Lesson Three: Similar Words - words ending 'ant', 'ent', 'ably', 'ibly'

Learn hundreds more Spanish words instantly simply by understanding a few more simple rules for English words that end 'ant', 'ent', 'ably' and 'ibly'!

Words ending 'ant' and 'ent'

OK, more good news! If you have a word in English which ends 'ant' or 'ent' we can convert most of these to Spanish simply by adding an 'e on the end.

Spanish	English
Es importante	It's important
No es importante	It's not important
Diferente	Different
No es diferente	It's not different
Constante	Constant
Es constante	It's constant

The one thing to listen out for here is which part of the word is stressed. You'll hear it is always the penultimate syllable compared to English which tends to stress syllables at the start of the word.

Adding 'ly'

In English all the words above can take an 'ly' on the end. Importantly, differently, constantly, etc. To do this in Spanish we add 'mente'

Spanish	English
Constantemente	Constantly
Urgente	Urgent
Urgentemente	Urgently

We can also do this for words we learned in Lesson One (words ending 'al').

Spanish	English
Legalmente	Legally
Ilegalmente	Illegally
Real	Real
Realmente	Really

Real, by the way, also means 'Royal' in Spanish and that's why you see it in the names of many football clubs like 'Real Madrid'. So there you go - two words learnt in one!

OK, moving on and expanding a little ...

Spanish	English
Normalmente	Normally
Normalmente es importante	Normally it's important
Global	Global
Globalmente	Globally

'G' when it sounds like 'J' in 'jug'

In the word 'Global' above the 'G' sounds kind of as you would expect it. However whenever you hear 'g' in English pronounced like 'J' in 'Jug' - like in the word 'General' it is pronounced differently in Spanish. I have no idea how to type it so have a listen ...

Spanish	English
Argentina	Argentina
General	General
Generalmente	Generally
Original	Original
Originalmente	Originally
Digital	Digital
Naturalmente	Naturally
Naturalmente es original	Naturally it's original

Words ending 'ible' and 'able'

These are usually spelt the same way. We just have to make sure to pronounce the last letter which is often left silent in English.

Spanish	English
Posible	Possible
Probable	Probable
Probablemente	Probably
Posiblemente es original	Possibly it's original
Flexible	Flexible

Now all these rules do have exceptions but we're starting here with being able to know, say 90%, and then the other 10% will come as you practice and learn more. What's important here is to have the confidence when you are speaking in Spanish to just try the rules and see if you are understood. Even if you aren't you will often be close enough that a Spanish speaker will be able to correct you and you'll learn the exceptions far quicker.