German Cognate Guide

Introduction
Welcome to the German Cognate guide! This is meant to be read after the Grammar
Primer. There will be many references to the Primer in this document. You may want to
have the Grammar Primer open as well, just in case you want to refer to it.
This “Cognate Guide” is going to show you that you can already read and understand a
short story in German, simply by using some tricks to “transfer” words you know from
English into German.
Es gibt einen Mann, der mit seiner Mutter und einer Katze lebt.
Sie leben in einem großen weißen Haus mit einem großen Garten.
Die Katze liebt es Apfel zu essen und im Garten zu sitzen.
Eines Tages öffnete der Mann die Tür und ging in den Garten.
Er ging schwimmen. Sein Herz war ungesund und deshalb musste er oft
schwimmen gehen.
Als er mit seinen Füßen zu seinem Auto ging, setzte sich die Katze auf ihre Matte
und sagte:
"Bring mir einen Äpfel mit, wenn du zurückkommst. Danke!"
You probably didn't understand much, if anything. Which is okay!! You're not supposed
to yet. We'll help you to understand. And that is the only important thing at this stage:
understanding the content. It doesn't matter if you can pronounce these words or
understand the subtly of each phrase. You'll learn those things with time and immersion.

German Cognate Guide 1

 Still not convinced? Have a look at some of these:

Die Katze sitzt auf der Matte. Ich esse einen Apfel.

Meine Hand ist in warmem Wasser. Der Mann ist betrunken.

Cognates are words that are “born together”. You can think of them as related words
that used to be the same word, hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. Over time, the
way they look, feel, or act can change a bit.

German Cognate Guide 2

 Some are obvious:
🟦 Blue: 🟥 Red:
Blau 󾓨, Blauw , Blou , Bleu 󾓧 Rot 󾓨, Rood , Rooi , Rouge 󾓧

🍎 Apple: 🙂 Person:
Apfel 󾓨, Appel Person 󾓨, Persoon , Persoon

Some are less obvious:

“Sterben” is a cognate with starve “Swartz” is a cognate with swarthy

"Starve" means to be really hungry or In English, swarthy is used for a person

even to be dying from hunger. In with a dark complexion; in German,
German, sterben means to die. schwartz is the normal word for the color
black!

“Fahren” is a cognate with fare

In English, “to fare” can mean to go, but often in the non-literal sense. How is your
project faring? The root is still used in other words like “seafarer” (one who fares the
seas), and “ferry” a boat that fares (goes). In German fahren is the normal word for “to
go by vehicle”.
German and English share 60% of their vocab, but a lot of that vocab has been
developing differently for over 1,000 years. You’ll train yourself to recognize similar
forms, but the meaning may not be the exact same.

Sounds Change Too!

Over the course of hundreds of years, pronunciations or spellings can also change,
even if the “core word” is still there.

Here are several words that changed by shifting t into tz or z.

English German Note

cat Katze German just writes k instead of c

Heart Herz German spells tz as z sometimes

German Cognate Guide 3

 English German Note

sit sitzen Dictionary verb forms end in -en

to zu

Here are several words that changed by shifting t into ss:

Keep in mind that ß is just a way to write ss in German. They sound identical.

English German Note

eat essen Dictionary verb forms end in -en

great groß It now means “big”

foot fuß

white weiß

Here are several words that changed by shifting d into t:

English German Note

door Tür German just writes t instead of d

garden Garten

day Tag A second shift of g → y took place

opened öffenete A second shift of p → f took place

Here are several words that changed by shifting v into b:

English German Note

All these verbs end with an s in

loves liebt
English and t in German.

gives gibt

Here are a few more shifts that happened. You can find more examples all throughout
the German language:

Shift English German Notes

th → t mother Mutter

p → pf apple Apfel

s → sch swim schwimmen Dictionary verb forms end in -en

German Cognate Guide 4

 Some cognates don’t just look a little different but have shifted their core meaning as
well:

German Direct English Meaning Change

Es gibt It gives The phrase in German “there is”, not “it gives”

ging goed We now use “went” as the past tense of “go”

gesund sound It now means “healthy”, like “safe and sound”

als as It can sometimes mean “when” or just “as”

Lastly, there are a few cognates that are almost exactly the same and just change their
spelling:

German English

Haus house

wenn when

musste must

oft often

und and

False Friends
Some words might look similar in German and English (or even be identical), but some
are “false friends”. For example, “Gift” in German actually means poison.

German What it looks like Actual Meaning

das Gift gift poison

der Rock rock skirt

der Rat rat advice

das Boot boot boat

der Bürger burger citizen

das Genie genie genius

die Wand wand wall

German Cognate Guide 5

 Reading a Story
Now that we’ve covered everything, read the example story again this time with a “word-
for-word” translation and a true translation below. As you’re working through the story,
feel free to reference the Grammar Primer or any part of this cognate guide to help you
along the way.

Der Mann und seine Katze

German Cognate Guide 6

 ⚠ Pay attention to how the nouns, adjectives and articles change a lot!
Remember the Grammar Primer mentioning that things change a lot.

💡 And the word order is different! Sometimes you will have to “squint your brain”
for it to make sense. This is a natural part of the Refolding process.

German Cognate Guide 7