By level
| A1 | 499 |
|---|---|
| A2 | 360 |
| B1 | 229 |
| B2 | 24 |
| Total | 1,112 |
vocabulari · vocabulary
Catalan vocabulary, by topic and by level
The words you study in the course, with their meaning, their level and their topic. Many look familiar, especially if you know some Spanish; the tricky ones are those that look alike and don't mean the same.
The course's words broken down by level, type and topic, with a sample from each topic and the false friends.
What vocabulary you study
The course vocabulary is designed for talking about everyday life: family, food, home, the town, work, shopping, time and weather, what you feel and what you think. Each word has its level from A1 to B2, its type (verb, noun, adjective, expression…) and a topic, so you can study one block at a time instead of an endless list.
Besides the meaning, each word comes with what you need to use it: the gender and plural of nouns, the feminine of adjectives, the irregular forms of verbs, and how it sounds, as a respelling or in the phonetic alphabet, with its audio. It isn't a dictionary: it's what's worth knowing first, arranged for learning.
Each word's level is a guideline from the course, not that of any official exam, and the Catalan of every word is still awaiting review by a native speaker.
How the words break down
The figures come from the app's data: they're the words inside it today.
By word type
| Verbs | 175 |
|---|---|
| Nouns | 546 |
| Adjectives | 134 |
| Adverbs | 59 |
| Pronouns and determiners | 39 |
| Prepositions and conjunctions | 36 |
| Numbers | 40 |
| Expressions | 83 |
A sample from each topic
The first words of each topic, just as they appear in the app: the word in Catalan, what it means and its level.
People and family 41 words
- pare father A1
- mare mother A1
- fill son A1
- filla daughter A1
- germà brother A1
- germana sister A1
Body and health 60 words
- cap head, boss A1
- cara face A1
- ull eye A1
- orella ear A1
- nas nose A1
- boca mouth A1
Food and drink 103 words
- menjar to eat A1
- beure drink A1
- esmorzar have breakfast A1
- dinar have lunch A1
- sopar have dinner A1
- berenar have an afternoon snack A2
The house 65 words
- pis flat, storey A1
- habitació room, bedroom A1
- cuina kitchen A1
- bany bathroom A1
- menjador dining room A1
- sala d'estar living room, lounge A2
Town and transport 61 words
- ciutat city, town A1
- poble village, town A1
- carrer street A1
- plaça square A1
- barri neighbourhood, district A1
- cantonada corner A2
Time and calendar 69 words
- dia day A1
- setmana week A1
- mes month A1
- any year A1
- hora hour A1
- minut minute A1
Nature and weather 63 words
- sol sun A1
- lluna moon A1
- estrella star A2
- cel sky A1
- núvol cloud A2
- pluja rain A1
Work and study 55 words
- feina work, job, task A1
- treball work, job A2
- oficina office A1
- empresa company, firm A2
- sou salary, wages A2
- reunió meeting A2
Clothes and shopping 53 words
- roba clothes A1
- camisa shirt A1
- samarreta T-shirt A1
- pantalons trousers A1
- faldilla skirt A1
- vestit dress, suit A1
Leisure and culture 46 words
- cinema cinema A1
- pel·lícula film, movie A1
- teatre theatre A1
- concert concert A2
- música music A1
- cançó song A1
Feelings and personality 45 words
- content happy, pleased A1
- feliç happy A1
- trist sad A1
- enfadat angry, cross A1
- nerviós nervous A2
- tranquil calm, quiet A2
Speaking and thinking 49 words
- parlar speak, talk A1
- dir say, tell A1
- explicar explain, tell A1
- preguntar ask A1
- respondre answer, reply A2
- contestar answer, reply A2
Society and paperwork 32 words
- país country A1
- govern government B1
- llei law B1
- dret right, law (as a subject) B1
- vot vote B1
- eleccions elections B1
Everyday actions 68 words
- ser be (identity, qualities) A1
- estar be (states, conditions) A1
- tenir have A1
- haver-hi there is, there are A1
- fer do, make A1
- anar go A1
What things are like 75 words
- gran big, elderly A1
- petit small A1
- alt tall, high A1
- baix short, low A1
- gros fat, thick A2
- prim thin, slim A2
Place, quantity and time 36 words
- aquí here A1
- allà there A1
- a prop near, close by A1
- lluny far, far away A1
- dins inside A2
- fora outside A2
Function words 115 words
- jo I A1
- tu you (informal) A1
- ell he, him A1
- nosaltres we, us A1
- vosaltres you (plural) A1
- ells they, them A1
Set phrases 76 words
- bon dia good morning A1
- bona tarda good afternoon A1
- bon vespre good evening A2
- bona nit good night, good evening A1
- hola hello, hi A1
- adeu goodbye, bye A1
Words that trick you
Some “True or false” cards, with their answer and the reason: the ones about words that look like a Spanish or English word and don't mean the same.
