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remind you of English words—often fancy English words from Latin roots—but the meaning will be slightly different. That's all right. You're just looking for anything that can help you in some way to remember these words. Try them. If you can't guess the words right off, there's nothing to worry about. What I want you to notice is how a related English word will help you link the French word with the real English meaning in your mind. Even if you're not going to study French you should still look at these examples to get some idea of the process of looking for related words—to serve as a memory jog in any language.
French word
English Meaning
Related English word
 
fort
strong
fortify
mur
wall
mural
porter
to carry portable,
porter
travailler
to work
travail
chambre
room
chamber
souvenir
to remember
souvenir shop
ami
friend
amicable
guerre
war
guerrilla
penser
to think
pensive
quitter
to leave
quit
donner
to give
donation
arrêter
to stop
arrest
rouge
red
face rouge
demander
to ask
demand
matin
morning
matinee
année
year
annual
femme
woman
feminine
lune
moon
lunar
laver
to wash
lavatory
fumer
to smoke
fumes
arbre
tree
arboretum41
pont
bridge
pontoon
envoyer
to send
envoy
mort
mortal, mortician
blanc
white
blank, blanch
soleil
sun
solar
    I've given you quite a number of these because it's one of the most important points of all in learning a new vocabulary. You need to think about how to relate the words you're learning to words you already know, even if they're not exactly the same. You're looking for handles —memory devices—to make your memory task easier.
    Now let's look at German. You remember I said the higher level terms in English come mainly from French and Latin. It's just the opposite with German. Our most basic daily words—the heart of the language—come from the Germanic origins of our language. Look at the similarity between these everyday German and English words: Mann , man; Wasser , water; hundert , hundred; Haus , house; Apfel , apple; Blut , blood.
    Now look at this list for some less obvious similarities:
German word
English Meaning
Related English word
 
Hund
dog
hound
trinken
to drink
drink
Luft
air
aloft
rauchen
to smoke
reek
Fleisch
meat
flesh
graben
to dig
grave
schreien
to cry, shout
shriek
Licht
light
light
Morgen
morning
morning
schlafen
to sleep
sleep
Stuhl
chair
stool
Ding
thing
thing
Blume
flower
bloom
Strasse
street
street
halten
to stop
halt
vergessen
to forget
forget
lernen
to learn
learn
essen
to eat
eat
    Some of the words on this German list are less like English than others. But I hope that in each case, at least after you saw the related English word—you were struck by its connection to German.
    By the way, did you notice one thing? In lots of German words an “ss” comes out in English as “t” in words like Strasse, vergessen, Wasser. This is one of the linguistic “laws” of relationships between German and English words.
    There are many such linguistic laws about how predictable changes come about in the way languages develop. You don't actually have to learn these laws, but some you can probably figure out for yourself, as you may have noticed in the German case above. Many of these linguistic laws are rather complex, especially when you get to languages in families more distant from English. The point is, though, that you always need to keep your eyes open for such connections. They may well be there. They will make your task easier.
    Let's go back to the Romance languages for just one more exercise in word-association. This time let's try Spanish. Remember that Spanish, like French, comes from Latin. So the associated words that come to mind in English will also be originally from Latin—again like the French example.
Spanish word
English Meaning
Associated English word
 
estudiar
to study
study
sol
sun
solar
fumar
to smoke
fumes
pobre
poor
poverty
tiempo
time
tempo
vender
to sell
vending machine
recordar
to remember
record
pensar
to