Are there more Spanish verbs than English verbs?

Question

I don't know if one'll ever know the answer to this. Someone remarked that he thought there was probably a verb for everything in Spanish. So a discussion started debating whether there are actually more verbs (individual infinitives) in Spanish than there are in English.

The arguments that came out for more Spanish verbs than English verbs:

1. There are verbs in Spanish that do not have an equivalent infinitive in English. (see previous thread) link text

2. Actions in English can be described and covered by thousands and thousands of phrasal verbs, whereas there are not many phrasal verbs in Spanish. For example, to turn to, to turn in (more than one meaning), to turn into, to turn up, to turn out, to turn round, to turn down etc.etc. - all these phrasal verbs only involve one single infinitive 'turn'. In Spanish that would involve lots of different verbs.

3. Nouns in English can be used as verbs. For example " I'll pencil it in my diary. " or " Could you diary it in for Friday for me? - boss says to secretary." Here nouns such as pencil and diary are being used as verbs. (NB. We agreed that for the purpose of this debate, we would not count them as 'true' infinitives.)

The arguments that came up for more English verbs than Spanish verbs:

1. There are also lots of verbs in English that do not have a one-word equivalent in Spanish. e.g. to microwave - cocinar al microondas etc. etc. And

2. Have you seen the size of the FULL version of the Oxford English Dictionary (26+ volumes) ?

• Nice formatting, Peter. Also, it's such a pleasure to see a well-written post. :-) - --Mariana-- Dec 5, 2010
• thanks Marianne - peterpierre Dec 5, 2010
• Question : Are there A N Y phrasal verbs in Spanish? - ian-hill Dec 5, 2010
• There are, but not many, e.g. ir para, ir por, ir con all have slightly meanings - peterpierre Dec 5, 2010
• Nice thread! - TheSilentHer Dec 5, 2010

Answer 1

The arguments that came out for more Spanish verbs than English verbs:

Hard to believe, since English can turn most nouns into verbs, it has borrowed a lot of verbs from Latin, like Spanish, plus it has Germanic ones and it keeps creating and borrowing on a daily basis.

There are verbs in Spanish that do not have an equivalent infinitive in English. (see previous thread)

There are also English verbs that don't have an equivalent in Spanish. E.g. realise.

Actions in English can be described and covered by thousands and thousands of phrasal verbs, whereas there are not many phrasal verbs in Spanish.

There are no phrasal verbs in Spanish at all! We have nothing remotely similar. Some phrasal verbs are translated with a single verb, like "find out" (averiguar) or "go up" (subir) and many others can't be translated without adding extra words to a verb (normally adverbs or adverbial phrases).

There are [phrasal verbs], but not many, e.g. ir para, ir por, ir con all have slightly meanings

Those are not phrasal verbs, because they do not form a semantic unit, like the do in English. Those are simply verbs followed by adverbial phrases. In Spanish those prepositions are attached to the words that follow, not to the verb. You can't say "¡Voy para!" or anything like that.

English is the language with the largest dictionary of all languages, without a doubt. An average person does not recognize 10% of those words, and a very well educated person who beats everybody at scrabble will recognize about 20-30% at best. Someone who knows 50% of them is a walking encyclopaedia and will probably have an IQ of 210 or so.

The 2001 DRAE had about 10800 verbs, which is a lot, considering that verbs account for less than 10% of a dictionary on average, and that a medium sized dictionary will have about 30,000 to 40,000 words in it, which is about twice the number of words many natives know. I have no way to count the verbs in the OED, but I'll try to get a count from my Collins, which is a rather large dictionary. My guess is that English will have a similar number, or higher... even without counting phrasal verbs.

• It is estimated that the Oxford English Dictionary has about 30,000 verbs listed. - lorenzo9 Dec 5, 2010
• OK I agree with most of what you're saying. But a huge memory does not imply having a high IQ. The former is purely retention of facts, while the latter is more to do with the speed of analytical thinking. This is a very common mistake, easily made. - peterpierre Dec 5, 2010
• Because of the way many IQ tests are constructed, there is a strong correlation between having a high IQ and having a large vocabulary, neither of which have much to do with being intelligent. - lorenzo9 Dec 5, 2010
• Having a great memory definitely raises your IQ on traditional tests. An interesting topic that I've recently discovered is: What is our "Emotional IQ?" - --Mariana-- Dec 5, 2010
• The IQ comment was an exaggeration only. I was just trying to point out that it is extremely rare to find such a person. That's all. - lazarus1907 Dec 5, 2010

Answer 2

There are a lot of verbs in English that are also nouns, but many nouns in Spanish are conjugated verbs as well--if you are going to exclude them from one language, you should exclude them both. If you include archaic words, English has more verbs for the simple reason that most verbs in Spanish come from Latin, whereas English has verbs from many sources, including most of those from Latin, which were incorporated during the Norman Conquest.

