"father" in seven languages
Meaningfather
Spanish
padre
/ˈpadɾe/
masc.inherited
French
père
/pɛʁ/
masc.inherited
Italian
padre
/ˈpadre/
masc.inherited
Portuguese
pai
/paj/
masc.inherited
Romanian
tată
/ˈtatə/
masc.other source · nursery word (Latin TATA 'daddy')
A masculine noun that ends like a feminine: tatăl meu 'my father'.
Catalan
pare
/ˈpaɾə/
masc.inherited
English
father
/ˈfɑðɚ/
Indo-European kin · PIE *ph₂tḗr
English → ItalianfatherpadreDistant cognateRelated only through Indo-European, thousands of years back (night ~ noche). But English has relatives: paternal, patron, patriot.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
PATREM‘father’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Same journey as madre / mère: PATREM → padre, père. The t survives in learned words — paternal, patria, patrie — the 'fatherland'.
English relatives: paternal, patron, patriot
Sound laws at work
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In a sentence
- esMi padre trabaja en un banco.
- frMon père travaille dans une banque.
- itMio padre lavora in banca.
- ptMeu pai trabalha num banco.
- roTatăl meu lucrează la o bancă.
- caEl meu pare treballa en un banc.
- enMy father works in a bank.