Is English Really a Germanic Language?

English vocabulary has been highly influenced by Romance languages but English was originally a Germanic language.

Of the English vocabulary, about half of the words are Romance words but Germanic words tend to predominate in casual, everyday conversation.



I thought I would run some of the examples from the video through a Microsoft translator:

English: Cow
German: Kuh (similar)
Danish: Ko (similar)

English: Pig
German: Schwein (similar to English swine)
Danish: Gris (different)

English: Sheep
German: Schaf (similar)
Danish: Får (different)


English: Snail
German: Schnecke (kind of similar)
Danish: Sneglen (similar)


English: The good king
German: Der gute König (similar)
Danish: Den gode konge (similar)


English: The good queen
German: Die gute Königin (similar; Königin is the feminine form of König (king))
Danish: Den gode dronning (The first two words are similar. The word for queen is different.)


English: I had lunch with my friend and we read some books.
German: Ich hatte mit meinem Freund zu Mittag gegessen und wir lasen einige Bücher.
Danish: Jeg spiste frokost med min ven, og vi læste nogle bøger.

I see parallels in the last example, but to someone with no background in German, the parallels might be more difficult to see.

ADDENDUM:

I thought I would run the examples above through Google Translate to get the words and phrases for Dutch and Frisian.

English: Cow
Dutch: Koe
Frisian: Cow


English: Pig
Dutch: varken
Frisian: baarch


English: Sheep
Dutch: schapen
Frisian: skiep


English: Snail
Dutch: slak
Frisian: slak


English: The good king
Dutch: De goede koning
Frisian: De goede kening


English: The good queen
Dutch: De goede koningin
Frisian: De goede keninginne


English: I had lunch with my friend and we read some books.
Dutch: Ik heb geluncht met mijn vriend en we hebben wat boeken gelezen.
Frisian: Ik hie lunsj by myn freon en wy lêze wat boeken.