pronúncia · pronunciation
What gives a learner away most isn't the grammar: it's how they sound. There are only a few sounds, they can be learned one at a time, and this page teaches them with the examples you study inside the course.
The Catalan sounds that English lacks or spells differently, with examples, their respelling and their phonetic alphabet.
Catalan vowels don't always sound the way they're written. Central Catalan has seven in stressed syllables and, outside them, reduces them: “a” and “e” fade into a neutral vowel and “o” closes into “u”. English does something similar with the “a” in “about”, but Catalan does it by rule, and reading every vowel clearly, as you would in Spanish, is the first thing people notice.
Consonants are less trouble, but a few are written with letters that mean something else in English: the “ll” of “llibre”, the “x” that sounds “sh”, the “j” that sounds like the “s” in “measure”, the “s” that buzzes, the “ny” of “canyon”. And some letters are written but not pronounced, like the “r” in “parlar” or the “t” in “molt”.
What's taught is the pronunciation of central Catalan, the one used by the Catalan voices on phones and computers. Balearic and Valencian have their own, and the units point out where it differs.
Every example comes from the course's theory units: how it's written in Catalan, how it's respelled for English readers, its phonetic alphabet and what it means.
In central Catalan, unstressed “a” and “e” don't sound clear: they fade into a weak vowel, with the mouth relaxed, like the “a” in “about”, which the phonetic alphabet writes “ə” and the respelling “uh”. That's why “casa” and “pare” end with the same sound. It's the most frequent vowel in central Catalan.
The other rule for unstressed vowels: “o” closes up to “u”, the “oo” of “food”. It's still written “o”, so you can see the word family (“porta”, “porter”), but it's said “u”. “i” and “u” don't change, stressed or not.
Stressed “e” and “o” come in two versions: a closed one, written “ay” and “oh” in the respelling, and an open one, with the mouth wider, heading towards “a”, written “eh” and “aw”. They change words: “bé” is “well” and “be”, “lamb”. When they carry an accent, the grave marks the open one and the acute, the closed one.
A single sound, with the middle of the tongue pressed against the palate, like the “lli” in “million”, which Catalan keeps distinct from “y”. It often comes at the start of a word, where Spanish has a plain “l”: “llibre”, “lluna”, “llengua”. It also comes in the middle and at the end: “illa”, “cavall”.
Two l's with a middle dot between them. They're pronounced as a lengthened “l” and, in fast speech, almost as a single one. It appears in many words that English also spells with “ll”: “col·legi” (compare “college”), “intel·ligent”. It isn't “ll”: it's two “l” sounds, not a different one.
“ny” is a single sound, the Spanish “ñ”, very close to the “ny” in “canyon”. It comes in the middle of words, as in “Catalunya”, and also at the end, where English never has it: “any”, “companys”. Reading it as “n” followed by a separate “y”, the way English reads “any”, is a typical beginner's mistake.
“x” at the start of a word, after a consonant and in “ix” sounds like English “sh”, and in “ix” the “i” isn't pronounced in central Catalan: “caixa” is said almost KAH-shuh. In learned words, between vowels, it sounds “ks” or “gz”, as in “taxi” or “examen”.
“tx” is the everyday “ch” of “church”: “cotxe” is said KAW-chuh, with the final vowel faded. At the end of a word and after a vowel, “ig” sounds the same, and the “i” isn't heard: “maig”, “passeig”, “Puig”.
A single sound: a voiced “ch”, like the “j” in “jeans”. It's written “tg” before “e” or “i” and “tj” before “a”, “o”, “u”, following the same rule as “g” and “j”: “metge”, but “platja”. The “t” isn't pronounced separately.
Catalan “j” is neither the “j” of “jeans” nor the Spanish jota. “j”, and “g” before “e” or “i”, sound like the “s” in “measure” or the French “j”, a voiced “sh”: “jove”, “gent”, “Girona”. Saying them like the “j” in “jeans”, or like the Spanish jota, is one of the things that stands out most in beginners.
A single “s” between vowels, “z”, and a final “s” before a vowel are voiced, like the “z” in “zoo” or the “s” in “rose”. For the voiceless sound between vowels, “ss” is written. It changes words: “casa” (house), with a voiced s, isn't “caça” (hunting), with the voiceless one.
The “ce trencada” sounds like a voiceless “s”, as in “sun”. It's written where a “c” would sound “k”: before “a”, “o”, “u” and at the end of a word. Before “e” or “i” it isn't needed, because there “c” already sounds “s”, as in English, and never like the Spanish “z”, the “th” of “think”.
