10 Spanish true friends – Easy vocabulary lesson – Episode 64

10 Spanish true friends – Easy vocabulary lesson

Podcast episode 64 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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Today you’re going to master 10 words that look very similar in English and Spanish, but sound quite different.

See also: Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses.

Today’s question comes from Ruth, one of my students. Ruth told me that she was losing her motivation to keep going with her Spanish, because she felt stuck. I suggested to her that she needed to FEEL she was making progress. So she asked me to do another lesson with easy-to-learn words. And that’s a great idea.

Today, I bring you ten feminine nouns. They’re all true friends, and look identical in both languages, except for the written accent.

So, to help you expand your vocabulary fast, here are the ten feminine nouns. Repeat after me:

la conclusión :: the conclusion
la confusión :: the confusion
la decisión :: the decision
la excursión :: the excursion
la explosión :: the explosion
la región :: the region
la religión :: the religion
la televisión :: the television
la unión :: the union
la versión :: the version

Notice that they all have a written accent on the last O. So they’re all stressed on that vowel: decisión, región, unión, etc.

Let’s say those 10 words again. Make sure you stress them on the right vowel. Repeat after me.

These 10 words are easy to recognize when you read them. But they’re not so easy to understand when you first hear them. Notice how I pronounce the ’s-i-o-n’ in words like: conclusión, confusión, decisión, excursión, explosión, televisión, versión.

Avoid making the English ‘sion’ sound: conclusión, explosión, versión.

Saying these words like in English will make them almost impossible to understand.

Let’s do a listening drill. Can you tell me what these 10 words mean?

la unión :: the union
la confusión :: the confusion
la versión :: the version
la excursión :: the excursion
la región :: the region
la explosión :: the explosion
la decisión :: the decision
la religión :: the religion
la televisión :: the television
la conclusión :: the conclusion

Now, let’s do a speaking drill. Can you tell me these 10 words in Spanish? Make sure you say the ’s-i-o-n’: sión.

the television la televisión
the confusion la confusión
the union la unión
the region la región
the excursion la excursión
the conclusion la conclusión
the version la versión
the explosion la explosión
the religion la religión
the decision la decisión

To recap, let’s say those 10 words again. Repeat after me:

la conclusión
la confusión
la decisión
la excursión
la explosión
la región
la religión
la televisión
la unión
la versión

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