Learn Spanish With Etymology & Similar Sounding Words in English, French & Other Languages

I have been learning Spanish on Duolingo every day for nearly a year, since June 2025 in preparation for a trip including the island of Tenerife in the Canaries.

Before starting the Duolingo course, over the years I had bought many books on learning Spanish. Today in May 2026 I picked up my old large size book Usborne First Hundred words in Spanish sticker book.

My French is much more fluent. I can look around a room and talk to myself, giving a running commentary on everything which I see, and my reactions. For example, 'I am in the kitchen. Je suis dans la cuisine, by the table, près de la table. the tablecloth is green. It is late and it is dark.' When I don't know a word, in French or German or Italian, I look it up. My Spanish is slower.

Usborne First Hundred Words

When I looked through my Usborne book I was surprised and delighted to find that after reading it through once, reminding me of words I half knew, I could race along matches the |English and Spanish words, with the help of the pictures to speed up the matching.

I could quickly remind myself with a new memory aid of about six words, three sets of three, which |I forgot or muddled up. 

I also made up some memory aids for two new words.

My search for the origins of Spanish words threw across my screen what was to me a new website. So now I am reassured that other learners and teachers are doing the same thing and help is available online.

Tomorrow I shall list the words I found difficult to learn and the memory aids which made it easier.

Challenging words were the Spanish for apple, banana, bottom, doll, duck, hat, marmalade, socks, teddy bear. See what you come up with, then check back for my solutions tomorrow.

Useful Books For Learning Spanish

First Hundred Words in Spanish sticker book ISBN 9 780746 05 1085

Useful Websites for learning Spanish, French, German - and English!
duolingo.com

 https://buenospanish.com/

reverso

https://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mu%C3%B1eca

Spanish Words And Normal Phrases - making lists

 

Spanish - English words for a language class

A

aquí está - here is

autobiografia - autobiography

C

clase - class

creativo - creative 

D

departamento - department / apartment

descargo - download

dictionario - dictionary

documento - document

dónde está - where is

E

el escritor - the writer (scribe)

explicar - to explain

F

frases normales - normal phrases

I

idea - idea

idiomas - languages

L

el libro - the book 

M

maestro - teacher

momento - moment

P

pantella - screen

el poema - the poem

English - Spanish words for a language class

A

apartment - departamento

autobiography - autobiografia

B

the book - el libro

C

class - clase

creative - creativo

D

department - departamento

dictionary - dictionario

document - documento

download - descargo

E

(to) explain - explicar

H

here is - aquí está

I

idea -idea

L

languages - idiomas

M

moment - momento

My - mi

N

normal phrases - frases normales 

P

the poem - el poema

S

screen - pantella

T

teacher - maestro

W

where is - dónde está

Copying Lists Of Words Quickly And Accurately

To make a list of your favourite or recently learned words, first in Spanish - English, then English- Spanish, there are several ways to do it.

In a Powerpoint slide you can make columns. But here where you are reading in blogspot (created in blogger) I have made a list of Spanish first, then English first. I used to write out my Spanish word list which I copied from a handwriting in a notebook, or my diary. 

Then I would spend ages creating the English-Spanish list. This is not necessarily the same alphabetical order, since frase in Spanish starts with f but the English word phrase starts with p. 

If I had more than ten items, I had to keep spinning up and down and counting the numbers of words in both sets. 

I typed out both the Spanish and English in the second list, with more typos, checking, correcting.

Then I started copying from the first list. At least I had half, the Spanish half, correctly typed. Once I made the mistake of copying the same pair twice horizontally. I deleted the unwanted part at the start and end and realised that I could copy the Spanish English twice deliberately. I had both the English and Spanish in the right order in the middle.

Another system is to type the words in alphab3tical order in a translate website and copy the coloumn.

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

translate google

https://translate.google.co.uk/

Spanish Words To Recall & Test Each Other Over Dinner

 

At mealtimes, after dinner at home, you can test yourselves and each other or simple Spanish words.

You can remind yourself. Get fluent. Teach the family. Teach the children. Fill in waiting time.

Spanish - English words for mealtimes

plato - plate

sopa - soup

Cuchillo - cutter or knife

sal - salt

pimiento - pepper

carne - meat for carnivores

agua - water

vino - wine

mesa - table

silla - chair /seat / armchair

por favor - please / do me a favour

gracias - thank you, I'm grateful

deliciosa - delicious

muy - very

perfecto - perfect

otro - another

lampa - lamp

foto - photo (una foto - a photo)

English - Spanish easy words

another - otro

easy - facil

for - por

lamp - lampa

pepper - pimiento

perfect - perfecto

photo  - foto

please / do me a favour - por favour

salt - sal

thank you very much - muchas gracias

thanks - gracias

table - mesa

very - muy

water - agua

wine - vino

Useful Websites

I have several more posts on Spanish. Please share links with your friends and family, fellow students and colleagues.

What about Spanish speaking Mexico, the Caribbean islands, Central America and South America?

Many Spanish speaking places in the Americas, in addition to those who speak Spanish as a first or second language in the USA.

duolingo.com

Teaches south American Spanish. I find this easier because c is pronounced like s, as in the English word police which is policia in South American Spanish, or hispanic, but like poly-Thea in southern Spanish in Europe where the Brits go for sunny, summer holidays and winter warmth.

wikivoyage phrasebook Spanish

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Spanish_phrasebook

Gives you both Spanish spoken in Spain the variations in several Spanish speaking Suth American countries.

