How Learning One Language Well Helps You Learn Others

In the comments, the ever-perceptive dano notes:

dano: The thing is, I've found that once you learn to speak a European language, and particularly a Latin-based one, you see similarities in many words across the board and a rough kind of pattern emerges, making it easier to learn more languages.

dano is correct - once you learn one Romance language, you can learn many others. Also, the better you know English, the more easily you can learn a Romance language because so many English words have Latin roots. I also know some Proto Indo European knowledge, so I can see roots that go back even farther back than Latin.

It helps to learn Greek and Latin roots in English. That way you can pick up more English words that you don't even know just by figuring out roots. Also it helps a lot with Romance languages.

Let's try a little experiment. I know English very well, including many obscure terms, and I am familiar with many Latin roots. I know Spanish fairly well. I know a tiny bit of French and know a few words in Indo-European. With that knowledge, let us see how far that will get me in Venetian, a language I had never heard of before, and Italian, a language I have never been able to make heads or tails of.

Comparison of Venetian and Italian with English, Spanish, French and Indo-European


Venetian gato, Spanish "gato", English "cat"

Venetian grasa, Spanish "grasa", English "gross" fat, corpulent

Venetian qua, Indo-European "kuon", French "chien", English "canine", "hound", dog

Venetian çena, Spanish "cena", dinner

Venetian scóła, Spanish "escuela", English "school"

Venetian bała, Spanish "bala", English "ball"

Venetian pena, English "pen"

Venetian bìsi, English "peas"

Venetian diałeto, Spanish "dialecto ", English "dialect"

Venetian sgnape, English "schnapps"

Venetian scóndar, Spanish "esconder", English, "abscond", to hide, to depart rapidly to avoid persecution

Venetian baxar, Spanish "besar", English "buss", to kiss, kiss

Venetian dormir, Spanish "dormir", English "dormitory", to sleep

Venetian pàre, Spanish "padre", English "patrilineal", father, in the father's family line

Venetian parlar, French "parler", English "parlance", to speak, way of speaking

Venetian scusàr, Spanish "excusar", English "to excuse", to forgive, to excuse

Venetian aver, Spanish "haber", to have, to possess

Venetian essar, Spanish "estar", to be

Venetian sentir, Spanish "sentir", English, "sentiments", to feel, feelings

Venetian venir, Spanish "venir", to come

Venetian cantar, Spanish "cantar", English "cantata", to sing, song

Venetian vaca, Spanish "vaca", cow

Venetian vardar, Spanish "guardar", English "to guard", to look, to guard

Venetian sghiràt, English "squirrel"

Venetian récia, Spanish "orecha"

Venetian plàstega, Spanish "plastica", English "plastic"

Italian forchetta, English "fork"

Italian ratto, Spanish "raton", English "rat"

Italian pipistrello, English "pipistrelle", bat, a type of bat

Italian asino, English "ass", donkey

Venetian mustaci, English "mustache"

Italian io, Spanish "yo", English "I"

Venetian mare, Spanish "madre", mother, English "matriarchal", rule by women

Italian uscita, English, "exit"

Venetian fiól, English "filial", son, relating to a son or daughter

Italian quando, Spanish "cuando", when

Venetian cascàr, English "cascade", to fall, waterfall

Venetian trón, English "throne" chair, king's chair

Venetian bèver, Spanish "beber", English "to imbibe", to drink

Venetian trincàr, English "to drink"

Venetian òcio, Spanish "ojo", English "ocular", eye, of the eye

Venetian morsegàr, English "morsel", to bite, a bite

Venetian nome, Spanish "nombre", English "name"

Venetian solo Spanish "solo", English "solo", only, alone

Venetian grande, Spanish "grande", English "grand" big, great

Italian piccante, Spanish "picante", English "piquant", spicy hot

Venetian calle, Spanish "calle," street

Venetian łéngua, Spanish "lengua", English "language"

Venetian senpre, Spanish "siempre", always

Venetian mar, Spanish "mar", English "maritime", sea, of the sea

Venetian nostre, Spanish "nuestro", our

Venetian vite, Spanish "vida", English, "vital", life, living

Venetian virtuosi, Spanish "virtuoso", English "virtuous"

Venetian serae, Spanish "seria", would be

Venetian spirito, Spanish "espiritu", English "spirit", ghost, spirit

Venetian segura, Spanish "seguro", English "secure", safety, safe

Venetian robar, Spanish "robar", English "to rob", to loot, to steal

Venetian mal, Spanish "mal", English "malevolent", bad, evil-minded


As we can see, there is a huge amount of similarity between Venetian, an obscure language I had never heard of, and Spanish and English. Even the frightening Italian has quite a few Spanish and English cognates. Learning one foreign language, or even learning your own language very well, really does help you to learn even more languages so much more easily. Go ahead and give it a shot!