What is a cognate?
Vocabulary is a key component to any language. You have to have an extensive vocabulary in order to be able to carry on a conversation of any sort.
This can be very intimidating. Do you need to know 2,000 words in German before you can start to say anything? Not really, you could have a pleasant greeting with just a couple hundred words, but there is a better way.
If you have ever spent any time with a language, you’ve probably come across a word or two that looks like an English word and, to your pleasant surprise, it meant the same thing.
Yes, it’s true, some words in some other languages are nearly identical to the English meaning. This is called a cognate. A cognate is going to be your best friend when it comes to learning a language.
A cognate is a word that is identical or nearly identical in one language and in another. An example of an identical cognate in French is the word chaos. Chaos means chaos in both English and French and is spelled exactly the same. Other examples are muscle, obstacle, and passage. They are identical in both languages.
An example of a nearly identical cognate in French is the word obtain. In English, it is obtain. The French word for obtain is obtener. They mean the same thing and look almost identical with just a little difference.
For some languages, there are hundreds of cognates. If you knew all of the cognates in the Spanish language, you would be well on your way with the language already.
For a list of cognates, you should pick up a copy of your target language in the Essential Grammar Series. There is a huge list of cognates in the end of the book. Spend a few minutes everyday going through the list and you will increase your vocabulary in no time!
Here are the Essential Grammar books. They are also full of grammar points and very cheap!