New to Esperanto? Read our introduction to the internacia lingvo.
Devised to be as comprehensible as possible for the maximum number of people the world over, Esperanto possesses many cognates which facilitate learning and comprehension of the language. The following is a brief overview of the linguistic diversity of Esperanto vocabulary. It does not include neologisms (telefono, radio), international words (kafo, tomato) or culture-specific vocabulary (hibaksxo, igloo etc.)
| Esperanto | Cognate | Language | Translation |
| jes, birdo, najbaro | yes, bird, neighbour | English | - |
| mangxi, saluton, ajlo | manger, salut, ail | French | to eat, hi, garlic |
| fraulino, tag | Fr�ulein, Tag | German | young woman, day |
| cxielo, libro, voli | cielo, libro, volere | Italian | sky, book, to want |
| senjoro, amiko | se�or, amigo | Spanish | mister, friend |
| domo, talio | dom, taliya | Russian | house, waist |
| pilko | pilka | Polish | ball |
| viro | vyras | Lithuanian | man |
| akvo | aqua | Latin | water |
| kaj | kai | Greek | and |
| kelnero, horlogxo | kelner, horloge | Dutch | waiter, watch |
| kimrujo | cymru | Welsh | Wales |
| peruko | peruca | Portuguese | wig |
| nipono | nippon | Japanese | Japan |
| suomio | suomi | Finnish | Finland |
| hundo | hund | Norwegian | dog |
| volo | v�le | Slovak | will, desire |
