Cognates pattern
The -tion words: -ción in Spanish, -zione in Italian
One ending you already know unlocks hundreds of nouns in both languages at once.
-tion → -ción → -zione
The rule
English is full of words ending in -tion: nation, information, education, station. Almost every one of them has a Spanish twin ending in -ción and an Italian twin ending in -zione. Same Latin root, three predictable shapes.
The stem barely moves. Only the ending refracts: the English -tion bends to -ción in Spanish and -zione in Italian. Once you see it, you are not memorising three words — you are reading one word through three languages.
This is the single highest-leverage pattern in either language. There are well over a thousand -tion words in English, and this rule carries you into most of them the moment you meet them.
More words this unlocks
-tion → -ción → -zione
-tion → -ción → -zione
-tion → -ción → -zione
The trap
Every pattern has a word that looks like it should follow the rule and doesn’t. This is the one to watch.
Related patterns
Cognates
-sion → -sión → -sione
The quieter sibling of -tion — decision, television, passion — bends exactly the same way.
Suffixes
-ty → -dad → -tà
Abstract nouns — quality, city, university — share one Latin spine across all three languages.
Suffixes
-ous → -oso → -oso
Describe anything — famous, curious, generous — and Spanish and Italian agree on the ending.
See the next one refract
Parlet teaches you to read Spanish and Italian together, one pattern at a time. Every lesson ends with one prompt and two answers — you can’t pass by knowing just one language.
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