In the course of your Spanish studies, you may have noticed certain patterns that make "predicting" words you may never have even heard before possible in many cases. The focus of today's lesson is one such group of words.
Due to their shared roots in the Latin language, many English words that end with the suffix -ation are cognates (words in different languages that share similar meanings, spellings, and pronunciations) along with their Spanish equivalents that end in a very similar suffix: -ación. Let's look at several, very common examples that you may have heard:
Justo el día de hoy le ha dado un mensaje a la nación
Just today he's given a message to the nation
Caption 23, Yabla en Lima El Centro - Part 2
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y tenía mucha imaginación.
and he had a lot of imagination.
Caption 9, El Aula Azul Adivina personajes históricos - Part 2
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Ehm... ¿Tiene alguna recomendación como de pollo o de pescado?
Um... Do you have any recommendation, like, for chicken or fish?
Captions 32-33, Cata y Cleer En el restaurante
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y, por suerte, casi siempre hay mucha participación.
and, luckily, there is almost always a lot of participation.
Caption 78, Viajando con Fermín Asociación ProDunas Marbella
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What can we notice about these words? First off, most of them share virtually identical spellings in English and Spanish but for the replacement of the English suffix -ation with the Spanish -ación. The only minor exception in these examples is the inclusion of a double consonant (m) in the English word "recommendation" that does not appear in la recomendación (this is due to an English spelling rule that we won't delve into in this lesson).
Another noteworthy feature of this class of -ation/-ación cognates (and, in fact, all words that end in -ación in Spanish) is that these nouns' gender in Spanish is feminine.
That said, what if we were at a party, and we wanted to talk about more complex concepts such as "industrialization," "globalization," or "commercialization," and we weren't familiar with the correct Spanish terms? We might try to substitute the Spanish suffix -ación for -ation, just to see what we came up with:
tenemos la... lógicamente, la industrialización,
we have the... logically, industrialization,
Caption 51, Los médicos explican Entrevista con el Doctor Suarez
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Y no te quiero hablar de la globalización
And I don't want to talk about globalization
Caption 47, Yago 6 Mentiras - Part 6
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Es una ruta a nivel turístico bastante joven que está en pleno proceso de comercialización.
It's a rather young route at the touristic level that is in the middle of the process of commercialization.
Captions 30-31, Europa Abierta Taller de escenografía en Olivares
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It worked! You will note that, once again, the spellings and meanings of these terms in Spanish and English are virtually identical except for the slight difference in their suffixes and the addition of the double "m" in "commercialization," again due to English spelling norms. That said, we suggest applying this formula to English words ending in -ation to make an educated guess about their Spanish translations since chances are you'll be right!
Of course, as with all things in life, no formula is perfect, and there are always exceptions. Let's take a look at couple of them:
En los meses de verano, su población llega a multiplicarse por cuatro.
In the summer months, its population gets multiplied by four.
Caption 14, Fuengirola Mercado
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Although our formula would take us to the not-quite-correct word populación, we'd venture to guess that a native Spanish speaker would understand perfectly well what you meant by "En los meses de verano, su populación [sic] llega a multiplicarse por cuatro" and just might gently edify you as to the correct term. Let's look at another example:
porque justo salir del aeropuerto ya te encuentras con la estación de autobús.
because just leaving from the airport you come across the bus station right away.
Caption 28, Blanca Cómo moverse en Barcelona
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In this case, the word estación is extremely similar to the English word "station" except for the suffix and the "e" at the beginning, which is due, this time, to a Spanish norm whereby almost all words with an "s" and a consonant at the beginning are preceded by an "e." And again, we're pretty sure that were you to inquire about the whereabouts of la stación de tren, someone would still direct you to the train station!
Although there are some words that end in -ation in English whose translations are even less similar than the aforementioned examples (e.g. translation/traducción, explanation/explicación, etc.), we still suggest that our formula is a great place to start because, even if you aren't perfectly correct in your attempt to morph an -ation word in English into an -ación word in Spanish, chances are you'll be understood and/or corrected, which is how we learn. And, in many, many cases, as we've shown you... you'll be correct!