Answer 3

This is certainly a question for Lazarus!

Answer 4

Here is an article that compares the number of words in the English/Spanish languages, but does not compare the number of verbs.

number of words Spanish vs English

Answer 5

It has been estimated that if Shakespeare were alive today he would be able to correctly use about 50,000 of the estimated more than 1,000,000 words said to be English.

This from a writer who "invented" many of the words in use today.

abstemious

(The Tempest -- a Latin word that meant "to abstain from alcoholic drink" was generalized to sexual behavior as well)

academe (Love's Labour's Lost; this is just an English form of "Academy", the Greek for Plato's grove)

accommodation (Othello)

accused (n.) (Richard II -- first known use as a noun, meaning person accused of a crime)

addiction (Henry V / Othello)

admirable (several; seems unlikely)

advertising (adj.)(Measure for Measure; in context, means "being attentive"; the noun was already in use)

aerial (Othello)

alligator (Romeo and Juliet; Spanish "aligarto" was already in use in English)

amazement (13 instances; first known use as a noun)

anchovy (I Henry IV; first attestation in English of the Spanish word for dried edible fish)

apostrophe ("apostrophas")(Love's Labour's Lost; seems to be a well-known word already)

arch-villain (Measure for Measure / Timon of Athens)

to arouse (2 Henry VI / Hamlet; "rouse" was the usual form)

assassination (Macbeth; "assassin" was already in use and derives from "hashish eater")

auspicious (several; "auspice" was a Roman practice of fortune-telling by bird flight)

bachelorship (I Henry VI)

backing (I Henry VI; this is just a pun on a known word)

bandit (II Henry VI, actually "bandetto", the first attestation in English of a familiar Italian word for people "banned", i.e., outlaws)

barefaced (in the sense of "barefaced power") (Macbeth)

baseless (in the sense of fantasy without grounding in fact) (The Tempest)

beached (several, merely means "possessing a beach")

bedazzled (The Taming of the Shrew)

bedroom (A Midsummer Night's Dream, merely means a place to sleep on the ground)

belongings (Measure for Measure)

to besmirch (Henry V)

birthplace (Coriolanus; first attestation)

to blanket (King Lear; first use as a verb)

bloodstained (I Henry IV)

blusterer (A Lover's Complaint)

bold-faced (I Henry VI)

bottled (Richard III)

bump (Romeo and Juliet; first attestation of onomopoeic word)

buzzer (Hamlet; means gossipper)

to cake (Timon of Athens, first attestation as a verb)

to castigate (Timon of Athens)

to cater (As You Like It; from coetous, a buyer of provisions)

clangor (3 Henry VI / 2 Henry IV)

to champion (Macbeth; first attestation as a verb, and in an older sense of "to challenge"; though the noun was familiar as someone who would fight for another)

circumstantial (As You Like It / Cymbeline; first attestation in the sense of "indirect")

cold-blooded (King John; first use to mean "lack of emotion")

coldhearted (Antony and Cleopatra)

compact (several; seems to have been a common word)

to comply (Othello)

to compromise (The Merchant of Venice, several of the histories; seems to have been already in use)

to cow (Macbeth; first use in English of a Scandinavian verb)

consanguineous (Twelfth Night; "consanguinity" was already in use)

control (n.) (Twelfth Night)

countless (Titus Andronicus / Pericles)

courtship (several, seems unikely)

critic (Love's Labour's Lost; Latin term)

critical (not in today's sense) (Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream)

cruelhearted (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)

Dalmatians (Cymbeline)

dauntless (Macbeth)

dawn (I Henry IV, King John; first use as a noun, the standard had been "dawning")

day's work (several, must have been a common expression)

deafening (II Henry IV; in the sense of a noise that is loud but does not produce real deafness)

to denote (several; already a word in Latin)

depository (???)

