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Catalan
With Catalan, don’t be tempted to use the few rules of Spanish pronunciation
you may know – in particular the soft Spanish “Z” and “C” don’t apply, so
unlike in the rest of Spain the city is not “Barthelona” but “Barcelona”, as in
English.
LANGUAGE
|
Useful
words and phrases
R
is rolled, “RR” doubly so.
V
sounds more like “B”, “vino” becoming
“beano”.
X
has an “S” sound before consonants, normal
“X” before vowels.
Z
is the same as a soft “C”, so “cerveza”
becomes “thairbaitha”.
A
as in “hat” if stressed, as in alone when
unstressed.
E
varies, but usually as in “get”.
I
as in “police”.
IG
sounds like the “tch” in the English scratch;
“lleig” (ugly) is pronounced “yeah-tch”.
O
a round full sound, when stressed, other-
wise like a soft “U” sound.
U
somewhere between the “U” of “put” and
“rule”.
Ç
sounds like an English “S”; “plaça” is pro-
nounced “plassa”.
C
followed by an “E” or “I” is soft; otherwise
hard.
G
followed by “E” or “I” is like the “zh” in
“Zhivago”; otherwise hard.
H
is always silent.
J
as in the French “Jean”.
L.L
is best pronounced (for foreigners) as a
single “L” sound; but for Catalan speakers it
has two distinct “L” sounds.
LL
sounds like an English “Y” or “LY”, like the
“yuh” sound in “million”.
N
as in English, though before “F” or “V” it
sometimes sounds like an “M”.
NY
corresponds to the Castilian “Ñ”.
QU
before “E” or “I” sounds like “K”, unless
the “U” has an umlaut (Ü), in which case,
and before “A” or “O”, as in “quit”.
R
is rolled, but only at the start of a word; at
the end, it’s often silent.
T
is pronounced as in English, though some-
times it sounds like a “D”; as in “viatge” or
“dotze”.
V
at the start of a word sounds like “B”; in all
other positions it’s a soft “F” sound.
W
is pronounced like a “B/V”.
X
is like “SH” or “CH” in most words, though
in some, like “exit”, it sounds like an “X”.
Z
is like the English “Z” in “zoo”.
Useful words and phrases
Words and phrases below are given in the following order:
English
- Spanish
-
Catalan
.
Basics
Yes, No, OK
Sí, No, Vale
Si, No, Val
Please, Thank you
Por favor, Gracias
Si us plau, Gràcies
Where? When?
Dónde? Cuando?
On? Quan?
What? How much?
Qué? Cuánto?
Què? Quant?
Here, There
Aquí, Allí/Allá
Aquí, Allí/Allá
This, That
Esto, Eso
Això, Allò
Now, Later
Ahora, Más tarde
Ara, Mès tard
Open, Closed
Abierto/a, Cerrado/a
Obert, Tancat
With, Without
Con, Sin
Amb, Sense