LA PRIMERA CLASSE DE CATALÀ! - First catalan class!

Today, this post will help you to start to learn and speak Catalan! If  you follow all steps at the end of the post you will be able to introduce yourself to other people in Catalan.

EN: Hi, I'm Sílvia and I'm 30 years old. I'm Catalan and I live in Barcelona. I'm a singer. I like theatre and dance a lot.

1. Above and below you have some people making an introduction to you. After reading them you will find, at the end of the picture, an english translation of this introduction. If you want to know something else about these people, just click on the name. If you have no idea about catalan pronunciation you can take a look at Forvo, a page that can help you with this question.

EN: Hi, my name is Pepa, I am an actress and I am 60 years old. I'm Valencian, but I live in Barcelona. I love theatre.

EN: Hi, my name is Miquel and I am a painter. I am 57 years old. I'm Mallorquinian, I live between Mallorca, Paris and Mali. I like to travel a lot and be creative.

EN: Hi, my name is Ferran and I'm a chef. I'm 51 years old. I'm catalan, from Hospitalet. I live in Barcelona. I like to innovate and experiment.

EN: Hi, we are Els Catarres, Jan, Èric and Roser. We are Catalans and we live in Barcelona. We are 24, 26, and 25 years old, and we are musicians. We like to play music!

GRAMMAR: in these introductions we found 2 pronouns: jo (I) and nosaltres (we). And four verbs conjugated in first person singular and plural: ser, tenir, viure and agradar. Here you have a table with all the personal pronouns and all these verbs conjugated. Every colour represents a different person:

Some things to pay attention to:

A/ In catalan it is not necessary to repeat personal pronouns every time. In fact, we usually don't use them. Or we just use them to emphasize the subject.

B/ There is a personal article, and personal names are usually  used with this article: 

• El (masculine): el Jan, el Ferran...
• La (feminine); la Roser...
• Both of them have apostrophes if the name begins with a vowel: L'Èric.

C/ We use the verb tenir to express age: Tinc 39 anys. (I'm 39 years old)

D/ Adjectives usually have 4 forms, singular (masculine and feminine) and plural (masculine and feminine): català - catalana - catalans - catalanes.

Numbers, here you have a table:

2. Now, I am going to introduce you to some more people:

EN: This woman is Mònica. She is Valencian and she lives in Valencia. She is 43 years old, she is a politician and also works as a lawyer. She likes freedom of expression.

EN: These boys are Gerard and Cesc They are Catalan and they live in Barcelona. They are 26 years old and they are football players. They like sport.

EN: This man is Pau. He is from the Balearic Islands, he lives in Mallorca and he is 36 years old. He is a singer and he likes to sing and have fun.

You just saw two new pronouns and verbal forms, 3rd person singular and plural.

You also found demonstratives:

• aquest (this masculine) - aquesta (this feminine)
• aquests (these masculine) - aquestes (these feminine)

It's a good moment to review all the information as many times as you want, before practising all this material with an exercise.

3. Before you do the exercise you can learn some more vocabulary about professions and nationalities. If you don't find yours you can use Google Translator

4. Let's practice:

5. Finally, it's time for you to introduce yourself! Use all the information you have learnt above and answer these questions:

FELICITATS! Congratulations! You have started speaking Catalan!

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Alison, thank you very much for your revision ;)