English adopted words

 Many English words have their roots from other tongues, or are even directly taken and used, below are a few examples sorted by language of origin, there are thousands of words taken, but i will give you a handful to start;

The most common language for English to be adapted from is french, this is partially due to french being the language of the nobles in England around the 11th century and continued for around 400 years. Most are very similar in spelling if not pronunciation. 

A few examples;

Etiquette (from the french for "little cards") was taken from Versailles where 'little cards' were used by courtiers to keep record of the rules they needed to follow while in court.

Coupons (literally "piece cut off") 

Faux-Pas (false step)

To queue (from the french for "tail") is a very common English past-time

Parachute (almost exactly "protection against a fall")

Sabotage (comes from the french "sabot" which was a french shoe)

Maneuver (literally "to operate with the hand")

Another main language that helped form English as a whole was Proto-Germanic, the precursor to more modern German as olden English comes from a Germanic root;

Delikatessen (proper name for a deli)

Fest (feast, celebration, party)

Hinterland (backwoods)

Kaput (not working, broken)

Poltergeist (ghost)

Wanderlust (pleasure, desire, wanting)

Rucksack (knapsack)

Nosh (small amount of food, or to eat a small amount of food)

As i said, these are just a few words from 2 of the closest languages to English, but on the whole we take words from dozens of other languages including, but not limited to, Latin, French, German, Greek, Dutch, Norse, and Arabic

A little bonus- "Dog"

We aren't certain where this form comes from originally as we have the Latin derivative in our language (canine) and the German (hound) too, as far as people can tell it appeared in middle English as "Docga"

Being an advanced Spanish speaker from a very young age, I was surprised at how much common vocabulary English has with French when I learned it as an adult, and actually found it easier to learn, in some ways, than Spanish. How about you Greg? I see you have both languages on your list.

I learned basic French and German in schschool so can get by with shop requests and directions, my reading is much better than my speaking though as contextual clues are much easier to pick up on.

I'm currently trying to learn Spanish but mainly speak like a baby and find it quite a bit harder as a lot has very different root, also it doesn't help when I'm trying to think of something in Spanish but my brain only provides French words because they sound like they should fit.

Because both dutch and English actually share a common ancestral language there are many similarities, so here's a handful we took from them later on in development;

Coleslaw -from the Dutch word meaning cabbage salad.

Boss -from “baas,” which means master.

Stove -from the Dutch word for heated room.

Booze -from a Dutch word “busen,” meaning to drink in excess.

Cruise -from “kruisen,” meaning to cross.