Cama means “bed”, like Spanish “cama”.
False
Cama means “leg”. The bed you sleep in is el llit.
Noi means “no”.
False
Noi means “boy” and noia, “girl”. “No” is no.
Botiga means “pharmacy”, like Spanish “botica”.
False
Botiga is any shop. A pharmacy is la farmàcia.
Rentar means “to wash”.
True
Rentar els plats, wash the dishes. Nothing to do with rent.
Llevar-se means “to take something away”, like Spanish “llevarse”.
False
Llevar-se means getting up out of bed: em llevo a les set. Taking or carrying something is portar or dur.
Estrany means “to miss someone”, like Spanish “extrañar”.
False
Estrany means strange, odd. Missing someone is enyorar.
Brut means “dirty”.
True
La roba bruta is dirty laundry: nothing to do with “brute” (Spanish “bruto”).
Dolent means “in pain”, like Spanish “doliente”.
False
Dolent means “bad”: una pel·lícula dolenta, a bad film.
How you really learn a word
Recognising isn't recalling
You know a word in two ways. You recognise it when, on seeing or hearing it, you know what it means; you recall it when, on needing it, it comes to you. Recognition comes on its own with many words: “família”, “restaurant” or “ciutat” can be understood in context without studying them, and many more if you know some Spanish. Recall doesn't: in the middle of a sentence, the first word that comes out is the English one, and the Catalan one stays on the tip of your tongue even if you've read it many times.
That's why the quiz works in both directions. Catalan to English trains recognition, which is what you use when reading and listening; English to Catalan trains recall, which is what you use when speaking and writing, and it's quite a lot harder. And answering by typing is harder than choosing from options, because there's none to give you a clue. Starting with the easy way and moving on to the hard one once the words sound familiar is how to make progress without losing heart.
Words that look alike and aren't
False friends are the classic trap between related languages, and Catalan has many with Spanish, which you probably hear around you, and a few with English. Some come up every day: “cama” means leg (Spanish “cama” is bed, and a bed is “el llit”); “gana” is hunger, and wanting to do something is “ganes”; “botiga” is any shop; “rentar” is to wash, nothing to do with rent; “dolent” is bad; “brut” is dirty. Others only shift a nuance, like “maco”, which is said of a pretty thing and of a good-looking or likeable person, and they're just as confusing.
You learn a false friend better by getting it wrong once and seeing why than by reading a list. That's why many “True or false” cards state exactly what you'd assume (“cama” means “bed”, like Spanish “cama”) and, when you swipe them, explain the difference. The other help is learning words inside a sentence: “em fa mal la cama” (my leg hurts) leaves no doubt that nobody is talking about going to bed.
Gender, plural and the forms that change
Learning a word without its gender is learning half a word. Every Catalan noun is masculine or feminine, and English gives no clue. If you know Spanish, most match, but the ones that don't come up every day: “el nas” (the nose) is masculine, “la dent” (the tooth) feminine, “el núvol” (the cloud) masculine, and dessert is plural and feminine, “les postres”. Plurals have their surprises too: many words ending in a stressed vowel recover in the plural an “n” you can't see in the singular, like “germà” and “germans” (brother), or “nadó” and “nadons” (baby).
