The Latin in 'English'

Do you know about the great influence that the Latin language has on English? It's a fact that Latin does not only have an influence on English alone, but on French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch & many other languages. Many words are similar or identical because they are derived from Latin.
For example, the word 'dictionary';
in Spanish it's 'diccionario'
in French it's 'dictionnaire'
in Italian it's 'dizionario'

the word 'information' is ;
'información' in Spanish
'information' in French (only pronounced differently)
informazione in Italian
and there are hundreds, even thousands of examples in so many languages.
This gives knowing that a word comes from Latin great advantages:
1. Studying other languages is much easier because you'll find that you already know many words in these languages.
Tip: words that are written the same in two or more languages & have the same meaning are called : cognates.)


2. knowing the etymology (origin) of the word makes you capable of seeing a new way of how words are related. For example, the word 'dictionary' is related to the word, 'predict', 'contradict', 'dictate' & 'dictator'. Can you see how?
Yes, they all have 'dict' in them.  'dict' in 'dictionary' is from the latin word 'dictio'=word, and also 'dicere' = to say.
dictionary = the book where words are explained.
'to predict' = to know or say that something will happen in the future before it does.
'contradict' = means to say the opposite of something or of what someone else has said.
'dictate' = means to say that something must be obeyed, to give as orders.
EX:'Rules dictate that you help your teammate'.
a 'dictator' is a person who has absolute power ( he dictates; says what he wants).
In this way, you can see how words are formed, and how they are derived from their original meanings.

# The golden rule in etymology is that; "When two words in any language has the same 3 or 4 letters (2 syllables or more), it is very likely that they have the same origin".
Remember: You don't really have to study Latin to know the origin of the word, but knowing the origin will give you better understanding of the word, its relation to other words & how it's used.

So, improve you knowledge of the origins of the words you learn from time to time, if you enjoyed this article share it, & if you have any questions, suggestions write them in the comments below :)