Olivier Rychner
Teacher and amateur photographer
Because basically (and of course in my usual over-summarizing style), English is German that has spent 500 years evolving apart from the rest of German, on its island, then was subjugated by people who spoke French, or Norman French, then evolved again for about a millenium, which is awfully long but not that long for a language to keep traces of its closest cousin.
You mention some examples, there are more:
How old are you? is literally Wie alt bist du? Word for word.
Eight is acht. Daughter is Tochter. Night is Nacht. Day is Tag, and don’t laugh, because it is the same word. Iron is Eisen. Son is Sohn. House is Haus.
German is on the same branch of the great family tree of languages, English is just a bit further out.
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