from pp. 98-99

miel honey. Cognate with English molasses, Latin mellitus ("about honey"), which exists in English as part of diabetes mellitus, commonly shortened to diabetes, the disease for which one symptom is sweet urine. Also cognate with English mead (an alcoholic drink fermented from honey and water), and the first element of the given name Melissa. Imagine a lady named Melissa is as sweet as honey. Alternatively, use a mnemonic such as “he eats a meal with honey”. Interestingly, the Chinese word for honey, pronounced mì, is a loanword from Tocharian (a branch of the Indo-European language family), thus related to Spanish miel. (The latest research may be the 2017 article The Word for ‘Honey’ in Chinese, Tocharian and Sino-Vietnamese, by K. Meier, M. Peyrot.) Examples, la miel nunca se echa a perder (“honey never spoils”; note miel is feminine); luna de mie (“honeymoon”).

cementerio cemetery (cognate). From Latin coemeterium. It’s not clear how the second syllable of cementerio became nasalized (had n) in development. Not to be confused with the unrelated cemento (“cement”), cimiento (“foundation”). But as a mnemonic, you can imagine tombstones made of cement in a cemetery.

cobertura cover, coverage (cognate). Normally b and v easily interchange in Spanish, although etymologically it's not the case for this particular word. Nevertheless, as a mnemonic, you can imagine b in cobertura corresponds to v in cover. This word is often used in figurative sense. Example, cobertura del seguro (“insurance coverage”).

habilidad ability (cognate). Not to be confused with English habit, which would be Spanish hábito, where the third syllable starts with t, not l. Example, habilidades blandas (“soft skills”; blando means “soft”, not “bland” in Spanish).

cerveza beer. Etymology is unhelpful. It may be remotely related to cream or cereal. Use a mnemonic such as "¡sirve esa!" ("serve that!").

estación station (cognate); season (one of the four seasons of year). A season of a year is like a station on a route. When speaking of an event or activity appropriate for a time of year (e.g. "football season"), it's better to use temporada.

sumamente extremely, highly, extremadamente. Cognate with summit. Over the past two centuries, the frequency of this word has come down while that of extremadamente has gone up (due to influence of English extremely?).

apuntar to point (to, at) (cognate); to aim; (reflexive) to sign up; to record, to write down. Examples, apuntar al blanco / objetivo (“to aim at the target”); ¡apúntate al boletín! (“sign up for the newsletter!”); apuntar un número de teléfono (“to write down a phone number”).

fallo failure (cognate), mistake; ruling, judgment, sentence, verdict. The second meaning (“ruling”) is probably a different word in this form and is related to hallar (“to find”), in which h- is from f-. As a mnemonic, think of the fall of the judge’s gavel when he declares a ruling. See also hallar.

leyenda legend (cognate). Not to be confused with leyendo (“reading”, gerund of leer).

barra bar (cognate), rod; slash (punctuation, "/"). The punctuation "vertical bar" ("|") is called barra vertical or pleca in Spanish.

primo cousin (male or unspecified gender); prime (cognate) number. From Latin primus ("first"). In the first sense, its feminine form is prima. The reason for the sense of "cousin", according to one theory, could be that, originally there was Latin consobrinus primus ("first cousin"), which changed to referring to "cousin" in general, and later for some reason consobrinus, not primus, was dropped from the phrase. This resulted in Spanish primo, derived from Latin primus, referring to "cousin". (cf. Joan Corominas, Breve Diccionario Etimológico de la Lengua Castellana)

trasladar to move; to transfer (cognate); to translate (cognate), traducir. In the sense of “to transfer”, this word is more about physically moving or relocating things, unlike transferir. See also traducir.

refugio refuge (n.) (cognate), shelter. refugiado refugee (cognate). Suffix -io is equivalent to English -ium, indicating a place, e.g. gymnasium, auditorium.

terapia therapy (cognate). terapeuta therapist (cognate). Note that terapeuta is for both male and female therapist; the form terapeuto does not exist. And note terapia should not be confused with tilapia.

herramienta tool. The root means "iron" (Spanish hierro), material suitable for a tool. The verb herrar means "to shoe a horse", "to brand cattle". Suffix -miento/a is equivalent to English -ment, forming nouns from verbs. See also hierro.

judío Jewish (adj.); Jew (n.) (cognate). From Latin iudaeus, which lost its second syllable consonant when inherited by Old French, from which English Jew is derived. If d blocks you from associating the word with English Jew or Jewish, think of Judah, the founder of the Israelite and the Kingdom of Judah, the land of Judea and the Jews, and consider the fact that Spanish d is pronounced softly.

foro forum (cognate).

retirar to remove, to withdraw; to retire (not due to age) (cognate). retiro retirement, jubilación. The root tirar means "to throw", "to shoot". Hence the first sense of the word, "to remove". English retire most commonly means "to leave job due to age limit", which is jubilar in Spanish, not retirar. But under the influence of English retire, retirarse starts to acquire this sense, especially in Latin America. Example, a los 70 años, el líder indiscutible de la izquierda mexicana ... se retira (“at the age of 70, the undisputed leader of the Mexican left ... is retiring”, said El País, the Spanish newspaper).

fugar to escape, flee. Cognate with fugitive.

sonar to sound (cognate), to ring; to sound familiar, to ring a bell. Example, el timbre suena (“the doorbell / buzzer rings”; note the stem-changing conjugated form suena).

someter to subdue. Cognate with submit. The root -met- means "to put", with prefix so- equivalent to English sub-.

ave bird, pájaro (some people consider pájaro to be smaller than ave). Cognate with aviation. Note ave is feminine even though you say un or el. Examples, ave / aves de corral (“poultry”); carne de ave / aves (“poultry meat”).