How to record names and notes at exhibitions and meetings

 Show name and namecards of people met.

A simple 

Blank form I created on white paper. 

Top left 

Space for business card of person met, eg customer or distributor.

Top right

Sticker with my name - or your name of staff member/ tax payer  if this sheet is for tax expenses filed weekly. 

Lower Left

Space lined for notes

Lower Right 

Train tickets, expenses evidence/ reminder -

meal receipts attached.

The Story Behind St Ann's Shopping Centre in Harrow

St Ann's

St Ann's was the first of the two big shopping malls in Harrow. St Ann's is centrally located facing the Harrow on the hill railway station, which is a few paces from the bus garage where bus converge and ran out across the region to as far away as Heathrow airport. The new shopping centre was opened in 197 by Princess Diana. The centre is named after St Ann's Road. It's features included major stores, and the novelty of a food court.

The site was Heathfield School, where I went to school before I graduated to a girls' Grammar school. The Heathfield school had excellent teachers, but the building and empty playground were not memorable, no great loss, and a central site for the new shopping centre.

St George's

A decade later along came St George's shopping mall, not a rival but an addition to an excursion to Harrow, a few feet away on the end of the pedestrian precinct which has St Ann's in the middle of the long side of the oblong. 

St George's shopping mall has a smart striped exterior. 

Inside are reliefs of St George around the ceiling, and a glass dome above escalators. In addition to the shops it added a cinema.

 The complete history of St Anns Shopping Centre in Harrow - Harrow Online

St Ann's Shopping Centre, Harrow - Attractions, Advantages, Advice

 St Ann's and St George's are two nearby indoor shopping centres linked by an outdoors pedestrian precinct. Precinct is catchily alliterative with pedestrian. I don't use the word in any other context. My husband points out that the Americans use the word precinct for a police area, 49th Precinct. 

St George's and St Ann's - Which Mall  Is Which?

I often arrive in Harrow on the H14 bus from Hatch End. I wonder whether to get off at St George's which is the first mall you meet on this route. Which one is St George's? For years I could not remember. One day I looked up, my mobile in my hand ready for taking photos. I realized that inside, St George's has a frieze of St George around the top. Legend says he rode on his horse, slaying the dragon. He is the symbol of England, which has nothing like the geckos of Greece, nor the giant komodo dragons from Asia, except in zoos. So slaying the dragon is traditional nonsense which few people can remember or explain. However, it handy to help you to remember which mall is which.

Spelling

How to spell the names? George has the letter e twice but Ann had no letter e.

I could not remember the spelling

St Ann's Shopping Centre, Harrow

Find out more on their website. If the website won't let you proceed to the list of department stores after you have clicked, the site may be waiting for you to choose 'accept all cookies', or 'not accept all'.

St Ann's Stores and shops include

Boots, Clarks shoes, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Primark, Sports Direct, Tayibah. 

St Ann's Snack Opportunities are at 

Burger King, Caffè Nero, KFC, M & S Food Hall, Pizza Hut. 

***

St George's Shopping Centre Car Park, Harrow

This is the first of the two malls which you reach on the H14 from Hatch End. 

If you are arriving by car, it has a spiral ramp.  At the top floor, the driver reaches out for a timed entry ticket. Note where you have parked.

You can have a car wash whilst shopping.

St George's Car Park Exit

You pay at the machine before collecting your car from St George's. That's a good thing. You are not being charged for the time spent spiralling down, or waiting for the people in the car ahead to exit. It has some kind of automatic numberplate recognition and knows if you have just paid and lets you out. But you do have to wait a few seconds after the previous car has left and the barrier comes down again. All to the good.

Useful Websites

St Ann's

https://stannsshopping.co.uk/store-categories/food-drink/

St George's

https://www.stgeorgesshopping.co.uk/

Please share links to your favourite posts.

How to Store business cards leaflets and photosnotes and photos

Storing Business Cards In Small Boxes

As a remporary measure, when on the move, travelling light and staying in hotels, you might not have space or weight allowance on a plane for a large card index box.

An alternative is to reuse your empty or half empty business card box.

Keep all the business cards from an event together, in a box, or with an elastic band.

Business Cards - Use a card index box

Buy alphabetic dividers.

Alternatively, make dividers from card. Copy your first set of bought dividers if in a hurry and needing more.

Leaflets

Keep all the leaflets from one show together. 

Group them into two or more sections. Use the classifications from the event's catalogue or floor plan.

Cut off large borders of heavy card. Staple together related leaflets.

Storage Groups - Double Files For Letters / Printed Emails ; Bills and Invoices

In the British Council, when I worked there, we had two file systems. We printed two copies of every letter we sent out. One was stored in a date order file. You could check all the letters you sent yesterday, or last week, which would be on the top. 

The other system was by subject. All the files for a country or person were listed separately.

Photo Storage

The head of a New Zealand Photographic society showed me his room of shelves. He had hundreds of photos stored in shoe boxes. He simply added a new box with a new date and place for each trip.

In a large hardbound book he recorded two lists. One was the dates on the boxes and the shelving unit and shelf height. 

Turn the book over. He recorded a list by countries. A column listed all the dates he visited them.

 Cities were a subdivision, alphabetically. Attractions were a subdivision of cities, alphabetically. 

You could also do this with a loose leaf folder in order to add new countries or cities or regions  

Large Labels 

Write a large label with the year, date, and local or event on the front of notebooks. Put a duplicate label on the spine and back. 

Write the word diary, notebook, travel, or year on the page edges.