Originally, this list of words was from our Spanish pages. We will add words from French, German and Portuguese to it. This will be a good time to show that when going from one language to another, the correspondence between verbs is not one to one. One language may define a verb for an action, and another may split that action into two or more verbs. For example, the Spanish "nadar" only tells you that someone is in the water, whereas, in English we split this into "swim" and "float", depending on if the person is using their arms and legs, or just positioning themself motionlessly.

to ask (a favor)	pedir (un favor)	demander (un service)	pedir (um favor)	um zu fragen (eine Gunst)
to ask (a question)	preguntar (una pregunta)	poser (une question)	perguntar (uma pregunta)	um zu fragen (eine Frage)
to be (permanent condition)	ser	être	ser	sein
to be (temperary conditions)	estar	être	estar	sein
to dream	soñar	rêver	sonhar	träumen
to drink	beber	boire	beber	trinken
to eat	comer	manger	comer	essen
to embrace	abrazar	embrasser	abraçar	umarmen
to have	tener	avoir	ter	haben
to live	vivir	vivre	viver	leben
to love	amar	aimer	amar	lieben
to make	hacer	faire	fazer	machen
to ought to, must	deber	devoir	dever	müssen
to pick	coger	choisir	escolher	auszuwählen
to put	poner	mettre	pôr	setzen
to run	correr	courir	correr	laufen
to say	decir	dire	dizer	sagen
to see	ver	voir	ver	sehen
to sleep	dormirse	dormir	dormir	schlafen
to swim	nadar	nager	nadar	schwimmen
to understand	entender	comprendre	entender	verstehen
to walk	caminar	marcher	caminhar	gehen
to want	querer	vouloir	querer	wollen
to write	escribir	écrire	escrever	schreiben