(Credit: Travelerpix/Shutterstock)

What are were your first words? Odds are, if you grew up in the United States speaking English, these words were nouns. Nouns like mama, dada, a favorite animal or food (or “lawnmower,” if my father is to be believed). But in languages like Korean and Mandarin Chinese, babies’ first words are more often verbs like “go” and “want.”

New research suggests these differences in early word learning might lead toddlers down different paths toward understanding