Look for cognates and borrowings

Russian is related to English. For instance, Russian kinship terms, such as мать, брат, and сестра are cognates of the English mother, brother, and sister, i.e., they come from a common source. Russian has also borrowed many words from English and other languages. Sometimes, a word is adopted without change, for instance, the word брокер, broker. At other times, Russian makes adjustments in the borrowed word to make it conform to its own rules, for instance, the verb интегрировать, integrate was formed by adding the suffix -ировать.

There are 'false' cognates, but they are relatively rare. For instance, фамилия means last name, not family, and магазин means store, not magazine. Sometimes, the differences are more subtle. For example, студент means university student, not high school or elementary school student.