46. English and German Similarities & Why

46.  English and German Similarities & Why

We saw in the last post just how many words are similar in English and German - they are called...

'COGNATES'

1   sagen             =   say
2   fliegen           =   fly
3   schwimmen   =  [ l ]  =  (to) swim
4   reiten             =  [ n]  =   ride
5   denken          =   [ i ]  =   think
6   kommen        =   [ j ]  =   come
7   angeln           =   [ g ] =   fish, angle
8   bringen          =   [ e ]  =   bring
9   finden            =   [ m ] =   find
10 machen          =   [ k ]  =   make, do
11 sehen             =   [ c ]   =  see
12 hören             =   [ o ]   =  hear
13 singen            =   [ d ]   = sing
14 sprechen        =    [ f ]   = speak
15 planen           =    [ h ]   = plan

Because the Anglo Saxons brought their own Germanic language with them when they overran England, many many words from German came into the language we know as English today. The other two major languages that influenced English were Latin (the Roman occupation) and French (after William the Conqueror's invasion). Therefore, with a few clues you can unravel many words from German and discover their similar English equivalents.

* Remember here, however, that vowels may need to change to discover the similarity. This happens across our very own English speaking world and our easiest example to understand this is the difference between English tomato [toh mar toe] and American [toh may toe]. Spellings may vary too but pronunciations may well be similar.

b, p, f, v   ....  are often interchangeable  [bevor = before; leben = live, life; 
German  'k' = English 'c'  ....  [Katze = cat;  kühl = cool]
d, t, th ... often interchangeable [Bad = bath; Ding = thing]
German 'ig' = English 'y',  'ey' [Honig = honey; sonnig = sunny]
German 'sch' = English 'sh'  [Schule = school;  frisch = fresh]
German 'tz' = English 't'  [Netz = net; sitzen = sit]
German 'z' often English 't'  [zehn = ten; zu = to(o)

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