Ryan Greenberg

I just started studying to take the GRE later this year. For the last two years my preparation has consisted of sytematically eliminating my English vocabulary and replacing it with Spanish. I can’t count the number of times lately that I’ve had an English word on the tip of my tongue only to find out that it isn’t, in fact, English. So I’m a little preocupado. Anyway, I bought Baron’s GRE book to review. When I opened it, I was relieved to find that I’m way ahead of the game.

I knows me this mouse stuff cold.

Seriously, though, I’m interested to see if being familiar with Spanish (and therefore Latin) roots will help me decrypt unknown words. Power vocab words are often big-word restatements of small words. You know what cheap and stingey mean; parsimonious is basically the same. I have noticed a phenomenon where basic Spanish words correspond to a power English equivalent. For example, the most basic way to say second-to-last in Spanish is penúltimo, which looks like the English penultimate. Self-taught in Spanish is autodidacto, which is the English power word autodidactic.

Spanish has even helped me with my Times crossword puzzles (and believe me, I need help). A six-letter word in a recent puzzle had the clue “Renal : kidney :: amygdaline : xxxxxx.” You might think that amygdaline has to do with the brain, since that’s where the amygdala is, but brain is only five letters. Amigdala is Spanish, however, for tonsil, and that fits. So even if I bomb the GRE, at least I can do my crosswords. Well, más o menos.