That's why each noun in the vocabulary has a note with its gender and, where needed, its plural; each adjective, its feminine; and each verb, its irregular forms. It's worth saying the word out loud with the article in front: “la dent”, “les dents”. That way the gender sticks to the word from the start and you don't have to work it out mid-conversation, which is exactly when the mistake shows most.
Little, often and by topic
Memory quickly forgets what it has seen only once, and forgets more slowly each time it retrieves it. That's what spaced repetition is based on: a word studied today comes back the next day, then a few days later, after a week and further on, each time further apart. Ten minutes a day with the words that are due pay off more than a whole afternoon with a list, because each review arrives just when the word was about to slip away.
Studying by topic rather than in alphabetical order also helps. Words for the kitchen, the house or the doctor's are remembered better together, because they're used together, and a concrete situation (ordering at the market, describing a flat) gives you a context to place them in. Filtering by topic and level, doing a short quiz on that group and coming back to it the next day is a simple routine that works better than trying to take everything in at once.
How it's practised here
Three ways to work on the same vocabulary: look at it, recall it and put it to the test. When you finish a quiz or a round of cards, whatever came up goes into the daily review.
The list
With search and filters by type, topic, level and status. Every word with its audio, its pronunciation and its note.
The quiz, both ways
From Catalan to English or the other way round, choosing from four or typing, with all the words or only those the filters leave.
True or false
Written statements about what confuses people most, plus word and phrase cards that are put together automatically. Each one is explained on the spot.
Questions about vocabulary
How many words do you need to speak Catalan?
There's no magic number, but with a few hundred well-chosen words you can hold a simple conversation, and with a couple of thousand you understand most of what you hear every day. If you know some Spanish it takes less effort, because many words are recognised on their own: the hard ones are those that look alike and mean something else.
How were the words chosen?
With what you need to talk about everyday life in mind: words for everyday situations first and more specific ones later, split into topics and levels from A1 to B2. There are also function words (prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns) and set phrases like “fer cua” (to queue) or “tant de bo” (if only), which you can't work out word by word.
What does a word's level mean?
The stage at which it's worth learning, from A1 to B2, so you study first what you'll need first. It's used to filter the list, the quiz and the cards. It's a guideline from the course, not that of any official exam, and a word marked B1 may be one you need on day one: if so, learn it without waiting.
What are false friends?
Words that look like a Spanish or English word and mean something else: “cama” is leg, “gana” is hunger, “botiga” is any shop, “rentar” is to wash and “llevar-se” is to get up out of bed. They cause a lot of mistakes because the familiar shape invites you not to check the meaning, and that's why many “True or false” cards are about them.
Do I need to learn each word's gender?
Yes: every noun is masculine or feminine, and English gives no clue. If you know Spanish it's almost always the same, but not always, and the exceptions come up a lot: “el nas” (the nose), “la dent” (the tooth), “el núvol” (the cloud) or “les postres” (dessert) have a different gender from Spanish. That's why each noun's note says whether it's masculine or feminine and, where needed, how it forms its plural.
Can I practise by typing?
Yes. The vocabulary quiz can be done by choosing from four options or by typing the answer, in both directions: from the Catalan word to its meaning or from the meaning to the word. When typing, accents and capitals don't count, because what's measured is whether you remember it, and any of its meanings is accepted.
How does “True or false” work?
Each card states something: that a word or a phrase means such-and-such, or an idea about grammar, pronunciation or customs. Swipe it right if it's true and left if it's false, or use the buttons or the arrow keys. You're told straight away whether you got it right and why, and before starting you choose the type of card, the level and how many.
Do the words go into the review?
Yes. When you finish a round of the vocabulary quiz or of “True or false”, the words and phrases that came up go into the daily review, whether you got them right or not, and come back at longer and longer intervals. Each word also has its marker in the list: not practised, in progress or learned.
Keep reading
Speaking Catalan, not just understanding it
The 39 lessons, with how each one is listened to, said and written.
Catalan pronunciation, sound by sound
The Catalan sounds that English lacks or spells differently, with examples, their respelling and their phonetic alphabet.
The Catalan syllabus, from A1 to B2
The 39 theory units, with their sections and their mini-quiz.
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