Introduction

Hundreds of millions of Spanish speakers, many living in your country could be communicating with English speakers with ease and facility. The promise of Spanglish as an auxiliary language is unlocking these social relations without wishing "if everyone would just". As the immortal tumblr post says:

Everyone will not just. If your solution to some problem relies on “If everyone would just…” then you do not have a solution. Everyone is not going to just. At not [sic] time in the history of the universe has everyone just, and they’re not going to start now.

Although you will have to just learn Spanglish, it's ridiculously easy and if used enough might be absorbed into the wider culture, possibly meaning that moving forward no one else will have to just. It is my fervent hope that this may prove to be a worthy experiment, and so lead to a greater understanding and integration between speakers of these two languages.

Vocabulary

To start, the vocabulary of Spanglish has five categories of words: core unadapted Spanish, ancillary Spanish, obscure or semantically shifted English words, hybrid words, and unadapted English words. Moreover, many English words are dropped, so a list of replacements is given as well.

Core Spanish Words

The basic words taken (usually outright, but occasionally lightly adapted) from Spanish are many, but not difficult. You will already know many of them. Here are all of them:

• a - at, to

• aca - here

• adios - goodbye

• ahora - now

• algo - something

• algun - some

• alla - there

• amigo - friend

• ante - before

• atras - back, behind

• aun - even

• bonita - beautiful

• cada - each

• casa - house

• como - how, like

• con - with

• contra - against

• cosa - thing

• cuyo - whose

• de - of

• desde - since, from (a time or location onwards)

• en - in

• ento - into

• es - is

• ese - that

• eses - those

• este - this

• estes - these

• ey - they

• fembra - woman

• fiesta - party

• fuaroff - outside, outside of

• gents - people

• gracias - thank you

• grand - big, great

• grand-filio/a - grand-son/daughter

• hacia - toward

• hasta - until

• hombre - man

• hoy - today

• inter - between

• latero - side

• la - the

• lo - it

• menos - less

• mismo - same, self

• muy - very

• nada - nothing

• ni - nor

• niño/a - boy/girl (niño for "child")

• nus - we, us

• o - or

• otro - other

• pero - but

• por - for

• por que - why

• porque - because

• quasi - almost

• quien - who

• que - that (conjunction, not determiner), what

• semper - always

• sin - without

• sobre - over

• su - his, her, its

• tal - such

• tan - so (intensifier)

• todavia - still

• total - every, all of

• totalgents - everyone

• un - a, an

• vade - go

• vez - time (sense of an occurance)

• y - and

• ya - already

• yo - I

Ancillary Spanish Words

Here are the not-so-basic Spanish (or Latin) words in Spanglish:

amarillo - yellow

anima - soul

burro - donkey

bucca - mouth

calid - warm

calorous - hot

cereber - brain

charn - meat

clave - key, nail

denty - tooth

ecclesia - church

ecuspit - spit

ensign - teach

espanto - scare

filio/a - son/daughter

fin - end

formite - ant

gans - goose

hibernato - winter

horolog - clock

jure - swear

joculate - play

joyery - jewelry

lachte - milk

langostine - lobster (and langostine is "nano langostine" - "nano" meaning "dwarf")

lax - to let, allow

lobo - wolf

loco - crazy

luch - fight

mano - hand

mord - bite (think "mordant")

nano - dwarf

nascer - to be born (think "nascent")

negra - black

nebel - fog

nube - cloud

par - few

pejor - worse

pense - think

plata - silver

plento - full

pluve - rain

prime - first

primevernal - spring

pueblo - town

pugnus - fist

pulmo - lung

recto - straight

rex - king

risiation - laughter

risiate - laugh

rojo - red

rotator - knee

escalator - staircase, stairs

saultate - jump

sange - blood

scriptorium - desk

secle - century

semble - seem

sopar - dinner, supper

suffle - blow

tambor - drum

temp - time

tenedor - fork

tienda - store, shop

timor - fear

tussle - cough

umbra - shadow

un poco - a bit

ungula - (finger or toe) nail

ursine - bear

vernal - summer

vesp - wasp

vita - life

viter - glass

vive - live

zorro - fox

Shifted English Words

Then there are the English words whose ordinary meaning obscure or is discarded for its cognate's Spanish meaning:

a pains - barely

a traverse de - through

advene - come, arrive

advocate - lawyer

affile - sharpen

aliment - eat

amagazine - store

ambulate - walk

ample - wide

apprehend - learn, become aware of

barge - boat

blank - white

capilus - hair

caple - horse

comestible - food

coney - rabbit

cornu - horn

cork - bark

corvid - crow

cygnet - swan

defy - dare

digit - finger, toe

direction - address, direction

engrave - record, like a sound or video recording

escalator - stairs

facile - easy

fall - fail

falter - lack

ferver - boil

genuflect - kneel

grange - farm

gross - thick

limpid - clean

limpidate - to clean

lingual - tongue

locus (pl loci) - place

maroon - brown

medulla - marrow

medusa - sea jelly

mosquito - fly

obliviate - forget

oleo - oil

ossicle - bone

overt - open

palpebrate - blink

panel - screen

parlance - speech

parlay - speak

parole - word

partition - wall

pelt - skin

periodicalist - journalist

permanent - to stay

petra - stone

pied - foot (from the borrowed "pied-à-terre" and pronounced as such)

phantasm - ghost

pneumatic - tire

poppinjay - parrot

port - door, gate, seaport

post - bet

proximate - next

pullet - chicken

pullulate - swarm, teem

radix - root

rat - mouse, rat

rare - strange, rare

renal - kidney

rotund - round

sabot - shoe

seat - headquarters

sect - cult

seismic - earthquake

sequester - kidnap

shock - crash

sibiliate - whistle

sinister - left

sinus - breast

specular - mirror

tract - bring

travail - work

type - guy, fellow (also type)

