Spanish Loanwords in English

When native English speakers start learning Spanish one of the first pleasant surprises they encounter is how similar many of the words are. This is because English, like all languages, have words adopted from other languages; loanwords.

In fact some say that Spanish has contributed around 10,000 words to the English language. Wikipedia has an extensive list of English words of Spanish origin but here are a few of our favourites:

 

Aguacate – Avocado

Barbacoa – Barbecue

Conquistador – Conqueror

Desesperado – Desperate

Embargar – Embargo

Huracán – Hurricane

Macho – Macho

Orégano – Oregano

Tomate – Tomato

Vigilante – Vigilant

 

This is why learning Spanish vocabulary can be so easy!