Intermediate
60 mins
Teacher/Student led
+80 XP

Words That Look Like Cousins

Today you will explore animal names in five languages to see which ones share similar spellings and sounds. Through listening activities and sorting tasks, you will learn about language patterns and shared roots.

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    1 - You Already Know More Than You Think ~5 mins

    Imagine you are reading cage signs at Dublin Zoo and the same animal keeps popping up in English, Irish, French, German and Spanish. You already know more words in other languages than you think. Today we will prove it with three animals.

    Quick teaser: is gift in English the same as Gift in German? Hold that thought. We will meet true cousins and words that only pretend to match.

    By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

    • Spot animal words that look and sound alike across languages
    • Tell true cousin words from ones that only pretend to match
    • Talk about what shared words can tell us about people

    2 - Three Animals, Five Languages ~10 mins

    We are reading cage signs for three animals in five languages. Watch and listen as we play each animal across English, Irish, French, German and Spanish. Look for words that look almost the same. Which letters keep turning up?

    3 - True Cousins or Just Lookalikes? ~10 mins

    Some words really are cousins and share a meaning. Others only look alike and mean something different. For each pair we will vote together: thumbs up = true cousins, thumbs sideways = only a lookalike. Then we reveal and check what the note says.

    4 - Cousin Pairs in Your Copy ~3 mins

    COPYBOOK MOMENT

    Keep the board list in view. From what you can see, copy two true cousin pairs and one pretend pair. Label the pretend pair. You are copying from the model, not spelling from memory.

    Write it like this:

    • Cousins: English tiger / German Tiger
    • Cousins: English elephant / French éléphant
    • Pretend: English gift / German Gift (looks alike, means poison)

    You may use these models or other labelled pairs still on the board, as long as you have two true cousins and one pretend pair.

    5 - Animal Bingo Across Languages ~10 mins

    You will get a bingo card (on screen or on paper). Each square shows one animal picture with one written form of that animal in one of our five languages. Listen as if the zoo guide is calling cage names. Cross off a square when you hear a match for that square (same animal and same written form, or the matching picture if your card uses pictures). First full line stands and says Bingo, then reads two crossed squares and says the animal in English.

    Pupil practice
    Module 3 · How Languages Work
    Lesson 15 · Words That Look Like Cousins
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