Benefits of Vocabulary of Latin Origin for the Learners of Swedish and Danish

Latin and Greek are primary donor languages to Swedish and Danish, which do not belong to the Romance but Germanic languages. The present study conducted a vocabulary survey to examine the advantage of frequently used Swedish and Danish vocabulary of Latin or Greek origin and their English equivalents for learning Swedish and Danish. The Oxford 3000 list was used as the primary reference of high-frequency English words. As a result, 556 loanwords of Latin or Greek origin are included in the most frequently used 3,000 Swedish and Danish words and approximately 430 loanwords can be used with a similar pronunciation in English. Therefore, the present study concluded that knowledge of most used Swedish and Danish vocabulary of Greek or Latin origin could help speakers of English learn Swedish and Danish.