How Cognates in Language Learning Can Save You Months

The most critical aspect of language learning is building vocabulary, as it takes time to acquire, and it is easy to forget. It can also seem like there is never enough vocabulary when you need it the most. However, there is a simple solution to this problem: cognates. Whether it's "un solución trivial" in Spanish, "una soluzione triviale" in Italian, or "uma solução trivial" in Portuguese, you can understand the meaning if you recognize the similar root word. This is why it is essential to continue using your knowledge of cognates in language learning.

Cognates in language: what they are (and what they are not)?

It's somewhat remarkable, but what people usually refer to as "cognates" are not actually cognates at all. Firstly, people tend to label any two similarly-looking words from different languages as cognates (e.g., French blessé and English blessed). Then, if these two words have a related meaning, they are considered true cognates. If not, they are tagged as "false cognates" or "faux amis" or whatever negative term is deemed appropriate.

This is a big mistake.

In linguistics, the definition of cognates in language learning has nothing to do with the form of the words. Cognates are simply words that share a common etymological origin. However, they do often look very similar:

night (English),
nuit (French),
noite (Portuguese),
noche (Spanish),
noc (Polish),
ночь, /noch/ (Russian),
Nacht (German),
nacht (Dutch),
νύχτα /nychta/ (Modern Greek),
nox/nocte (Latin),
nakt- (Sanskrit),

All these and many other words mean “night”, thanks to their grand-grand-grandpa the Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts that meant – that’s right – “night”.

The same term “cognates” also refers to languages that have a common “ancestry”, like all those Romance languages that look so annoyingly similar because they are descendants of Latin. It makes perfect sense because cognates in languages are the result of borrowing, which is the ultimate product of any shared period of history. So, the more genealogically related two languages are, the more cognates you can expect to find. For example, Russian has a boatload of slightly altered French loanwords, thanks to the aristocracy who spoke French in the XVII century and enriched plain Russian vocabulary with fancy Parisian words. Similarly, Tagalog acquired a bunch of Spanish-looking words, thanks to colonists from mainland Spain.

How to use cognates in language learning?

Cognates have a tremendous propelling power. They represent a portion of your target vocabulary that you already comprehend, don't they?

For instance, consider the phrase "this phrase is simple". It can be translated to Spanish as "esta frase es simple", to French as "cette phrase est simple", and to Italian as "questa frase è semplice".

So, how can you utilize cognates to speed up your language learning, increase your comprehension, and communicate effectively?

Get to know your target language

The good starting point is to understand how your mother tongue is related to your target language.

If you are a native speaker of English, you're already well-prepared. English shares many cognates with Romance languages like Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian, as well as Germanic languages such as German and Dutch, due to the turbulent history of the English language.

When learning Spanish, for example, you already have a vocabulary of 20,000 words, which are Spanish-English cognates (as recognized by NTC’s Dictionary of Spanish-English cognates). Moreover, about 90% of these cognates would typically have the same meaning in both languages (1).

Now you know why Romance languages can be picked up so quickly by native English speakers.

Learn morphology of your target language

What, has the word “morphology” already made you sick?

Don’t be. If you learn to read language morphology, your vocabulary learning speed will increase in several times. Once you memorize a word root, morphological suffixes help you build a nice little collection of related words. Think about it:

rapide – rapidité – rapidement
lente – lentement – lenteur – ralentir – ralenti – ralentisseur
raison – raisonnable – raisonnablement – raisonnement – raisonner

Cognates typically creep into languages as roots that later are processed through this language morphology. However, in languages that developed from a shared ancestor (like Latin) even morphology turns out to be very-very-vert similar. Look at these little puppies, for example:

If you know the word-forming rules, or at least a general correlation between English and Spanish derivational suffixes, you can transform many English words into Spanish ones.

For example, if you learn that most English nouns that end in -ty correspond to Spanish nouns that end in -idad, you can quickly get from city, activity, reality, security, and society to their Spanish equivalents: ciudad, actividad, realidad, seguridad, and sociedad.

Although this method may not work every single time, as not all English words have Spanish cognates, it's important not to underestimate its potential.

Learn the pronunciation of various suffixes

As you may have noticed, cognates in languages look very similar in their orthography, which makes them useful for reading in another language. You can read Spanish El Confidencial, French Le Monde, or Italian El Messaggero, even if you have never tried to learn any of these languages and still be able to understand at least a few headlines.

However, when it comes to speaking, problems arise.

After seeing a beautiful set of Romance “really”-s (French réellement, Spanish realmente, Portuguese realmente, Italian realmente), you may be tempted to conclude that they all sound the same.

But they don't.

In fact, French drops the "nt" sequence and nasalizes the vowel, resulting in something like “realmo” (/ʁeɛlmɑ̃/). Portuguese turns "r" into "h" and "t" into "ch", resulting in “healmenche” (/ʀiaɫmˈẽtɨ/). Spanish and Italian do sound the way they look, but they too have language-specific pronunciation, such as a rolled "r".

Similarly, English "-tion", French "-tion", Spanish "-ción", Italian "-zione", and Portuguese "-ção" sound very different. Therefore, don’t be misled by orthography and take your time learning how cognates in languages are pronounced.

What about false cognates in languages?

If you've gone through a formal language learning program, you might have a fear of false cognates.

After all, won't they inevitably lead to embarrassing mistakes, or worse, like Parker's marketing blunder in Mexico?According to Brand Failures, the luxury pen company used a telling slogan that claimed their new ink Quink "won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant". But in Spanish, "embarazar" doesn't mean "embarrass", it means "pregnant"! The mistake could have been avoided if the company had hired a professional translator.

Yikes!

So how can you avoid getting into a trap of false cognates?

False cognates or false friends?

First of all, what people call false cognates (things like Spanish pie – “foot” and English pie – well, “pie”) are actually false friends.

To be real false cognates two words must have nothing in common etymologically. English much and Spanish mucho are false cognates because they have no common origin. English much developed from Proto-Germanic mikilaz, while Spanish mucho – from Latin multum. They ended up looking like two twins, having the same meaning, but being unrelated.

False friends, on the other hand, may or may not have a common origin. To be false friends two words just have to look alike but mean different things. Take library and librairie, for example. English library means a library, a place where you borrow books. French librairie means a bookstore, or a place where you buy these very books. These two are indeed false friends, despite being true cognates.

But does it really matter?

Should you be afraid of “false friends”?

Dry statistics suggest that the number of false friends is relatively low compared to the number of true cognates in languages like English and Spanish. This means that trusting your instincts and treating similarly looking words as having the same meaning will usually yield positive results.

Using cognates may have some negative side-effects, but making a mistake such as saying "pregnant" instead of "embarrassed" won't be the only mistake you'll make in Spanish. Your interlocutor will likely recognize that you're a beginner and that you'll make other grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary mistakes. Therefore, it won't be a catastrophic mistake.

As you advance in your proficiency in a foreign language, you'll learn to avoid false friends. It's just a matter of time and exposure to the language. For example, you'll eventually notice that French words "location" and "coin" appear in slightly different contexts from their English counterparts, and you'll intuitively feel that they mean different things.

The fear of using cognates in language comes from the fear of making a mistake. The real false friend here is that fear, and you should get rid of it immediately. Making mistakes is the only way to learn a foreign language, and using cognates (whether they are false friends or not) can be your first step.