How to Recognize Spanish Words

          In Spanish, many words can be recognized by their endings and associated with an English word of the same type.  For example, words which end in –ly in English often end with –mente in Spanish.  These words are almost always adverbs (words which tell how something is done).  Words that end in –dad, -tad, -ción, –sión, -ia, -ía, -ura, or –ismo are usually nouns (ideas or concepts in this case.  Words that end in -ista, -dor, -dora, -tor, -tora, -ero, or -era are usually nouns (persons in this case).  Words that end in –ado, -ido, -ada and –ida may be adjectives (words that describe persons, places, things, or ideas).  These nouns and adjectives can be made plural, of course, by adding –s if they end with a vowel, or –es if they end with a consonant.  Adjectives are made plural the same way as nouns.  Words that end in –ando or –iendo (or –yendo) are usually equivalent to the –ing form of an English verb.

          Naturally, any word that comes after el, la, los, las, un, una, unos, unas, este, esta, estos, estas, ese, esa, esos, esas, aquel, aquella, aquellos, aquellas, mi, mis, tu, tus, su, sus, nuestro, nuestra, nuestros, nuestras, algún, alguna, algunos, algunas, otro, otra, otros, otras, or cualquier is a noun, that is, a person, place, thing, or idea.

          In Spanish, many words can change from one type of word to another.  An adjective (which is used to describe a person, place, thing, or idea) can be transformed into an adverb (which is used to modify a verb, that is, to tell how something is done, or to modify an adjective or another adverb).  This is accomplished by simply adding –mente to adjectives that end with a consonant, and by changing the –o to an –a and adding –mente to those that end with an –o.