Das Sprachenlabor · The Language Lab
Deutsch ist näher, als du denkst.
German is closer than you think.
Discover how English, French, Spanish and German connect through shared words, common roots and surprising linguistic patterns.
Vier Sprachen. Gemeinsame Wurzeln. Neue Verbindungen.
DE
Deutsch
EN
English
FR
Français
ES
Español
Tap any word to explore it.
Täglich
Heute im Labor
Today's cognate discoveries
Pattern of the day
-logy → -logie
biology → Biologie
Mini-quiz
Spanish for helfen?
Explorer
Der Vier-Sprachen-Explorer
369 curated entries — a growing collection, not an exhaustive dictionary
369 of 369 entries
Classification
Wie verwandt?
How related are they?
Erbwort
Inherited from a common ancestor language (e.g. Proto-Germanic), so English and German share it by descent.
Internationalismus
Shared Latin or Greek learned vocabulary that spread through scholarship, science and administration.
Lehnwort
Borrowed from another language (often English, French or Italian) — similar because it travelled, not inherited.
Teilverwandt
Shares a root with some languages, but at least one language uses a different word, form or meaning.
Falscher Freund
Looks familiar but means something different — handle with care.
Pattern Lab
Rechtschreibmuster
Spelling patterns you can predict
Deutsch
-tion
Information
English
-tion
information
Français
-tion
information
Español
-ción
información
Use it: Very reliable for nouns. German nouns in -tion are always feminine: die Nation.
Exception: English 'attention' → German Aufmerksamkeit is more natural than Attention.
A helpful pattern, not a universal rule.
Pattern Detective · 0 solved
Français word:
l'efficacité
What's the German word?
Signature experience
Die Wort-Konstellation
The Cognate Constellation
Innovation
Deutsch
die Innovation
A new idea, method or product put into practice.
Word family
innovativ (innovative) · der Innovator (innovator) · innovieren (to innovate, rare)
Related
die Erfindung — invention · der Fortschritt — progress · die Forschung — research
Spelling
Spanish -ción carries an accent; otherwise identical.
Deutschland investiert viel in Innovation.
Germany invests a lot in innovation.
Very frequent in business German: Innovationskraft, Innovationsmanagement.
Falsche Freunde
The False Friends Trap
Looks familiar… but is it?
Falsche Freunde · 1/16 · DE–EN
das Gift
Does it mean “a present”?
Satzstudio
Multilingual Sentence Studio
One idea, four languages
DE Deutsch
Die Universität fördert Innovation und Kreativität.
EN English
The university promotes innovation and creativity.
FR Français
L'université favorise l'innovation et la créativité.
ES Español
La universidad fomenta la innovación y la creatividad.
Highlighted: shared words. The rest differ. Translations are natural, not literal.
German uses no article before abstract nouns in a list (Innovation und Kreativität); French and Spanish keep l'/la. Verb fördern is native German; French favoriser and Spanish fomentar are Latin.
Build it in German
Mein Heft
Mein Kognaten-Heft
My cognate notebook with spaced review
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