[davidgay]

There's plenty of obvious cognates. Without thinking too much, with rather rusty German, and from your comment:

I = ich

have = habe

hear = hören

before = bevor [in some meanings to be fair]

and = und

[Your first half sentence is a good example :)]

is = ist

can = können [and in general the whole can/können, shall/sollen, will/wollen connection - though the meanings have drifted a bit apart]

when = wenn

learn = lernen

see = seeen

word = wort

More generally, my experience is that literal (i.e., word-for-word) translations from German to English sound weird, but often comprehensible, while literal translations from French usually end up as gibberish.