COGNATES:Similar words in English and German.
More cognates and some Common German Words in everday American usage.
Since German and English are historically related to each other, we find many cognates in both. Here are some spelling patterns that will be helpful in determining meanings of words. Some words may contain more than one spelling change.
| A. German pf, ff, and f sometimes change to p in English, as in Pfeife: pipe or reif: ripe. | |
| 1. Apfel ______________ | 6. Pflanze______________ |
| 2. Pfeffer ______________ | 7. Griff______________ |
| 3. Pfennig ______________ | 8. Pfanne______________ |
| 4. helfen ______________ | 9. pflücken______________ |
| 5. Bischof ______________ | 10. Pflaster _______________ |
| B. German z, tz, s, ss, and ss sometimes change to t in English, as in Biss: bit. | |
| 1. Wasser ______________ | 6. Kessel______________ |
| 2. sitzen ______________ | 7. glitzern______________ |
| 3. Fuss ______________ | 8. Salz______________ |
| 4. besser ______________ | 9. Herz ______________ |
| 5. Katze ______________ | 10. Zinn_________________ |
| C. German ch and ck sometimes change to k in English, such as in backen: to bake | |
| 1. Buch ______________ | 6. Storch______________ |
| 2. machen ______________ | 7. Elch______________ |
| 3. Milch ______________ | 8. Koch______________ |
| 4. nackt ______________ | 9. brechen______________ |
| 5. wecken ______________ | 10. Schneeflocke_______________ |
| D. German k sometimes stays k in English or changes to a hard c or ch, as in Käse: cheese | |
| 1. Kaliko ______________ | 6. Karte______________ |
| 2. Kapitän ______________ | 7. Karpfen_____________ |
| 3. Kammer ______________ | 8. Katakombe______________ |
| 4. Keller ______________ | 9. Kinn____________________ |
| 5. kommen______________ | 10. Kapelle______________ |
| E. German sch will sometimes change to ch or sh or s in English, as in Kutsche: coach. | |
| 1. scharf ______________ | 6. Fisch______________ |
| 2. Scheck ______________ | 7. Schimpanse______________ |
| 3. scheu ______________ | 8. schlau______________ |
| 4. Schleim ______________ | 9. Schnee______________ |
| 5. Schwein______________ | 10. Busch_________________ |
| F. German z sometimes changes to a soft c in English as in zirca: circa. | |
| 1. Zirkus ______________ | 6. Polizei________________ |
| 2. produzieren ______________ | 7. Zivilisation________________ |
| 3. Medizin ______________ | 8. Spezifikation________________ |
| 4. zylindrisch ______________ | 9. sozial________________ |
| 5. denunzieren______________ | 10. tanzen._________________ |
| G. German d or t will sometimes change to th in English, as in Dieb: thief and dann: then. | |
| 1. Ding ______________ | 6. Wetter________________ |
| 2. Durst______________ | 7. Bruder________________ |
| 3. Tausend ______________ | 8. Feder________________ |
| 4. Bad ______________ | 9. Distel________________ |
| 5. danken______________ | 10. denken_________________ |
| H. German t might also change to d in English, as in Tochter: daughter and reiten: to ride. | |
| 1. Garten ______________ | 6. Diamant________________ |
| 2. trinken ______________ | 7. tropfen________________ |
| 3. tunken ______________ | 8. schattig________________ |
| 4. unter ______________ | 9. hart________________ |
| 5. Bett ______________ | 10. Brot_________________ |
| I. German b sometimes remains b in English or changes to f or v as in Biber: beaver. | |
| 1. Kalb ______________ | 6. Fieber________________ |
| 2. Weib ______________ | 7. Grab________________ |
| 3. Weber ______________ | 8. haben________________ |
| 4. halb ______________ | 9. eben________________ |
| 5. Rabe______________ | 10. sieben_________________ |
| J. German -ig, -lich, -isch and -ität sometimes change to -(l)y, -al, -ic, or -ful in English. | |
| 1. sonnig ______________ | 6. hungrig________________ |
| 2. romantisch ______________ | 7. Pfennig________________ |
| 3. mütterlich ______________ | 8. Qualität________________________________ |
| 4. musikalisch ______________ | 9. Spezialität______________ |
| 5. hoffentlich______________ | 10. freundlich______________ |
Vowel changes do not occur with as much regularity as consonant changes, which makes is sometimes necessary to keep guessing until a reasonable translation is found for a cognate.
