Spanish to Catalan: what if just dropping ‘n’?

Some people speak Spanish and they learn Catalan… and some vocabulary is the same.

Actually, I remember checking, in 2006, how many words are exactly the same in Spanish and Catalan compared with Catalan and French or Catalan and English. I was trying to explain “how different are these languages” to Estonians and I […]

Coses del català

Li deia a la meva cosineta: si una «taula» petita és una «tauleta»… com és una «monja» petita? «mongeta»!

I un «calçot» petit? «Calçotet!»

I ara he llegit d’una persona que parla català molt bé però que és nadiua d’Estònia: «per què dieu carnisseria, gelateria, peixateria, cansaladeria, etc. però llavors dieu òptica enlloc d’ulleria?» Li […]

Good morning, Happy New Year. Good week?

We usually say “Good morning”, “good night”, “Happy New Year!”, or “have a nice weekend!”. We say this to wish a nice morning, night, year or weekend.

But I think that we are missing some other important time units: weeks and months.

I advocate that we should also say “good week” (on Mondays) and “good […]

Centipedes: 100 legs? or 1000? or 80?

In Catalan we call “centpeus” (100 feet) to that animal that has many legs (similar to a caterpillar). On the Wikipedia I can see that it’s also called “one hundred legs” (not feet).

I like how it sounds in French: “mille-pattes” (pronunced as /milpat/). Means 1000 legs (hey, more than in Spanish or Catalan).

But […]

Good morning, bon dia, buenos dias…

In English we say “Good morning” (so, we wish a good and nice morning).

In Catalan we say “Bon dia”. Literally: “Good day”. It seems that Catalan language is a bit more generous than English language: wishing a whole good day! (not just the morning).

But in Spanish… we say “Buenos dias”. So, literally: “Good […]

“Tamany”? Mida!

El català és una llengua que, com quasi totes, està rodejada d’altres llengües. Però fins i tot hi ha molta gent que no és catalano-parlant dins les zones més catalano-parlans. Això fa que hi hagi tendència a utilitzar paraules que no són correctes en català, però ens sonen bé perquè les hem agafat, per exemple, […]