Latin language/Conjugation Talk

Note that the similarity between English is and Latin est is not a mere coincidence, but rather one of the consequences of them having a distant common ancestor

Are you sure about that ? Their common ancestor is quite distant (3000-4000 years) and most often used words change very fast. --Taw

Look in any etymological dictionary and you will see that it is correct. There are many other examples of Latin words which still resemble their English cognates (mater & mother, or sex & six, for example). Some words don't change much even over such long periods of time. --Zundark, 2001 Dec 6