How to spot synonyms in the Leaving Certificate Journalistic text.

 ¡Hola a todos! ¿Qué tal?

In today's post I want to focus on how to find synonyms in the LC Journalistic text. This can be a rather tedious task to do, especially when you are running out of time. However, I am going to give you some tips on how to find them faster and quicker! Keep on reading :)

Let me get a little technical for a moment. In Linguistics, we use the term morphology to refer to the study of words and how they are formed. It analyzes the structure of words and its parts, such as prefixes and suffixes. It is very important to know what types of words there are in order to success in the synonym hunt. The ones we need to know are are verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs.

Verbs 

Verbs are actions: to run, to sleep, to eat... They are easily recognizable in Spanish as the infinitives end with -ar, -er, -ir. Their tenses have patterns that we can find with no problems, such as -mos for the first person plural in present tense; or -n for the third person in plural in present tense. If the exercise is asking us to spot a verb in the text, we will have to see its ending and find another verb that matches. Here are some examples: 

hablar - conversar (to talk)

hablamos - conversamos (we talk)

lavar - fregar (to wash)

lavaís - fregáis (you all wash)

The same happens in other tenses. Let's take a look at the same example in pretérito indefinido:

hablaron - conversaron (they talked)

Lavaste - fregaste (you washed)

However! Watch out for verbs that are synonyms but their endings are different, as their forms in other tenses are going to vary too!

amar - querer (to love)

amé - quise (I loved)

alertar - advertit (to alert)

alerta - advierte (he/she alerts)

ver - mirar (to look/watch)

vi - miré (I saw/watched)

Some verbs I have come across often in Journalistic texts that are worth remembering:

disminuir - reducir (to reduce)

finalizar - terminar (to finish)

admitir - reconocer (to admit)

mandar - enviar (to send)

Nouns

Nouns are objects, people and animals. In order to spot nouns, we will look for an article before the noun: 

el / la / los /las

un / una / unos / unas

Here, agreement comes into play. We need to see if the noun is singular, plural, masculine or femenine. This way, our synonyms should match:

-o

-a

-os

-as

Here are some examples: 

el paro / el desempleo (unemployment)

las reglas / las normas (the rules)

los lugares / los sitios (the places)

Of course, where there is a rule, there is an exception. Here are some synonyms that don't have the same endings:

la casa / el hogar (the home)

el hábito / la costumbre (the habit)

las consecuencias / los efectos (the consequences)

las personas / la gente (the people)

Adjectives

Adjectives describe things, the previously-learnt nouns. As above, agreement is key to finding a synonym. Is the adjective singular or plural? Masculine or feminine? For instance: 

viejo / antiguo (old)

divertido / simpático (nice)

bonita / preciosa (pretty)

Like the nouns, some synonyms might not match their endings: 

fantástico - fenomenal (great)

escondido - oculto (hidden)

sin techo - sin hogar (homeless)

Averbs

Adverbs just add some extra information to the sentence and might change the mood of it. In Spanish they tend to end with -mente but also have their synonyms, which in some cases, don't match in endings:

anualmente - cada año (anually)

actualmente - hoy en día (currently)

recientemente - últimamente (lately)

This can be also very handy when working on opinion pieces!

Expressions and connectors

In the Journalistic text, you might be asked to find something other than a verb or a noun. Expressions and connectors are also very popular. Here are some that I gather from past papers: 

en lugar de / en vez de (instead of)

después / tras / luego (after)

otra vez / de nuevo (again)

a causa de / debido a (due to, a result of)

Numbers, percentages, divisions, etc.

And to wrap it up, bear in mind that some synonyms might include figures, percentages... Here are the most popular ones: 

un tercio / un treinta y tres por ciento - a third

la mitad / el cincuenta por ciento - half

las doce / el mediodía / la medianoche - midday, midnight

un quinto / un veinte por ciento - A fifth, 20%

If you wish to learn more about synonyms, take a look at a previous post where I gathered synonyms from previous papers. Tip: Some of them appeared more than once, so they are quite popular and worth learning them!

https://beasspanishclass.blogspot.com/2022/09/lista-de-sinonimos-para-el-leaving.html

I hope you can find this useful. Any questions? Drop them down below or DM me on my socials that you can find on the right.