As @marinelife mentions, it’s about where the language originated from or developed from. The Romance languages are rooted in Latin (Rome). English is Germanic – but it is heavily influenced by Romance language elements (mainly coming from the Roman occupation of the island back in the day).
Much of the influence is from word-borrowing and some conjugations. The difference is mainly about grammar and syntax than about anything involving the “sound” of the language. English, for instance, doesn’t attribute masculine or feminine characteristics to nouns. Romance languages generally do.