discontent (Richard III / Titus Andronicus; the verb was in use but this is the first attestation as a noun)

design (several, seems unlikely)

dexterously (Twelfth Night)

dialogue (several, seems already familiar)

disgraceful (I Henry VI; means "not graceful")

dishearten (Henry V)

to dislocate (King Lear, refers to anatomy)

distasteful (Timon of Athens)

distracted (Hamlet / Measure for Measure; seems possible)

divest (Henry V / King Lear; probably already in use as referring to a royal title)

domineering (Love's Labour's Lost; from a Dutch word)

downstairs (I Henry IV, supposedly first use as an adjective)

droplet (Timon of Athens)

to drug (Macbeth; first use as a verb)

to dwindle (I Henry IV / Macbeth, seems already familiar as a term for body wasting)

to educate (Love's Labour's Lost)

to elbow (King Lear; first use as a verb)

embrace (I Henry VI; first use as a noun)

employer (Much Ado about Nothing)

employment (several, obviously familiar)

engagement (several, seems simply the first attestation)

to enmesh (Othello)

to ensnare (Othello)

enrapt (Troilus and Cressida)

enthroned (Antony and Cleopatra)

epileptic (King Lear; first use as an adjective, though the noun was old)

equivocal (Othello / All's Well that Ends Well; first use as adjective, though the verb "to equivocate" was familiar)

eventful (As You Like It)

excitement (Hamlet / Troilus and Cressida; both times as plural; first use as a noun)

expedience (several, supposedly first use as noun)

exposure (several, supposedly first use as noun)

eyeball (The Tempest)

eyedrops (II Henry IV; means "tears")

eyesore (The Taming of the Shrew)

fanged (Hamlet, first attestation)

farmhouse (The Merry Wives of Windsor; first known use of the compound)

far-off (several, seems already familiar)

fashionable (Timon of Athens / Troilus and Cressida)

fathomless (not today's sense) (Troilus and Cressida)

fitful (Macbeth)

fixture (not current sense) (Merry Wives of Windsor / Winter's Tale)

flawed (King Lear; first use as an adjective)

flowery (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

foppish (King Lear)

fortune-teller (The Comedy of Errors)

to forward (I Henry IV; first use as a verb)

foul-mouthed (several, seems already familiar)

freezing (Cymbeline)

frugal (several; "frugality" was already in common use)

full-grown (Pericles)

gallantry (Troilus and Cressida)

generous (several, obviously already known)

gloomy (several, "to gloom" was a verb)

glow (several; the word had originally meant red-and-warm)

gnarled (Measure for Measure; alteration of knurled which was a standard word for bumpy)

go-between (several, seems familiar)

to gossip (The Comedy of Errors; first use as a verb; "gossip" was one's familiar friends)

gust (III Henry VI, seems already familiar and was an Old Norse word)

half-blooded (King Lear)

hint (Othello, first use in today's sense)

hob-nails (I Henry IV, alleged; seems already familiar)

hobnob (Twelfth Night; older term was "hab, nab", and not in today's sense)

homely (several, seems already familiar)

honey-tongued (Love's Labour's Lost)

hoodwinked (already known from falconry)

hostile (several, seems like a word that is already familiar)

hot-blooded (The Merry Wives of Windsor / King Lear)

housekeeping (The Taming of the Shrew; seems unlikely)

howl (several, clearly familiar)

to humor (Love's Labour's Lost, first attestation as a verb)

hunchbacked (can't find)

to hurry (Comedy of Errors, first attestation as verb)

ill-tempered (can't find)

immediacy (King Lear, first use as noun)

impartial (2 Henry IV)

to impede (Macbeth, first use as verb, though "impediment" was already widely used)

import (several, and not used in the modern sense)

immediacy (King Lear, first attestation as a noun)

importantly (Cymbeline, first attestation as an adverb)

inaudible (All's Well that Ends Well; "audible" was already in use)

inauspicious (Romeo and Juliet)

indistinguishable (not in today's sense)(Troilus and Cressida)

inducement (several, seems unlikely)

investment (II Henry IV, not in present sense)

invitation (The Merry Wives of Windsor; signifies "flirting")

invulnerable King John / Hamlet / The Tempest; first attestation for the negative; Coriolanus has unvulnerable)

jaded (several, seems already a term of contempt)

