One thing I love about learning languages is finding out about all of their quirky differences that just donât exist in my native language. And though there are plenty of similarities between Spanish and English, there are lots of interesting differences too.
Both English and Spanish are from the same language family â theyâre both Indo-European. However, they both belong to different subgroups. Spanish belongs to the Italic branch while English, the Germanic.
In this article, weâll discuss 12 differences between English and Spanish. Read on to find out what they are.
1. All nouns in Spanish have a gender
In English, nouns donât have gender. I mean, sometimes people refer to their cars as âsheâ but thatâs about it. In Spanish, however, every noun has a gender and are described as either masculine or feminine.
- La manzana â the apple (feminine)
- El gato â the cat (masculine)
- Los brazos â the arms (masculine)
- Las arañas â the spiders (feminine)
As you can see above, there are two genders in Spanish and four ways of saying âtheâ.
If you look closely, youâll see that the feminine nouns end in âaâ or âasâ while the masculine end in âoâ or âosâ. These are the most common ending and one way to try and work out the gender of a word. Be cautious, however, as there are lots of irregulars.
To make it even more complicated, however, there are other aspects of a sentence that have to be modified too â like adjectives and relative pronouns.
2. Adjectives come after nouns
Sticking with nouns for a second, as well as gender another difference of the Spanish writing system is the position of words in a sentence. In English, for example, we would say âa red chairâ. In Spanish, however, they say âuna silla roja,â which means a chair red.Â
The majority of the time, this is the rule. However, there are also irregulars with this rule too as there are some words that have to come before the noun as well as some that change meaning depending on whether they come before or after the noun!
One example of types of adjectives that can come before the noun are ones referring to number. For example, la primera persona = the first person.
Here is a selection of adjectives that change meaning depending on their position relative to the noun:
- Curioso = strange (before noun), curious (after noun)
- Grande = tall (before noun), great/cool (after noun)
- Antiguo = former (before noun), ancient/old (after noun)
- Solo = single/only (before noun), alone/lonely (after noun)
3. Making a negative sentence is easy
In Spanish, it is so easy to make a sentence negative. Simply adding the word ânoâ before the verb does the job. And while double negatives like âI donât want nothingâ in English are to be avoided at all costs, in Spanish, this is the correct way to talk!Â
Here are some examples of negatives:
- Quiero una manzana = I want an apple
- No quiero una manzana = I donât want an apple
- Es muy grande = Itâs very big
- No es muy grande = itâs not very big
4. Possessives are different
If youâve ever got frustrated with your possessives in English and the apostrophes, then youâll be pleased to know that this is another of the biggest differences between Spanish and English.
There is no ââsâ. No more deciding whether itâs Jamesâ jacket or Jamesâs jacket! In Spanish, it would simply be âla jaqueta de Jamesâ, which translates literally as âthe jacket of Jamesâ.
5. You donât need to use subject pronouns
If you look at a Spanish verb conjugation in the present tense, youâll notice that every part of the verb has a different conjugation:
Como, comes, come, comemos, coméis, comen
I eat, you eat, he/she eats, we eat, you (pl.) eat, they eat.
For this reason, there is no need to use subject pronouns. It is always obvious who is doing the action. The only time the subject pronoun is really used is to emphasise the subject.
6. The verb âto haveâ is used for feelings
Another one of the biggest differences between English and Spanish language is the use of the verb âto haveâ. In English, weâd say I am 28, while in Spanish, theyâd say tengo 28 años, which means âI have 28 yearsâ.
Aside from this, tener (to have) is also used for feelings and things that weâre experiencing. Here are some examples:
- Tengo hambre = I am hungry (literally: I have hunger)
- Tengo prisa = Iâm in a hurry (literally: I have haste)
- Tengo miedo = Iâm scared (literally: I have fear).
7. There arenât as many prepositionsÂ
In English we have heaps of prepositions â in, under, over, on, about, behind, across⊠Another of the biggest differences between Spanish and English is that these donât play as big a role and often, the same preposition is used for different English words.
In English, when we say at, on, or in, Spanish people say en. Here are some examples:
- La pera estĂĄ en la cocina (the pear is in the kitchen)
- Mi gato se sienta en la silla (my cat sits on the chair)
- EstĂĄ en la fiesta (She is at the party)
We also have the word de, which means both âofâ and âfrom.â
- Soy de Sheffield (I am from Sheffield)
- Londres es la capital de Inglaterra (London is the capital of England)
8. Spanish vs. English: Beware false friends!
Though there are lots of words that are similar between Spanish and English e.g., casual, plural, tropical, digital, ideal, accidental, profesional, etc., there are also many âfalse friendsâ. These are words that look like English words but mean something completely different.
- Carpeta â means folder not carpet
- Ropa â means clothing not rope
- Pie â means foot not pie
- Ăxito â means success not exit
- Asistir â means to attend not to assist
- Embarazada â means pregnant not embarrassed.
9. Punctuation is different
The biggest difference between Spanish and English punctuation is the use of inverted exclamation marks and question marks. Spain is almost the only language to use this.
These punctuation marks should also be used mid-sentence if only a part of the sentence is an exclamation or question. Here are some examples:
- ¥Qué pena! (what a shame!)
- ÂżQuieres comer? (Do you want to eat?)
- Vas al colegio, Âżno? (youâre going to school, arenât you?
There is also different punctuation with numbers. For example, $88.10 in English is $88,10 in Spanish.
10. Capitalisation is differentÂ
There are also some big differences in Spanish and English when it comes to capitalization. For example:
- Days of the week in Spanish are written in lower case: e.g., lunes, martes, etc.
- Titles of books, movies, and plays, for example are not capitalized in the formal Spanish writing system â though informally they often are. E.g., Star Wars = La Guerra de las galaxias.
Religions â the names of religions arenât capitalized in Spanish. E.g., soy cathĂłlico = I am Catholic.
Languages â these arenât capitalized either. E.g., Hablo español = I speak Spanish.
11. Spelling is phonetic (and easier!)
If youâve ever struggled with your English spelling and pronunciation, youâll be pleased to learn that Spanish is so much easier!
Spanish is a phonetic language and so there are pronunciation rules that are followed strictly.
So, like in English –ough can be pronounced like in plough, trough, through, and borough, this wouldnât happen in Spanish! Phew!
12. Adjective agreements are a thing
Weâve learnt about nouns and gender as well as adjective placement in relation to nouns â now we have one more thing to add to our list of key differences between Spanish and English: adjective agreements.
In English, the adjective never changes. Youâve got one red chair and two red chairs. In Spanish, however, the adjective has to agree both in number AND gender with the noun it is describing.
As a result, our one red chair becomes una silla roja and our two red chairs become dos sillas rojas.
Essentially, that means each adjective has four different forms â masculine, feminine, masculine plural, and feminine plural!
Final thoughts on Spanish vs. English
Although some of these things do make learning Spanish slightly more difficult (the gender and agreements, for example), lots of these differences actually make Spanish easier to learn!
Imagine, you donât have to worry about pronunciation so much because the rules are always the same, there are fewer prepositions, negatives are easier, subject pronouns can be missed off and the possessive doesnât need an apostrophe! Who wouldnât want to learn Spanish knowing all that!