Cognates in Spanish are words that have the same or similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation as their counterparts in another language, usually English. Spanish and English share many cognates due to their common Latin roots
. Some examples of cognates in Spanish are "color" (color), "irónico" (ironic), and "animal" (animal)
. Cognates can be categorized into perfect cognates, which are spelled exactly the same in both languages and have the same meaning, and near-perfect cognates, which have up to three letters different
. False cognates or false friends are words that are spelled the same or similarly in both languages but have different meanings, such as "embarazada" in Spanish, which means "pregnant," but is often confused with "embarrassed" in English