That's all for today. Have you noticed any other patterns that have helped you to make educated guesses about words in Spanish? Let us know with your suggestions and comments.
Let's study and learn some Spanish expressions by reviewing the way real Spanish speakers use them in real situations. Our always-growing catalog of Spanish videos contains many examples!
Ni a sol ni sombra (literally "neither under the sun nor the shade") is a lively expression that means "no matter what" or simply "never." It's very similar to the English expression "rain or shine”:
¿Te acordás del chal de La Negra Cardoso?
Do you remember "La Negra" Cardoso's shawl?
-¿La Negra Cardoso? Oh sí.
-"La Negra" Cardoso? Oh, yes.
No se lo sacaba ni a sol ni a sombra.
She didn't take it off rain or shine.
Captions 51-53, Yago - 6 Mentiras
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It's important to note that this Spanish expression may be used in situations in which English wouldn't necessarily use "rain or shine." You can read some examples below. We are using idiomatic translations here:
No soporto a mi jefe, no me deja en paz ni a sol ni sombra. / I can't stand my boss, he's always breathing down my neck.
Su leal perro no le dejaba ni a sol ni a sombra. / His loyal dog never left his side.
In fact, the word sombra (meaning "shadow" or "shade") is used in many other Spanish expressions. Some examples you may be interested in learning are below. We have included a literal translation first, and then an idiomatic translation:
Él no tiene ni sombra de sospecha. / He hasn't a shadow of suspicion. / He is clueless.
Busqué, pero no había ni sombra de ella. / I looked, but there wasn't even a shadow of her. / I looked, but there was no sign of her.
No soy ni la sombra de lo que era. / I'm not even the shadow of what I used to be. / I'm only a shadow of what I used to be.
Let's see another expression. This is an easy one to learn, because it has an exact match in English:
¡Bueno, que el hábito no hace al monje!
Well, the thing is that the habit does not make the monk!
Era un chistecito.
It was a little joke.
Captions 17-18, Muñeca Brava - 33 El partido
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This recalls yet another expression that exists both in Spanish and English, and probably in many other languages as well:
Tu marido es un santo. -¡Ah, por favor!
Your husband is a saint. -Oh, please!
Caption 17, Muñeca Brava - 3 Nueva Casa
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There are other Spanish expressions that use the word santo (saint) in a much more creative way. For example, the expression no ser santo de mi devoción (literally, "to not be a saint of my devotion") is used to express that you are not particularly fond of someone. This expression is equivalent to the English expression "not my cup of tea." There’s an interesting parallel between England's affection for tea and the devotion to saints in Spanish-speaking countries, don't you think?
Por favor, no invites a Julián. Sabes que él no es santo de mi devoción.
Please, do not invite Julian. You know he's not my cup of tea.
More difficult to translate is the expression a santo de qué, which is used to question the purpose or validity of something. It's a less sophisticated synonym of the expression en virtud de qué, itself the interrogative form of the expression en virtud de que, which also exists in English ("by virtue of"). Of course, using the expression a santo de qué is a very colloquial choice, one that will give people a very good impression of your Spanish skills:
¿A santo de qué voy a ir a almorzar con vos?
Why in God's name am I going to go have lunch with you?
Caption 73, Muñeca Brava - 7 El poema
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In this context, it wouldn't be uncommon for a Spanish speaker to use en virtud de qué instead. Saying ¿En virtud de qué voy a ir a almorzar con vos? may sound a little posh, but it’s totally acceptable. On the contrary, as you know, using "by virtue of what" in this situation wouldn't really be appropriate in English.
Finally, let's review another expression related to the word santo (saint) that exists both in English and Spanish, with subtle differences. While in English the expressions "patron saint's day" and "saint's day" do exist, it's more common to simply say "name day" instead. In Spanish, on the contrary, expressions like hoy es día de su santo patrono("today is his patron saint's day") or hoy es el día de su santo (today is his saint's day) are as common as the extremely abbreviated form used in this example taken from the Mexican movie El Ausente:
Es santo de Felipe, ¿sabes?
It's Felipe's name day, you know?
Caption 11, El Ausente - Acto 1
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