Predicting Spanish Nouns From Verbs

Predicting Spanish Nouns From Verbs In English, it is very common for the same word to be used as both noun and verb. For example, the verb trust can also be a noun, as can the verb help. But, except with infinitives, the relationship between verb and noun isnt as straightforward. The noun form for help is ayuda, which is very close to the verb, ayudar. The same is true of trabajo (job or work as a noun) and trabajar (verb). But in the case of trust, the forms are confiar (verb) and confianza (noun). About the best that can be said is that its extremely common for nouns and verbs to share the same stem. Sometimes, as in the examples of trabajo and ayuda, the noun is made up basically of the stem with an ending that marks it as a noun (its probably just coincidence that trabajo and ayuda also have the form of a conjugated verb), while in other cases the stem is followed by a suffix, as in the case of confianza. (-Anza is a not-so-common noun suffix; the related verb is confiar means to trust.) In other words, the nouns related to verbs seem arbitrary. Here are just a few examples of some noun forms of common verbs: cantar (to sing) - el canto (song, the act of singing)decir (to say) - el dicho (saying)estar (to be) - el estado (state of being)hablar (to speak) - el habla (speech)perder (to lose) - la pà ©rdida (loss)preferir (to prefer) - la preferencia (preference)sentir (to feel) - el sentimiento (feeling)tener (to have) - la tenencia (possession)ver (to look) - la vista (vision, view) Good luck finding much of a pattern there! (In most cases, there are also other noun forms not listed above.) Clearly, there are some nouns that are derived from past participles, but its still unpredictable whether the participle will be modified (as in pà ©rdida) or which gender it will be. Keep in mind also that many Spanish infinitives can function as nouns, and some of them quite commonly so. For example, the verb poder (to be able) can be used as a noun to mean power, and saber (to know) can be used as a noun to mean knowledge. As you continue to use the language, youll learn the nouns on their own and youll no longer have to predict what they might be. Also, if you come across an unfamiliar noun (or verb), you may be able to guess its meaning if you know the related word.