"False friends"

Some Spanish words are NOT English cognates.

"Exito" (success) is not "exit".
"Nombre" is not "number".

English cognates in Spanish

Lots of Spanish words can be deduced from their similar appearance to English. Most words are pronounced differently, though.

Basic things to note:
"-e/adad" is similar to "-ity"
"-a/emente" is similar to "-ly"
There's no "-ph-" in Spanish, often replaced with a simple "-f-". As in "fono" versus "phone" and "foto" versus "photo".

Some words are "false friends", which are under a different post.