Latín

Latín (Latin) was the language of ancient Rome, spoken throughout the Roman Empire. It gave rise to many other languages — known as lenguas romances ("Romance languages") — including Spanish (español), French, Italian, Galician, Portuguese, and others. It is a dead language today, meaning it is no longer spoken as the native tongue of any country or region.

For English speakers learning Spanish, Latin is important to know about because most Spanish words come from it — and so do roughly half of English words (though English got many of them indirectly, through French). This is why Spanish words often look familiar to English speakers: familia / "family", importante / "important", estación / "station".