Skip to content

"effort" in seven languages

Meaningeffort

Spanish

esfuerzo

/esˈfweɾθo/

masc.inherited

French

effort

/efɔʁ/

masc.inherited

Italian

sforzo

/ˈsfɔrtso/

masc.inherited

Portuguese

esforço

/isˈfohsu/

masc.inherited

Romanian

efort

/eˈfort/

neut.borrowed · French effort

Catalan

esforç

/əsˈfɔɾs/

masc.inherited

English

effort

/ˈɛfɚt/

from Latin/French · Old French esforz

English → ItalianeffortsforzoCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

*EXFORTIĀRE‘to put out strength (FORTIS 'strong')’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

Each sister made a noun from the spoken verb 'to put strength out': esfuerzo, effort, sforzo. Spanish broke the open o of FORTIS into ue; French assimilated the s (Old French esforz).

English relatives: force, fort, fortitude, comfort

Sound laws at work

Stressed short O breaks into ue / uo / eu

Learn it

Practice the Ideas deckQuiz a friend on it

In a sentence

  • esRequiere mucho esfuerzo.
  • frÇa demande beaucoup d'efforts.
  • itRichiede molto sforzo.
  • ptExige muito esforço.
  • roNecesită mult efort.
  • caRequereix molt d'esforç.
  • enIt takes a lot of effort.

More in Ideas

All Ideas words