HOWEVER, BEWARE of FALSE COGNATES!!!
Some words appear at first sight to have certain English meanings which actually aren't correct. Arm in German can mean poor, for example. Rat, gut, hell, Bad, hat, Boot, bald, Mist, and Hut don't mean what they appear to mean, nor are the pronounced as they seem to be. Their surprising translations are: advice, good, bright, bath, has, boat, soon, manure, and hat.
In addition to false cognates, other true cognates (historically-related words) no longer hold the same meanings, which can cause other difficulties. German "das Gift" and English gift are cognates, but "das Gift" now means poison! BE CAREFUL WITH COGNATES!!!
Lynn Fagerness
New Prague High School
New Prague, MN 56071
By Charles J. James of the U. of Wis-Madison.
I want to list a number of common German words which look very much like English words. Some, like Category A, also mean the same thing across both languages, cultural and idiomatic differences notwithstanding. What I want to do in the near future is to go beyond the word level to the sentence level, and then, of course, to the paragraph level where language actually lives.
You'll notice that quite a few very very common German words are not listed here, like Ecke, Uhr, Boden, Bleistift, Farbe, Zeit etc. Sure, you can always make the case for Uhr being cognate with hour (Category B) or Boden being cognate with bottom (Category C), which they are. But after a while, isn't it better for students to learn German as it is and not constantly refer back to real or imagined connections with English? After all, there are in German lots of "internal cognates" like all the words connected with Gang (Eingang, Ausgang, Aufgang, Zugang, Abgang, Niedergang, Umgang u.dgl.) which will also help students expand their vocabulary.
For all practical purposes, these cognates mean the same between the two languages. Obviously there are differences in pronunciation and morphosyntax, but these are inherent in the languages, not in the lexical items themselves. Also obviously, there are differences that arise from cultural contexts and everyday use. For example, German speakers say "jemanden auf den Arm nehmen" where English speakers say "to pull somebody's leg". It's still the same A/arm!
Note: international (mostly English) words in German (Information, Computer, Tennis), as well as German words taken directly into English (gesundheit, zeitgeist, ersatz) are not, strictly speaking, cognates. They are just, well, English in German bzw. German in English!
Beispiele:
in Arm Finger Hand (Augen)Lid Wind Ring Auto Minute Note Nest Rose Sand Park Ball Plan Form Land Motor England Wurst Horn Gold Dock Soda Pedal warm Tiger Bus blind sing! sink! bring! sang Hammer Hamburger Bank (die)Band Professor Million Computer Information Nation Deck Tennis Film Radio
These cognates look similar enough as to be recognizable as related, but spelling and pronunciation may obscure some of the similarities.
Beispiele:
Nase Ohr Telefon Telegramm Papier Bier Wagen Sekunde Mann Onkel hundert tausend Wasser Haus Laus Maus Rolle Glas Amerika Apfel Bier blau braun gruen grau Schule Plastik Schuh Nerv Licht Knie kann Pumpe Lampe und Kaktus Wein mein Schiff Griff Granit unter dick Fisch Silber Zink Baer Bieber Haar Socke Aal Freund Werk finden breit Busch Flamme Afrika Kanada Mexiko Kapelle Kirche Reis fallen gib! Daene lang Musik Tablette Pille Doktor Lippe Titel Ochs Lamm Tulpe rar Nessel recht- ist Foto kommen
These cognates are historically close in meaning and use, but in modern usage the similarities are overshadowed by often radical differences in actual occurence. "Die Haut" in German is very common whereas its English cognate "(animal) hide" is not used that often. "Das Haupt" on the other hand, is relatively infrequent in German ("der Kopf" being more common), whereas "head" is very common in English. The same applies to "fahren" which is used daily in German, as opposed to "to fare" which is limited to idiomatic expressions (e.g. "to fare well" and "farewell!"). Also, nobody in English routinely uses "to seek" any more, but "suchen" in German is used almost daily.
