Learn Spanish words fast just by reading this post. You can learn around 250 Spanish words, most of them adjectives.

How can I learn Spanish words fast?

In order to add Spanish words fast to your vocabulary and speech, we can use cognates.

What are “cognates”?

“Cognates” are the words that share their roots (stems) in both your language, English, and your target language, Spanish.

How does the cognate “-IC to -ICO” work?

We are going to practice English words ending in “-IC” which in Spanish end in “-ICO”. For example: “plastic” will be “plástico”. As you can see, these words share their root “plast” and we only need to change “-IC” for “-ICO”.

Can you see if there is a pattern you may use for any other words similar to “plastic”? If “plastic” translates to “plástico” in Spanish, what will be “-magic” in Spanish?

You can add Spanish words to your vocabulary fast, around 250 by using this easy pattern.

Would you like to try with “academic”? Try to work out the Spanish word and check your answer in the table bellow.

There are around 250 Spanish words you can use just by changing their “-IC” ending to “-ICO” ending. Remember that “-IC” maybe “-ICA” instead of “-ICO” if the word they go with is feminine. For example: el libro es fantást-ico, la televisión es fantást-ica.

The Spanish words most commonly used related to this cognate are the following:

English	Spanish	English	Spanish
academic	académico	generic	genérico
acrobatic	acrobático	dynamic	dinámico
alcoholic	alcohólico	artistic	artístico
authentic	auténtico	basic	básico
characteristic	característico	comic	cómico
plastic	pástico	classic	clásico
democratic	democrático	dynamic	dinámico
erotic	erótico	exotic	exótico
diplomatic	diplomático	domestic	doméstico
dramatic	dramático	economic	económico
electronic	electrónico	automatic	automático
dramatic	dramático	fantastic	fantástico
cosmetic	cosmético	genetic	genético
geometric	geométrico	heroic	heróico
ironic	irónico	magic	mágico
organic	orgánico	panic	pánico
poetic	poético	public	público
romanic	románico	gothic	gótico
jonic	jónico	systematic	sistémico
tragic	trágico	problematic	problemático
attic	ático	systematic	sistemático

Following this post we will also work more cognate patterns like “tion-ción”, “ous-oso”, “ate-ar”, “ary-ario”, “ty-dad”, “ct-cto”. Don’t miss them!

This is one of the tricks to learn Spanish words fast!