In central Catalan, the final “r” of infinitives and of many other words isn't pronounced: “parlar” is said puhr-LAH, and “carrer”, kuh-RRAY. Nor is a final “t” heard after “l” or “n”: “molt”, “Sant Jordi”. And “h” on its own, as in Spanish, is never pronounced.
Under every example, every phrase and every word in the course, how it sounds is written out in two ways. Everyone chooses the one they prefer in “Your account”, and can change it whenever they like.
It writes the sound with English letters, so you can read it without learning anything first: the stressed syllable in capitals, “uh” for the neutral vowel, “oo” for unstressed “o”, “sh” for “x”, “zh” for “j”, “j” for “tg”, “ly” for “ll” and “ny” for “ny”. It's an approximation, although it does tell open vowels (“eh”, “aw”) from closed ones (“ay”, “oh”).
The symbols used in dictionaries and phonetics textbooks, in square brackets and with a mark before the stressed syllable. It's exact: it tells open “e” [ɛ] from closed [e], open “o” [ɔ] from closed [o], and marks the neutral vowel [ə]. It takes a little effort to learn, and in return it works for any language.
Some phrases from the first lessons, with their full pronunciation. Notice how the words link up: the “s” that buzzes before a vowel, the “t” that isn't heard, the “n” that turns into “ng” before a “k”.
Bon dia
bawn DEE-uh
[bɔn ˈdi.ə]
Good morning
Com et dius?
kawm uht deews
[kɔm ət diws]
What's your name?
Molt de gust
mohl duh goost
[mol də ɣust]
Pleased to meet you
Quants anys tens?
kwahnz ahnys tehns
[kwanz aɲs tɛns]
How old are you?
És un quart de deu
ehz oong kwahr duh dehw
[ɛz uŋ kwaɾ də ðɛw]
It's quarter past nine
Ens veiem dissabte al matí
uhnz buh-YEHM dee-SAHP-tuh uhl muh-TEE
[ənz βəˈjɛm diˈsaptə əl məˈti]
See you on Saturday morning
The first A1 theory units are the ones on sounds, with their tables, their examples and their mini-quiz. After that, the pronunciation stays written under every example, every phrase and every word.
If you only learn one thing about Catalan pronunciation, make it this: in central Catalan, unstressed vowels don't sound like stressed ones. Unstressed “a” and “e” fade into the neutral vowel, and unstressed “o” sounds “u”. “i” and “u” don't change. With that rule you can read almost any word aloud, and the difference is heard at once: “Barcelona” doesn't sound bar-seh-LOH-nah, with every vowel clear, but buhr-suh-LOH-nuh, with the “a” and the “e” faded.
To apply it you need to know which syllable is stressed. The written accent helps, with rules much like those of Spanish and some differences in words stressed on the last syllable: “Ramon” or “Joan” carry no accent even though they are. Once you've found the stress, the rest of the word relaxes. A good exercise is to take words from the same family whose stress moves (“porta” and “porter”, “terra” and “terrassa”, “mar” and “mariner”) and say them one after the other, hearing how the vowel changes colour when it loses the stress.
In stressed syllables, central Catalan has seven vowels: “a”, “i”, “u”, and two versions each of “e” and “o”. The closed one is close to the “ay” of “say” or the “oh” of “go”, without the glide; the open one is said with the mouth wider, heading towards “a”, like the “e” in “bed” or the “aw” in “saw”. It isn't a regional accent: it changes words. “Bé”, with a closed “e”, means “well”, and “be”, with an open “e”, means “lamb”; “dona”, with an open “o”, means “woman”, and with a closed “o”, “gives”.
The bad news is that, without a written accent, the spelling doesn't say which it is: “porta” has an open “o” and “dos” a closed one, and you learn them by ear. The good news is that mixing them up rarely stops people understanding you, so there's no need to obsess over it at first. First the neutral vowel and the “o” that sounds “u”, which are the most noticeable; then, little by little, the open vowels, listening a lot and paying attention to the accent when there is one: the grave marks the open vowel and the acute, the closed one.
Most consonants cause little trouble, but a few mislead precisely because they're written with familiar letters. “j”, and “g” before “e” or “i”, aren't the “j” of “jeans” but the sound of the “s” in “measure”. “z” and a single “s” between vowels buzz. “v” sounds like “b” in central Catalan. “x” usually sounds “sh”. And “c” before “e” or “i” is always “s”, as in English, never the “th” of the Spanish “z”, which Catalan doesn't have.
