Cognates and Etymology

Cognates are a good source of information for many English language learners.

Cognates are words that share etymological origin and have similar meanings and forms. Cognates can be a good source of reasonable guesses about word meaning. For native speakers of Romance languages (e.g., Spanish, French, Italian, etc.) who are learning English, cognates are a particularly important focus for acquiring new vocabulary. Many relatively sophisticated words in English have cognates in Spanish, Portuguese, French, or the Caribbean Creoles–often cognates that are relatively common words in those languages. Reliance on cognates can be a useful strategy for students to understand both the passages they are reading and the words they are attempting to learn. Cognates can provide students with “a leg up,” or an advantage, in learning sophisticated vocabulary in English.

Don’t worry too much about false cognates. 

Teachers often worry much more about the tiny proportion of cognates that are 'false' (i.e., the meanings in Spanish and English are not the same) than about the vast majority of cognates where meanings are very similar. Even many false cognates (e.g., the commonly cited embarazada "pregnant" and embarrassed) in fact are etymologically related, though the meanings in Spanish and English have drifted enough apart that the sense of being burdened now signifies pregnant in Spanish and abashed in English.

In fact, analyzing the differences in meaning between cognates (whether large, like the embarazada case, or smaller, like coche, which means ‘car’ rather than ‘coach’) is a good entrée to understanding etymology (word origins).

Knowing about word origins is part of word knowledge.

Because English has words derived from many other languages, and because its spelling system preserves traces of those languages, learning about spelling, cognates, and morphology implies learning a little etymology, too. You are the best judge of whether this is age appropriate for your students.

Why do we spell the [f] sound in pharmacy, photograph, and phobia with a ph?

  • Because those are Greek-origin words. 

Why do the plurals of phenomenon and criterion end in -a instead of -s (phenomena and criteria)?

  • Again, Greek. 

Why is CH pronounced [sh] in chic and chef but not in chick or chief?

  • French versus Germanic origin. 

Why are lively and lonely adjectives even though the -ly ending normally signals adverbs?

  • The suffix (related to -lich in German) marks the words as Germanic in origin, and the adverbial forms are alive and alone (not livelily and lonelily, fortunately). 

More important than these specific details is conveying to students an understanding that English spelling does make sense, and that knowing about word origins is part of word knowledge.

Class Activity: Signaling Etymology with Sorting Words
Exercises in which small groups or pairs of students are given a list of words and asked to come up with ways to sort them can raise consciousness about how spelling signals etymology. So, for example, one list might include photograph, fox, pharmacy, farm, ferret, pheromone, phonogram, and fallible. Students are encouraged to come up with their own groupings – animals plus farm versus the rest, for example – but in the process they have examined the words carefully. A subsequent whole class discussion could then bring out the Greek/non Greek distinction in the spelling of the [f] sound. 
Professional Learning Task

It is helpful for teachers to be familiar with common Greek and Latin roots that are cognates in English and Spanish.

Here are a few:

Root Meaning Origin English Examples Spanish Examples
aud hear Latin auditorium, audition auditorio, audición
astir star Greek astrology, astronaut astrología, astronauta
bio life Greek biography, biology biografía, biología
dic speak, tell Latin dictate, dictator dictar, dictador
mit, mis send Latin mission, transmit misión, transmitir
ped foot Latin pedal, pedestal pedal, pedestal
phon sound Greek phoneme, microphone fonema, micrófono
port carry Latin transport, portable transportar, portatil

With colleagues, select text from an upcoming lesson and search for words with roots that you suspect are common across languages. Add to list above. 

Research how other word roots used in English relate to home languages in your school community.

Professional Learning Task

Even though we advise not to worry too much about false cognates, here are a few English/Spanish examples that are helpful for teachers to know:

English Spanish
globe globo (balloon)
pie pie (foot)
rope ropa (clothes)
soap sopa (soup)
large largo (long)
exit éxito (success)
hay hay (there is)

With colleagues, consider methods to indicate the meanings of the English words above by providing additional clues to their meanings. For example, using hand gestures or more complete phrases (exit quietly through the door instead of exit quietly).

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