Judgement Day (I Henry VI; usual term had been "Day of Judgement")

juiced (Merry Wives of Windsor; first attestation as an adjective)

kissing (several, first attestation of the participle, though surely not its first use)

lackluster (As You Like It)

ladybird (Romeo and Juliet)

to lament (several, seems already familiare)

to lapse (several, first attestation as a verb, though already familiar as a noun)

to launder (first use as a verb; "laundress" was in common use)

laughable (The Merchant of Venice)

leaky (Antony and Cleopatra / The Tempest)

leapfrog (Henry V; first attestation but seems unlikely as a coinage)

lonely (several, seems unlikely)

long-legged (can't find)

love letter (can't find)

to lower (several, seems already known)

luggage (first use as noun)

lustrous (Twelfth Night / All's Well that Ends Well)

madcap (several, attestation as adjective; the noun had become popular just before)

majestic (several, first use as adjective)

majestically (I Henry IV; first attestation as adverb)

malignancy (Twelfth Night, seems possible)

manager (Love's Labour's Lost / Midsummer Night's Dream; first attestation as noun)

marketable (As You Like It; first use as adjective)

militarist (All's Well that Ends Well)

mimic (Midsummer Night's Dream)

misgiving (Julius Caesar; first use as noun, though "to misgive" was in common use)

misplaced (several, seems unlikely)

to misquote (1 Henry IV; not in the present sense)

money's worth (Love's Labours Lost)

monumental (several, seems unlikely)

moonbeam (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

mortifying (Merchant of Venice / Much Ado About Nothing )

motionless (Henry V)

mountaineer (Cymbeline; the sense is "hillbilly")

multitudinous (Macbeth)

neglect (several, obviously already known)

to negotiate (Much Ado about Nothing / Twelfth Night; verb from the Latin)

new-fallen (Venus and Adonis / I Henry IV)

new-fangled (Love's Labour's Lost / As You Like It)

nimble-footed (several, seems already a familiar expression)

noiseless (King Lear / All's Well that Ends Well)

to numb (King Lear, first attestation as a transitive verb)

obscene (several; straight from Latin)

obsequiously (first use of the adverb; comes from "obsequies", or funeral rites)

outbreak (Hamlet, first attestation as a noun)

to outdare (I Henry IV)

to outgrow (can't find)

to outweigh (can't find)

over-cool (II Henry IV)

overgrowth (can't find)

over-ripened (II Henry VI ;first-use of the familiar compound)

over-weathered The Merchant of Venice)

overview (can't find)

pageantry (Pericles Prince of Tyre)

pale-faced (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

to pander (several; was already a proverb)

pedant (several, seems already in common use for a stuffy teacher)

perplex (King John / Cymbeline)

perusal (Sonnets / Hamlet; first use as a noun)

to petition (Antony and Cleopatra / Coriolanus; first use as a verb)

pious (several, seems very unlikely)

posture (several, seems known)

premeditated (several; first attestation of the adjective, though the noun was in use)

priceless (???)

Promethean (Othello / Love's Labour's Lost)

protester (not today's sense) (Julius Caesar)

published (2 Henry VI)

puking (As You Like It)

puppy-dog (King John / Henry V)

on purpose (several; seems very unlikely)

quarrelsome (As You Like It / Taming of the Shrew)

questing (As You Like It; first use of the gerund)

in question (several, seems already in use)

radiance (several; first use as noun)

to rant (The Merry Wives of Windsor / Hamlet; loan-word from Dutch or previously-unattested English word?)

rancorous (2 Henry VI, Comedy of Errors, Richard III, all early plays, seems unlikely)

raw-boned (I Henry VI)

reclusive (Much Ado about Nothing; first use as adjective)

reinforcement (Troilus and Cressida / Coriolanus; seems already in use)

reliance (???)

