Before I started learning German, I expected to find a lot in common with English, but I was a bit disillusioned when I realized that I didn't have the same advanced vocabulary bonus I got with Spanish (e.g. tangible and tangible but in German beruhrbar). I was, however, pleasantly surprised to see some (primarily grammatical) similarities with Spanish. For fun I made a list of similarities. Feel free to make corrections or add on. I know much of this list explains how English is "un-european" more than anything else.
-same word for tomorrow and morning "morgen" and "mañana"
-subjunctive "I want him to go" vs "I want that he goes"
-verb for "to like" gustar and gefallen (yes I know there is also mogen)
-two verbs for English "to know"
-one verb for to do/make
-I have hunger/thirst instead of am hungry
-similar conjugations like the 1st and 3rd being the same in the past tense (imperfect in spanish)
-way of expressing have been phrases "Soy maestro desde hace un año" and "Ich bin Lehrer seit einem Jahr"
-position of the word "ago" "vor einem Jahr" and "hace un año"
-liberal usage of definite articles (though Spanish uses them more)
-gerund is the infinitive
-suffix to mark infinitive rather than a preposition
-some random vocab like funktionieren and funcionar or probar and probieren
-Occasional omission of indefinite articles where they exist in English
I am a teacher
Ich bin Lehrer
Soy maestro
English had 'to know' and 'to wit' they are the same as kennen/wissen and the same idea/function as saber/conocer.
Morgen/man~ana has it's English counterpart 'morrow'. I will do that in the morrow. that is to-morrow.
The dative is the same in Eng as in German, but in Eng it is only on the pronouns. I read that it was simplified when we got so confused with the similar but different dialects/grammar during the Danelaw times.
Also, it's very common to say I'm hungry (Ich bin hungrig.)
