something very strange.....

I'm studying French. I had a pretty good dream recall last night. I know in my dream I was in this palace and I woke up in the middle of the night really drowsy to do something. When I came back to bed in my dream, it felt as though that was what helped me to remember: being drowsy and going back to sleep. When I was about to fall asleep, I whispered something that sounded like "cognate". When I woke up from my dream, naturally, I thought this was a French word. I had a feeling it meant 1st. I looked it up on an online translator and it didn't work. Then I tried "cognait" instead of "cognate" and I got the word "knocked". Why did I say knocked in French before I fell asleep in my dream? Has something similiar to this ever happened to anyone?

The word cognate means a word that is the same and means the same thing in two languages. Maybe in the palace dream, someone mentioned said a word in French or something and the word was a congnate to a word in English and then you said that. Or maybe I'm entirely wrong.

EDIT: Or maybe even the word that was said in your dream meant first and was a congnate or something.

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Originally posted by another_exodus
I'm studying French. I had a pretty good dream recall last night. I know in my dream I was in this palace and I woke up in the middle of the night really drowsy to do something. When I came back to bed in my dream, it felt as though that was what helped me to remember: being drowsy and going back to sleep. When I was about to fall asleep, I whispered something that sounded like \"cognate\". When I woke up from my dream, naturally, I thought this was a French word. I had a feeling it meant 1st. I looked it up on an online translator and it didn't work. Then I tried \"cognait\" instead of \"cognate\" and I got the word \"knocked\". Why did I say knocked in French before I fell asleep in my dream? Has something similiar to this ever happened to anyone?

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Now I'm trying to learn Mandarin Chinese, but for the longest time I was reading French. Yes, 'cogner' -- to knock, or se' cogner -- ' to bump one's head'. What I think your Dream was doing was rather to suggest the English derivatives, of which there are several possibilites -- one from the Latin is 'cognate' which suggests relationship or coming from similar roots. and then there is Cognition -- to know.

I've had various dreams like this! (and I study french too...)
In the latest one i dreamt that a friend of mine (she's italian) was speaking to me in either italian or spanish. She said the following words:
Somnivera (which in the dream meant sleep)
Parco essarcio (which meant stomach)

I dreamt I checked the words in a dictionary and they meant just what I thought they did.
In real life I could only find one of the words, Parco, in italian and spanish and it meant "moderate" and "park".

Languages really don't matter in dreams. Usually, i understand what people say in dreams even if I've never heard anything like it before.

I'm not sure what your dream could have meant, maybe you somehow put two known words together and formed your own? I know that sometimes happens for me anyway.

thanks for replying