The English language: a melting pot of different languages

Where do English words come from? As the title suggests, English receives influence from a great deal of languages. In the same way that - as seen in the picture above- America is a melting pot of different cultures, English is a melting pot of different languages.  In this post, I will try to show you some of the languages that deeply influenced the English language and I will try to exemplify it with English words.

First of all, one of the main influences English had was French. In the 11th Century, Edward the Conqueror – who was French - became king. As a result, many French words started to appear in English language. We, as speakers, use these words without realizing they have a French origin. French words influenced started to enter the English language. At some point both the English and the French words managed to coexist, but in different contexts and registers. In this link, you can see more clearly the influence of French in the English language and viceversa, and also the influence of Spanish.  In general, French words are used in more learned formal contexts. For example, the French words have specialized to deal with the meat of animals, whereas the English words depict the animals themselves. Here is a list for you to see what I mean more clearly. 

ENGLISH WORDS	WORDS WITH FRENCH ORIGIN
Pig	Pork (French: ‘porc’)
Deer	Venison (French: ‘venaison’)
Sheep	Mutton (French ‘mouton’)
Ox	Beef (French ‘boeuf’)
Calf	Veal
Motion	Movement
Front of building	Facade  (French ‘façade’)
Feature	Characteristic (French: ‘characteristique’)
Large, splendid	Grand
Character / VIP	Personage
Naivety	Naiveté
Trip	Journey (French ‘journée’)
Trade	Commerce
Underwear	Lingerie
Curriculum (Latin origin)	Résumé
Newspaper	Journal

Moreover, Latin has also influenced English. The influence in Latin is vast, frequently causing the English language to resemble Spanish. Here you have a list of Latin words. My advice is to use Latin words with caution and merely in formal contexts, the English words being far more common:

ENGLISH WORDS	LATIN WORDS
Student	Alumnus (pl. ‘alumni’)
Moon	Lunar (Latin: ‘luna’)
Sun	Solar (Latin: ‘sol’)
Life	Vital (Latin: ‘vita’)
Speed	Rapidity (Latin: ‘rapidus’)/ velocity (Latin: ‘velox’)
Aerial	Antenna (Latin: ‘antenna’)
Marriage	Matrimony (Latin: ‘matrimonium’)
Sell	Vend (Latin: ‘vendere’)
Undefeatable	Invincible (Latin ‘vincere’)
Unreadable	Illegible (Latin: ‘leggere’)
Unbelievable	Incredible (Latin: ‘credere’)
End	Finish/terminate (Latin: ‘finis’/’terminus’)
Start/begin	Initiate (Latin: ‘inicio’)
Unavoidable	Inevitable (Latin: ‘evitare’)
True	Veritable (Latin: ‘veritas’)
Channel	Canal (Latin: ‘canalis’)
Hundred	Century (Latin: ‘centum’)
Head	Capital (Latin: ‘caput’)
Do	Fact (Latin: ‘faccio’)
Keep/carry on	Continue/proceed (Latin: ‘continuare’/ ‘procedere’)
Husband / wife	Spouse (Latin: ‘spondeo’)
Build	Construct (Latin: ‘construo’)
Answer	Respond (Latin: ‘respondere’

English also receives influence from Spanish. Even though some Spaniards find it difficult to speak English, Spanish seems to leave a mark among English speakers. Here you have a list of Spanish words that have successfully entered the English language:

ENGLISH WORDS	SPANISH WORDS EXISTING IN ENGLISH
Nap	Siesta
Party	Fiesta
Canteen	Cafeteria
Coffee shop	Café
Watcher	Vigilante
Alone	Solo
Donkey	Burro
Courtyard	Patio
Friend	Amigo
Village	Pueblo

There are other languages influencing English such as Italian (‘piano’, ‘tempo’…), Greek (‘philosophy’, ‘telephone’, ‘criterion’), Hebrew (‘kibbutz’), but I will speak about them in another post. As you see, the English language is unique but it also borrows a lot of words from other languages, and has a decisive influence over countless languages throughout the world. This is what makes the English language the most generous language of all, don’t you think ?

Give me some homographs

Are you familiar with homographs ? They are words spelt the same but with different meanings. Among them, there are some words which, in addition to having different meaning and the same spelling, they are pronounced differently.  Yes, you have heard right. Homographs are but one of the countless quirks of English ! Here I bring you a small selection of them:

1. Read [ri:d] : Infinitive (to watch at written material). 

    Read [red]: The past and participle of the verb 'read'.  

