Tip #21
Learning Foreign Vocabulary - words borrowed from other languages
At one point or other a lot of words have been
'borrowed' from other European languages, and this can help you
to remember you vocabulary. So you will find that the foreign word
sounds similar to an English word which is not commonly used, or
was used once but is now used to describe something else.
If you can find the common ground it can often
help you to remember what the correct word is, how to pronounce
and spell it - all in one go!
Try these:
The French for 'sky' is 'ciel'. What words
do you know in English that start with a similar sound? Think
about it and you may have found the word 'ceiling'. Can you see
where the words may have once had a common meaning? (clue - look
upwards).
The French for 'door' is 'porte'. In English
we have the word 'portal' which is used to describe a door of
some sort (from this we get the word 'port' used as the doorway
for boats to go to sea). Again we have a word that has been borrowed
from one language and changed a bit.
You will find that many words have similar words
in English, maybe that are not used as commonly (like portal), but
these will help you to remember the word.