Beispiele:
Haut Haupt fahren suchen fern Hund springen
These cognates are often false friends, but they are not always clearly false. That is, without an unambiguous context, it is possible for someone in German to say "Ich habe mein Bein gebrochen" and have the English speaker generalize (which bone?) and the German speaker specialize (links oder rechts?) without communiction breaking down right away. The same could happen with a question about vacation plans: "Wo steht ihr?" which could keep the conversation going until the person asking the question realizes that he/she is not getting the answer intended. One of the most common Category C cognates is "See" which creates misunderstanding if given the wrong gender. I once overheard a student convince a German that Chicago is on the ocean because she insisted that it was "an einer See." By the same token, a student once asked a German where his "Residenz" was; the German felt somewhat enobled by the question. The results, then, while often humorous, are not always negative!
Beispiele:
Billion Frankfurter Wiener (der/die)See Wall Hang Trainer Hamburger Halle wenn Pass Spiel bei an Stoff Bein stehen Stuhl Lenz Residenz (das/der)Band
Like Category B, these words look similar across the two languages, but would lead to breakdown in communication if mixed up.
Beispiele:
Milz reden bekommen nehmen Korn Dom Limonade Panne Sinn Kissen Flur Grippe Achsel krumm schmal Fahrt Gang Welle Kaution Mappe Bor vor Bild weit sensibel Kanne eventuell aktuell Schrank Maul wo wer wie eben Akt Takt Tal Stein[krug] Fabrik Formular Fotograf
Like Category A, these words look alike across both language, but produce considerable misunderstanding if mixed up.
Gift will man Kind Tablet Hose Mist Hut Tier stand Art Grab Fell Rang ass Wand Made Post Bank rot Sod fast Boot link- arm Tag spring Taste Dank Male hat Lid gross Strand Teller die den
Sometimes the word is indeed used like its English equivalent. For example, "Halle" does mean "hall" when referring to a large concert hall (Konzerthalle) or sports stadium (Sporthalle), but never means "hall" in the sense of corridor.
When learning German, English speakers often notice the cognates, especially of fairly basic vocabulary. Of course for all the "true" cognates (Wind, Hand, Ring, oft usw.) there are many "false" cognates (Gift, Gang, Fahrt, eventuell, aktuell usw.). While lexical items that are closer to "true" do not necessarily mean that learners will learn them quicker or better than those that are closer to "false", whenever learners can quickly establish links between two expressions, learning is usually facilitated.
The following is a scale of relative "cognativeness." There are very few lexical items that are so close in meaning as to exhibit almost 100% overlap between German and English in all aspects (spelling, pronunciation, semantics etc.), although "arm/der Arm" is one that comes to mind immediately.
Most examples of cognativeness are on a continuous scale. For the sake of discussion I would divide lexical items into five large categories, labeled according the typical A-F American grade scale. Examples here are taken from body parts for the simple reason that all human beings have same basic body parts and most of these have short simple labels in both German and English.
The five categories are:
Category A - Items which are close enough in phonological, semantic, and graphological form and content that little confusion arises. Obviously, all the colloquial and cultural associations that each language community attaches to these items would differ considerably.
---> Arm, Hand, Finger
Within each category there are, of course, gradations, such that one might be tempted to create A/B or B/C subcategories. The basic descriptors for each category are, however, reasonably consistent.
Does any of the mean that only A or B cognates are easiest to learn? Not at all! Simply knowing that "arm" is "der Arm" won't help you learn "jemanden auf den Arm nehmen" ("to pull somebody's leg") or understand the joke "lieber arm dran als Arm ab!"
No, the words to learn are the ones you can use, not just ones that are interesting to look at. A substantial number of them will be Category-F, which in some ways might make them easier to learn since you won't be lulled into a false sense of recognition.
From Andreas Mielke
Talking about cognates, I like to begin with finger, hand, arm --and then point out the importance of genders!
Since we are also talking to people entirely ignorant of German, the most important cognates used in advertising must be mentioned: Becks Beer (Bier), Volkswagen (automobile), including even "Fahrvergnuegen" which Americans have vulgarized on some t-shirts (good for us?), Diesel.
Jack Rosenthal of the New York Times recently (Sept. 95) discovered that German is a "way to show off," quoting old loan words such as Angst, Schadenfreude, Weltschmerz, etc. as if they were new (they seem to be new to him.)
With the help of Yiddish more words may be popularly recognized: schmalz, schnorrer, schlepp, etc.. Close by are: schmuck, schnap(p)s, schnauzer, schnitzel, schuss, etc., etc.
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Last updated September 22, 19966.