   E.g. I usually read [ri:d] adventure novels but last week I read [red] a romantic novel and I loved it. 

2. Wind [wɪnd]: Air in motion.

    Wind [waɪnd]: To take a curving direction.

    E. g. The wind [wɪnd] blows hard just where the road winds [waɪndz]. 

3. Wound [waʊnd]: The past and participle of the verb 'wind' 

    Wound [wʊnd]: An injury or to inflict an injury.
E.g. He had wound [waʊnd] some wire and he got a small wound [wʊnd] as a result.

4. Minute ['mɪnɪt]: 60 seconds.

    Minute [maɪ'nju:t]: Very small, either in size or in importance.

 E.g. After thinking for a minute ['mɪnɪt],he realized that was but minute [maɪ'nju:t] problem. 

5. Row [rəʊ] (British) or [roʊ] (American): A line of seats or people, or move a boat in a      river using some sticks. 
    Row [raʊ]: An noisy argument.
E.g. In the front rows [rəʊz] of the theatre there was a big row [raʊ] because of the seats  assigned. 

6. Bow [bəʊ] (British) or [boʊ] (American): The tool or gadget to shoot arrows.

    Bow [raʊ]: To bend your body to greet someone showing respect and courtesy.
    E.g. Robin Hood used to bow [baʊ] his enemies before using his bow [bəʊ].

7. Polish ['pəʊlɪʃ] (British)  ['poʊlɪʃ]: A thing or person from Poland. 

    Polish ['pɒlɪʃ]: To make something smoother by rubbing it. 

    E.g. The Polish ['pəʊlɪʃ] guy polished ['pɒlɪʃt]my nails perfectly well.

8. Tear [tɪə] (British) [tɪɚ] (American): Drops of water emerging from your eyes when you   cry or weep.
   Tear [teə] (British) [teɚ] (American): To pull something apart into pieces by force.

    E.g. You'll burst into tears [tɪəz] when I tear [teə] your skin.

9. Dove [d˄v]: A bird of the pigeon family.

    Dove [doʊv] (American): The American irregular past of the verb 'dive'.

    E.g. The man dove [doʊv] into the water to save the dove [d˄v].

10. Live [lɪv]: To inhabit or dwell in a place. 

      Live [laɪv]: Something happening at the moment in front of people. 

      E.g. Today, we will be able to see how beggars live [lɪv] in the street on live [laɪv] TV.

11. Lives [lɪvz]: Third person singular of the verb 'live' (inhabit or dwell).

     Lives [laɪvz]: The plural of 'life', the period or amount of time of living existence of an individual

     E.g. My cat lives [lɪvz] a happy live and much more in we take into account that cats are said to have nine lives [laɪvz].

12. Stress shifts: Some homographs simply change the stress depending on whether they are nouns or verbs. Here you have some examples:

NOUNS	VERBS
Subject [‘s˄bʤəkt]	Subject [səb’ʤekt]
Research [‘rɪs3:ʧ]	Research [rɪ’s3:ʧ
Import [‘ɪmpɔ:t]	Import [ɪm’pɔ:t]
Conduct [kɒnd˄kt]	Conduct [kən’d˄kt]

Well, did you enjoy these homographs ? As you have seen, homographs make English even a more special language. Feel free to comment ! 

Test your knowledge on irregular verbs

As promised in my post about the quirks of irregular verbs, now you can drop by here to test your knowledge of the different irregular verbs in English. Exercises are graded in degrees of difficulty: level 0 (the usual list you can fin in the most basic books), level 1 (the list that students in 'Bachillerato' receive and study), level 2 (some weird, but somehow familiar, irregular verbs) and level 3 (the most difficult irregular verbs). Have a go at the different tables and tell me in which level you are. Then check your answers down below. Ready, steady, go ! 