Then there are the combinations English doesn't have or spells differently: “ny” is the “ny” of “canyon”, “ll” is a sound of its own, like the “lli” in “million”, “l·l” is two l's, “tx” is the “ch” of “church”, and “tg” or “tj” are a voiced “ch”, like the “j” in “jeans”. Final “ig” also sounds “ch”. Learning to read these combinations takes a few days; saying them without thinking takes longer, and it helps to repeat aloud words that contain them: “any”, “llibre”, “col·legi”, “cotxe”, “metge”, “maig”.
Nobody speaks word by word, and Catalan links words a lot. A final “s” is voiced before a vowel: “els amics” is said with an “s” that buzzes, uhlz uh-MEEKS. Final consonants adapt to the one that follows: in “és un quart”, the “n” of “un” is pronounced like the “n” in “bank”, because a “k” comes next. And some final consonants disappear inside the sentence. That's why the pronunciation of every phrase in the course is written out whole, as it's said, and not word by word.
This matters as much for speaking as for listening. If you learn words on their own, you're surprised not to recognise them in a conversation, because inside a sentence they no longer sound the same. What helps is hearing whole sentences, repeating them while imitating the rhythm and reading their full respelling or phonetic alphabet, to see where the words link up and which letters go unpronounced. In time, your ear learns to split the sentence by itself, and your mouth, to join it up.
Pronunciation isn't a separate section: it comes with everything you study, so you learn it along with the words.
Theory and history examples, lesson phrases and vocabulary words all carry their pronunciation, as a respelling or in IPA.
With your system's Catalan voice, and more slowly when you need to catch a sound.
You say the lesson phrases out loud, and the browser's speech recognition tells you whether you got there.
A weak vowel, halfway between “a” and “e”, said with the mouth relaxed, like the “a” in “about”, which the phonetic alphabet writes “ə”. In central Catalan, unstressed “a” and “e” have it: that's why “casa” and “pare” end with the same sound. In València and Lleida those vowels don't merge and sound clear.
If it has an accent, the accent tells you: the grave, “è” and “ò”, marks the open one, and the acute, “é” and “ó”, the closed one. If there's no written accent, the spelling doesn't tell you, and you learn it by ear or from the dictionary, word by word. The respelling marks them (“eh” and “aw” are the open ones, “ay” and “oh” the closed ones), and so does the phonetic alphabet: [ɛ] and [ɔ] are the open ones.
Neither. “ll” is a sound of its own, with the middle of the tongue pressed against the palate, like the “lli” in “million”, and Catalan keeps it distinct from “y”. “Llibre”, “lluna” and “llengua” begin with that sound. Saying it as a “y” or a plain “l” is understood, but it's noticed at once, just like confusing it with the “l·l” of “col·legi”, which is two l's.
Almost always like English “sh”: at the start of a word (“xocolata”), after a consonant (“marxar”) and in “ix” (“caixa”), where the “i” isn't pronounced in central Catalan. In learned words, between vowels, it sounds “ks” or “gz”, as in “taxi” or “examen”. And the “tx” of “cotxe” is the “ch” of “church”.
Because in central Catalan the final “r” of infinitives, and of many words ending in “-r”, has been lost in speech although it's still written: “parlar” is said puhr-LAH, and “senyor”, suh-NYOH. In other words it is pronounced, as in “mar” or “car”, and in much of Valencian the “r” of infinitives is pronounced.
An “s” with the voice vibrating, like the “z” in “zoo” or the “s” in “rose”, which in Catalan changes words: “casa” (house), with a voiced s, isn't “caça” (hunting), with the voiceless one. A single “s” between vowels sounds like this, and so do “z” and a final “s” before a word starting with a vowel, as in “els amics”. For the voiceless sound between vowels, “ss” is written.
No. The respelling is written with the letters of the app's language, so it can be read without learning anything first, and what works for someone who reads English doesn't work for someone who reads Spanish. If you use the app in Spanish you see a respelling designed for Spanish speakers. The International Phonetic Alphabet, on the other hand, is the same in both languages.
That of central Catalan, which is the pronunciation of Barcelona and much of Catalunya, and that of the Catalan voices that come with phones and computers, so what you read and what you hear match. Where Balearic or Valencian pronounce things differently (the neutral vowel, unstressed “o”, “v”), the units explain it in a note, so you can recognise it when you hear it.
The 39 lessons, with how each one is listened to, said and written.
The course's words broken down by level, type and topic, with a sample from each topic and the false friends.
The 39 theory units, with their sections and their mini-quiz.
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