Almuerzo (Spanish for “lunch”) comes from the Latin morsus, “a small bite.” Lunch is just a really small bite of food!

From the same root morsus, we also get the English for a small bit of food: a morsel. Ahhh! The (al)-m-r-z of almuerzo maps to the m-r-s of morsel.

Asunto (Spanish for “subject,” in the sense of, “theme”) comes from the Latin for the same, assumptus (“taken”) — from which we get the almost identical English, assume.

Interestingly, assumption originally had a fully religious connotation, something we often forget, or I sometimes vaguely remember today: you’re received into heaven. An assumption, in its modern sense, is really just a religious belief actually!

The Latin root assumptus itself comes from ad– (“up, to”) and sumere (“to take”) — so when you assume, you’re really “taking it up”!

The a-s-t of asunto maps clearly to the a-ss-(m)-t of assumption.

Cazar (Spanish for “to hunt”) and the English chase come from the same root: the Latin captiare, also meaning, “to hunt.” What is a chase if not just a calmed-down hunt?

You can see the c-z of cazar map to the ch-s of chase.

And it is perfectly appropriate that the English chase came to us via the French chasier. What are the French good for if not weakening the strong, manly hunt into the more feminine chase?

Volar (Spanish for “to fly”) and its sister vuelo (“flight”) come from the Latin for the same, volare.

From this Latin root, we get the English volley — a volleyball really does fly, doesn’t it? — as well as the English volatile, which is something flying in the sense of being fleeting: it is flying away, time flies.

The v-l root is so obvious in all, that it’s almost not worth mentioning!

Tarjeta, Spanish for “card,” comes from the same root as target. This is only obvious in retrospect, since the interchange between the ‘j’ and the ‘g’ makes it hard to recognize. But once you learn it, it is easy to remember that the t-r-j maps to the t-r-g.

Both words come from the old German (via old French) targa, meaning “shield.” Yes: a target is just a shield–your shield is a target, since it is the shield that is hit, not you! And a card (tarjeta) is also a shield–just a very small one!