Level 0 

INFINITIVE	SIMPLE PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE
Ride
Swim
Read
Blow
Teach
Break
Leave
Bite
Sit
Wake

Level 1

INFINITIVE	SIMPLE PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE
Bleed
Sink
Sweep
Dig
Kneel
Rise
Flee
Bear
Cast
Forbid

Level 2

INFINITIVE	SIMPLE PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE
Dwell
Sting
Beseech
Spit
Sow
Forsake
Bind
Slit
Thrust
Thrive

Level 3

INFINITIVE	SIMPLE PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE
Bereave
Chide
Bid
Slay
Sneak
Crow
Tread
Weave
Shear
Rive

Answers (with the meaning of irregular verbs)

Level 0

INFINITIVE	SIMPLE PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE	MEANING
Ride	Rode	Ridden	To sit on and manage a small vehicle or a small animal, e.g. a horse or a bicycle
Swim	Swam	Swum	To move in the water by using your hands and legs
Read [ri:d]	Read [red]	Read [red]	To look at something written to understand its meaning
Blow	Blew	Blown	To produce air with your mouth
Teach	Taught	Taught	To impart knowledge
Break	Broke	Broken	To fracture and smash something into pieces
Leave	Left	Left	To go out of a place
Bite	Bit	Bitten	To cut something with your teeth
Sit	Sat	Sat	To rest the body on a chair or some kind of seat
Wake	Woke	Woken	The opposite of ‘sleep’

NOTES: 'Ride' is conjugated as 'stride'
               'Swim' is conjugated as 'ring', 'drink', 'begin', 'sink', 'stink' 'spring' and 'shrink'

Level 1

INFINITIVE	SIMPLE PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE	MEANING
Bleed	Bled	Bled	To lose blood
Sink	Sank (or sometimes 'sunk')	Sunk (or 'sunken', especially as an adjective)	To descend into the water involuntarily
Sweep	Swept	Swept	To remove the dust with a broom
Dig	Dug	Dug	To remove earth with a shovel or spade
Kneel	Knelt	Knelt	To lean on your own knees
Rise	Rose	Risen	To move from a lower to higher position
Flee	Fled	Fled	To escape from a danger
Bear	Bore	Borne (born as an adjective)	To give birth, or to support something
Cast	Cast	Cast	To throw or drop something
Forbid	Forbade (or forbad or forbid)	Forbidden (or forbid)	To ban or prohibit

NOTES: 'Kneel' is conjugated as 'weep', 'sweep' and 'creep'

Level 2

INFINITIVE	SIMPLE PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE	MEANING
Dwell	Dwelt/dwelled	Dwelt/dwelled	To live or inhabit
Sting	Stung	stung	To pick someone with a sharp poisonous part of the body, e.g. jellyfish sting with their tentacles
Beseech	Besought/beseeched	Besought/beseeched	To beg or ask urgently
Spit	Spat (or spit)	Spat (or spit)	To expel saliva
Sow	Sowed	Sown (or sowed)	To scatter seeds on the ground for plants to grow
Forsake	Forsook	Forsaken	To abandon
Bind	Bound	Bound	To tie something with a rope or similar or to put a bandage on someone
Slit	Slit	Slit	To cut something deeply
Thrust	Thrust	Thrust	To push forcefully
Thrive	Throve (or thrived)	Thriven (or thrived)	To prosper or grow well, to flourish

NOTES:  'Seek' is conjugated as 'beseech'
                 'Sting' is conjugated as the verbs 'wring', 'swing', 'spin', 'stick', 'slink' and 'fling'
                 'Sow' is conjugated as 'mow' and 'showed'
                 'Bind' is conjugated as 'grind' and 'wind'
                'Strive' is conjugated as 'thrive'

Level 3

INFINITIVE	SIMPLE PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE	MEANING
Bereave	Bereft/bereaved	Bereft/bereaved	To deprive someone of something and make them miserable
Chide	Chid (or chided)	Chidden (or chided)	To nag someone or to express disapproval
Bid	1) Bade 2) Bid	1) Bidden 2) Bid	1) To command or say a greeting 2) To offer a certain amount of money for an object
Slay	Slew	Slain	To kill violently
Sneak	Sneaked/snuck	Sneaked/snuck	To move without being noticed
Crow	Crew (British) / crowed (American)	Crowed	To cry of pleasure
Tread	Trod	Trodden	To step or stomp
Weave	Wove (or weaved)	Woven	To lace thread or something similar together to form a whole
Shear	Sheared	Sheared/shorn	To remove hair from an animal
Rive	Rived	Rived/riven	To tear or rend apart

How did it go ? Did my test make you sweat ? If you want to keep learning more irregular verbs, here you have a list of them. Some verbs are missing (like 'beseech') but it is quite a good list. I hope you keep practising them so as not to forget them !