remorseless (several, first attestation of this form)

reprieve (several, obviously already in use)

resolve (several, obviously already in use)

restoration (King Lear)

restraint (several, seems already familiar)

retirement (II Henry IV; refers to military retreat; first use as noun)

revolting (several, obviously already familiar)

to rival (King Lear; first attestation as verb; noun was well-known)

rival (Midsummer Night's Dream; first attestation as adjective, noun was well-known)

roadway (II Henry IV; first attestation of the compound)

rumination (As You Like It; first use as noun)

sacrificial (Timon of Athens; not today's usage)

sanctimonious (Measure for Measure / Tempest)

satisfying (Othello / Cymbeline)

savage (several; the word was obviously already in use)

savagery (King John / Henry V; first use as this form)

schoolboy (Julius Caesar / Much Ado about Nothing)

scrubbed (The Merchant of Venice)

scuffle (Antony and Cleopatra; first use as noun, though the verb was familiar)

seamy-side (Othello)

to secure (II Henry VI; first use as a verb; the adjective was well-known)

shipwrecked (Pericles Prince of Tyre, seems unlikely)

shooting star (Richard II; first known use of the phrase)

shudder (Timon of Athens; first use as a noun; verb already well-known)

silk (alleged; obviously not Shakespeare's)

stocking (obviously not Shakespeare's)

silliness (Othello)

skim milk (I Henry IV; first use of the familiar term)

to sneak (Measure for Measure; supposed first use of the verb)

soft-hearted (2 Henry VI / 3 Henry VI; first use of the familiar phrase)

spectacled (Coriolanus; not in today's sense)

splitting (II Henry VI; first use as adjective)

sportive (Richard III / Comedy of Errors / All's Well that Ends Well; supposed first use)

to squabble (Othello; supposed first use, as with "to swagger")

stealthy (Macbeth; first use as adjective)

stillborn (can't find, obviously not Shakespeare's)

to submerge (Antony and Cleopatra)

successful (Titus Andronicus, seems dubious)

suffocating (Othello; supposed first use as a descriptor)

to sully (I Henry VI)

superscript (Love's Labour's Lost)

to supervise (Love's Labour's Lost; also Hamlet but not in today's sense)

to swagger (II Henry IV, others; in context this seems to be already a well-known word)

switch (first use to mean "twig")

tardily (All's Well that Ends Well; first use of adverb)

tardiness (King Lear; "tardy" as adjective was well-known)

threateningly (All's Well that Ends Well; first use of the adverb)

tightly (The Merry Wives of Windsor; first use as an adverb)

time-honored (Richard II)

title page (can't find; seems unlikely)

to torture (several; first use as a verb)

traditional (Richard III; first use as adjective)

tranquil (Othello; "tranquility" was an old word)

transcendence (All's Well that Ends Well; first attestation of the noun)

tongue-tied (III Henry VI / Julius Caesar / Troilus and Cressida; seems first attestation of a phrase already in use)

unaccommodated (King Lear)

unaware (Venus and Adonis; first use as an adverb; the adjective was not yet in use)

to unclog (Coriolanus, first use as a negative)

unappeased (Titus Andronicus)

unchanging (The Merchant of Venice)

unclaimed (As You Like It; not in today's sense)

uncomfortable (Romeo and Juliet)

to uncurl (???)

to undervalue (The Merchant of Venice)

to undress (The Taming of the Shrew; seems unlikely)

unearthly (Winter's Tale)

uneducated (Love's Labour's Lost, seems possible)

ungoverned (Richard III / King Lear)

to unhand (Hamlet)

unmitigated (Much Ado about Nothing)

unpublished (King Lear; in the sense of "still unknown")

unreal (Macbeth, first use of the negative)

unsolicited (Titus Andronicus / Henry VIII; supposed first use of the form)

unswayed (Richard III; not in today's sense, but "is the sword unswung?")

unwillingness (Richard III / Richard II)

upstairs (I Henry IV; supposedly first use as an adjective)

urging (Richard III / Comedy of Errors; first attestation as a noun

useful (several, seems already familiar)

varied (Love's Labour's Lost, others)

vastly (Rape of Lucrece, not present sense)

viewless (Measure for Measure; means "invisible")

vulnerable (Macbeth; used in today's sense)

watchdog (The Tempest; first use of the phrase)

well-behaved (The Merry Wives of Windsor; first known use of the compound)

well-bred (II Henry IV; first use of the familiar compound)

well-read (I Henry IV)

whirligig (Twelfth Night)

to widen (???)

widowed (Sonnet 97 / Coriolanus; first use as an adjective)

worn out (Romeo and Juliet / 2 Henry IV; seems unlikely)

worthless (III Henry VI, several others; seems just a first attestation)

yelping (I Henry VI; first attestation of this adjectival form)

zany (Love's Labour Lost; simply a loan-word from Italian commedia dell'arte)

• Remind me never to play Trivial Pursuit with you. - qfreed Dec 5, 2010