Learning Spanish & Etymology Pattern-Matching for Nerds

Lanzar and Launch, Lance

Lanzar (Spanish for “to throw, launch”) comes from the Latin lanceare “to pierce with a lance.”

From this root, we can see connections to various English words, including: launch (which is a form of throwing!), lance (it is the stick that they wield to pierce!), and even élan (think of ex-lanceare: to take the energy out of the throw!).

We can see the clear l-n-z to l-n-c (or l-n-ch, in the case of launch) mapping. The -z- and -c- sounds are similar and thus often swap.

what is the etymological way to learn spanish?

Nerds love to pattern-match, to find commonalities among everything. Our approach to learning languages revolves (the same -volve- that is in “volver”, to “return”) around connecting the Spanish words to the related English words via their common etymologies – to find the linguistic patterns, because these patterns become easy triggers to remember what words mean. Want to know more? Email us and ask:
morgan@westegg.com

patterns to help us learn spanish:

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