undulation - wave

velour - velvet

vest - wear

vinefruit - grape

viridian - green

zone - district

Twisted English Words

Then there are English words whose spelling and/or pronounciation are tweaked a bit to make them a little more Spanish-friendly:

abee - bee

arice - rice

agarab - grab

aguocado - avocado

almend - almond

altitous - tall, high (from altitude)

boose - bus

codón - cotton

estinn - tin can (as in "tin")

hopfala - hopefully

kaze - cheese

límon - lemon or lime (depending on modifier color)

nase - nose

noranga - orange

ñam - yam

ostruse - ostrich

oyo - eye

patato - potato

pincture - puncture, pierce, stab

piñappome - pineapple

quend - when

rumpture - break

scrasc - scratch

set - sit

smeed - seed

soupa - soup

snev - snow

subiten - sudden

superfice - surface

vicinitan - neighbor (vicinity/denizan vs. Spanish vecino)

Necessary Substitutions

Also, there are many English words that should be avoided and their Latin synonyms used, listed in approximate order of importance:

can -> potent

like -> have gusto

know -> savvy, connoiter (the former for knowledge, the latter for familiarity)

see -> view (past participle "viewn")

want -> desire

should -> debit

do, make -> facter

say -> dixit (the only conjugation is that past participle is "dixited" otherwise it's unchanged)

last -> ultimate

help -> aid

old -> ancient

give -> donate

feel -> sense

put -> pose

much, many -> multi

tell -> recount

hope -> aspire

young -> juvenile

late -> tardy

buy -> procure

strong -> forte

happen -> pass

test -> probe

source -> fount

meeting -> reunion

fast -> rapid

fall -> tumble

hell -> inferno

kill -> terminate

die -> mort

hold, keep -> guard

sleep -> dorm

deep -> profound

funny -> comical

cold -> frigid

store -> amagazine

island -> isle

allow -> permit

travel -> voyage

floor -> soil

wonder -> ponder

skin -> pelt

drink -> imbibe

sick -> infirm

fat -> grease

slow -> languid (not strictly the same, but it sounds similar to Spanish "lento")

screen -> panel

lie (recline) -> repose

throw -> launch

pull -> haul

evil -> malefic

flat -> planar

path -> route

moon -> lune

weak -> feeble

leg -> haunch

friendly -> amiable

cry -> lacrimate

danger -> peril

heaven -> paradise

dirty -> soiled

print -> imprint

loud -> sonorous

wise -> sagacious

everyday -> quotidian

wash -> lavage

mood -> humor

suck -> suction

topic, issue -> theme

dust -> powder

steal -> rob

hot (dry heat) -> torrid

narrow -> strait

belong -> pertain

grave -> tomb

smoke, steam -> fume

breathe -> respire

forgive -> pardon

disgusting -> repugnant

snake -> serpent

climb -> scale

corn -> maize

shine -> splendor

ground, dirt, earth -> terrain

belly -> abdomen

back -> dorsal

hug -> embrace

warehouse -> magazine

pale -> pallid

monkey -> simian

shout -> cry

subway -> metro

shelf -> stand

flu -> grippe

threaten -> menace

translate -> transduce

turtle -> tortoise

sour -> acrid

spicy -> piquent

hesitate -> vacillate

cloth, fabric -> textile

whisper -> susurrate

rot -> putrify

feather -> plume

maze -> labyrinth

tram -> tramvia

gloomy -> somber

hedgehog -> terrain urchin

wizard, sorcerer -> mage

snot -> mucus

stealthy -> surreptitious

Numbers

This is all outside of numbers, which are a mish-mash of English or Spanish if that term seems well-known. The short scale is used, not the long scale; that is, a thousand thousands is a million and a thousand millions is a billion:

uno

dos

tres

quadro

cinco

seis

sieven

ocho

nine

diez

eleven

dozen

thirteen

fourteen

quince

diezyseis

diezysieven

diezyocho

diezynine

tveignty

thirty

forty

fifty

seisty

sieventy

eighty

ninety

centum

kilo

million

billion

Grammar

Finally, there is the matter of grammar. Spanglish grammar is mostly the same as English grammar with a few minor tweaks. Forming gerunds uses the suffix "-ando" instead of "-ing", turning adjectives into adverbs uses the suffix "-ment" instead of "-ly", diminuitive is "-ette" instead of Spanish "-ito". Some Spanish expressions are adapted into English, such as "a pains" for "barely" (Spanish "apenas"), "no obstinate" for "nevertheless" or "however" (Spanish "no obstante"). You can peruse the full grammar pages for a more comprehensive and technical overview. At the very least it's worth looking at the pronouns and "to be" conjugations. Here they are:

Reflexive verbs in Spanish are accomplished by adding the word "self" after the verb. For example, to say "I have to bathe" you'd say "Yo have to bain self". This goes for all other conjugations, except first person plural reflexive, which is accomplished with "nus" as in "Nus debit encounter nus pronto!" for "we should see each other soon".

One last technical point - the "dummy it" is dropped in Spanglish. If you want to say "It is fortunate that we found the mistake" then you will say "Es fortunate que nus encountered la error" and not "Lo es fortunate...".

Vade y Parlay Spanglish!

That's pretty much it! If you learn the core Spanish vocabulary and use the Latinate substitutes for Germanic words, then you'll be most of the way to speaking fluent Spanglish!