I want to shift gears in my blog from talking about Latin, to teaching you some Latin basics. I am a student of Latin in the beginning stages of my studies, however thought I could take some of my observations (including my mistakes) and attempt to steer you around those potholes.
In the first year of Latin, there is a lot of vocabulary to learn, and when the vocabulary learning takes place in small increments, it is not overwhelming.
One of the vocabulary concepts I am going to show you today are called Cognates. According to the Webster’s Concise Dictionary the word cognate means; Having the same nature or quality.
In Latin, cognates are words having a similar spelling in English and a similar meaning.
When you receive your long list of new words to learn, first scan the list for words, specifically looking for the cognates. Cognates are words in Latin that you already know in English. After locating several cognates in your list of Latin words, the vocabulary list turns out to not be as difficult as you expected and thanks to the Latin cognates, you get a boost in your learning confidence.
Let’s look at some Latin cognates to illustrate what I have been talking about.
English Latin
Animal Animal
Industrious Industrius
Expect Exspectāre
Prudent Prūdēns
Grammar Grammatica
Absent Absēns
Mother Māter
Father Pāter
Infant Īnfāns
Future Futūrus
Debt Debēre
Necessary Necessārius
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