The Very Basic Guide to Catalan

Catalan or Català is a Romance language, which is spoken in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and other regions as for instance Andorra [1]. In Barcelona the regional government is promoting the language. One will find a lot of similarities to Occitan, which is understandable because of the proximity of the two languages. For Sardinian or Campadinese it’s less understandable. Of course there are overlapping words to Spanish, but also disparities as colgar means to hang in Spanish and to bury in Catalan – you might think, Spanish concerns with the act of hanging and Catalan with the result of hanging. OT: I’m against capital punishment.

Wikipedia lists about 9.5 million speakers of Catalan.

Thank you – Gràcies! Or: Mercès!

You’re welcome – De res

Yes – Sí

No – No

Do you speak English? – Parla anglès? (formal) Parlas anglès?

Please – Sisplau

Excuse me – Perdoni! Or: Dispensi!

Sorry – Perdó!

Welcome – Benvigut

Good morning – Bon dia

Good day – Bon dia

Good afternoon – Bona trade

Good evening – Bona nit

Good night – Bona nit

Hello – Hola

Goodbye – Adéu

See you tomorrow – Fins demà

Everything is all right - Tot va bé.

How are you? – Com está? (formal) Com estás? (informal)

How much is this? – Què val això?

I don’t know – No sé

I don’t understand – No ho entenc

Please say it again – M’ho pot repetir, sisplau?

Where – On

When – Quan

How much – Quant

Where is the toilet? – On és el lavabo?

(Where is the bathroom? – On és la cambra de bany?)

What is your name? – Com es diu? Com et dius? (informal)

My name is LMK – Em dic LMK

Where are you from? - D’on és vostè? (formal)

I’m from Germany – Som d’Alemanya

Left – Esquerre

Right – Dreta

I need a doctor – Necessit un metge.

Help – Ajut

Help! – Auxili! Or: Socors!

Stop! – Alto!

Please blame any mistakes on me.

You might like to listen [4].

Links: 

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_language

[2] https://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/catalan.php has been very helpful

[3] http://weib.caib.es/recursos/abast/paginas/alabast-eng.html

[4] http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/quickfix/catalan.shtml

Links for more Basic Guides:

The Very Basic Guide to German

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2017/02/the-very-basic-guide-to-german.html

The Very Basic Guide to Esperanto 

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2017/02/the-very-basic-guide-to-esperanto.html

The Very Basic Guide to Yiddish  

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2016/12/the-very-basic-guide-to-yiddish.html

The Very Basic Guide to Portuguese  

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2015/10/the-very-basic-guide-to-portuguese.html

The Very Basic Guide to Italian   

 http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2015/05/the-very-basic-guide-to-italian.html

The Very Basic Guide to Afrikaans 

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2015/04/the-very-basic-guide-to-afrikaans.html

The Very Basic Guide to Turkmenian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2014/10/the-very-basic-guide-to-languages-of.html

The Very Basic Guide to French 

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2014/05/the-very-basic-guide-to-french.html

The Very Basic Guide to Russian 

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/the-very-basic-guide-to-russian.html

The Very Basic Guide to Japanese  

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/03/the-very-basic-guide-to-japanese.html

The Very Basic Guide to Mandarin Chinese 

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/04/the-very-basic-guide-to-mandarin-chinese.html

The Very Basic Guide to Spanish 

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/05/the-very-basic-guide-to-spanish.html

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