The contraction is used
when wanting to say “to the,” if “the” precedes a masculine noun.

Here is an example of it in a sentence:

 “Vamos al Mercado” is used instead of “Vamos a el Mercado”. (Let’s go

to the market.)

10- Capitalization and punctuation

Compared to some other languages that do not use any capitalization or

punctuation, Spanish capitalizes many of the same words and use much of the
same punctuation as English does. However, there are exceptions for both.

Here are a few instances when Spanish capitalization rules are the same as in
English:

 The first word of a sentence.

 Proper nouns (names of people, countries).

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  Titles, but in most cases, it is just the first word. (For example: “Cien
años de soledad” [One Hundred Years of Solitude])

And here are some instances when it is not:

 Languages, nationalities, religions.

 Days, months or seasons.
 Yo (I).

Here are a few instances when Spanish punctuation works the same as in
English:

 Periods are placed at the end of a sentence.

 Commas are used within sentences using mostly all of the same rules.

And here are some instances when it is not:

 Question marks and exclamation points are placed at the beginning of a

sentence, as well as at the end. (¿Cómo estás? [How are you?])
 When using numbers, the period and comma actually denote the
opposite of that in English. (1,000 is written as 1.000 in Spanish, and 1.5
is written as 1, 5, though many sources have started to adopt the English
system, especially in Mexico and Central America.)

Conclusion

After going through all the aspects connecting both languages, I reached my
conclusion. English and Spanish are very different from each other, but they
have many interchangeable characteristics. A translation between these two
languages will not always be smooth and sleek, but it would certainly easier
than a Spanish-to-Russian translation or an English-to-Cantonese translation.

My overall point is that furthering the communication between the cultures that
speak these two languages might take some work but it will be worth it, and at
the end, it will prove itself to be easier than expected. I hope that whoever reads
this analysis will think so too.

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References:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_peoples#Germano-
Roman_contacts
 August, D., Calderón M., & Carlo M. (2002) the Transfer of Skills from
Spanish to English: A Study of Young Learners. Center for Applied
Linguistics, Washington, D.C.
 Spanish-influenced English: Typical semantic and syntactic patterns of
the English language learner
 https://www.atlasandboots.com/foreign-service-institute-language-
difficulty/