New Mexican Spanish has also been in substantial contact with American English. The contact with American English began before the Mexican–American War, when New Mexico did trade with the US, and increased after New Mexico's annexation by the US. One effect of this is semantic extension, using Spanish words with the meaning of their English cognates, such as using to mean "to realize." Contact with English has also led to a general adoption of many loanwords, as well as a language shift towards English with abandonment of Spanish.
