If you're trying to learn Catalan Articles which is also called Català, check our courses about Definite and Indefinite Articles... to help you with your Catalan grammar. Try to concentrate on the lesson and notice the pattern that occurs each time the word changes its place. Also don't forget to check the rest of our other lessons listed on Learn Catalan. Enjoy the rest of the lesson!
Learning the Catalan Articles is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you practice the subject, the closer you get to mastering the Catalan language. But first we need to know what the role of Articles is in the structure of the grammar in Catalan.
Catalan articles are words that combine with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Generally articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun. Examples are "the, a, and an".
Unlike English, which has only one definite article “the", Catalan has 4 definite articles:
El (masculine singular), el llibre (the book)
La (masculine singular) la casa (the house)
Els (masculine plural) els llibres (the books)
Les (feminine plural) les cases (the houses)
The singular articles, when preceeding a noun starting in a vowel or in -h, drop their vowels and become l’. E.g.:
Masculine: L’home (the man), l’ós (the bear).
Feminine: L’hora (the hour), l'ànima (the soul).
Also, unlike English, Catalan normally uses definite articles in front of people’s names. It can use the masculine article el (l’) and the feminine la (l’), but also en (n’) and na (n’), which are only used in front of people’s names and have exaclty the same meaning. E.g.:
El Jaume or en Jaume.
La Núria or na Núria.
L’Anna or n’Anna.
L’Enric or n’Enric.
Indefinite Article:
While we have (a / an / some) in English as indefinite articles, we also have un / una / uns/ uns in Catalan .
In general, whenever (a, an) are used in English you, you need to use (un) or (una) to say the equivalent in Catalan.
Un (masculine singular), un llibre (a book)
Una (masculine singular) una casa (a house)
Uns (masculine plural) uns llibres (some books)
Uns (feminine plural) unes cases (some houses)
Example: Els llibres que tinc són en una casa d’un amic (The books I have are in a house of a friend).
Possessive Determiners:
Meu (mine masc.), meva (mine fem.), meus (mine, plural masc.), meves (mine, plural fem.), teu / teva (yours), seu / seva (his, hers), nostre / nostra (ours), vostre / vostra (yours), seus / seves (theirs, masc. and fem.). In Catalan, when using posessives, we always need to keep in mind the owner and the object that is owned. E.g.:
La seva germana (His/her/their [masc. and fem.] sister)
El seu germà (His/her/their [masc. and fem.] brother)
Els seus germans (His/her/their [masc. and fem.] brothers)
Les seves germanes (His/her/their [masc. and fem.] sisters)
Here are some examples:
| English Articles | Catalan Articles |
|---|---|
| articles | articles |
| the | el/la/l' |
| a | un/una |
| one | un/una |
| some | algú/alguns/alguna/algunes |
| few | pocs/poques |
| the book | el llibre |
| the books | els llibres |
| a book | un llibre |
| one book | un llibre |
| some books | alguns llibres |
| few books | pocs llibres |
As you can see from the example above, the structure of the Articles in Catalan has a logical pattern. Locate the Articles above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Català.
Below is a list of vocabulary where you can use the Definite and Indefinite Articles in Catalan. Try to practice but also memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Catalan vocabulary.
| English Vocabulary | Catalan Vocabulary |
|---|---|
| Food | menjar |
| almonds | ametlles |
| bread | pa |
| breakfast | esmorzar |
| butter | mantega |
| candy | caramel |
| cheese | formatge |
| chicken | pollastre |
| cumin | comí |
| dessert | postres |
| dinner | sopar |
| fish | peix |
| fruit | fruites |
| ice cream | gelat |
| lamb | xai |
| lemon | llimona |
| lunch | dinar |
| meal | menjar |
| meat | carn |
| oven | forn |
| pepper | pebre |
| plants | plantes |
| pork | carn de porc |
| salad | amanida |
| salt | sal |
| sandwich | entrepà |
| sausage | salsitxa |
| soup | sopa |
| sugar | sucre |
| supper | sopar |
| turkey | gall dindi |
| apple | poma |
| banana | plàtan |
| oranges | taronges |
| peaches | préssecs |
| peanut | cacauet |
| pears | peres |
| pineapple | pinya |
| grapes | raïms |
| strawberries | maduixes |
| vegetables | hortalisses |
| carrot | pastanaga |
| corn | blat de moro |
| cucumber | cogombre |
| garlic | all |
| lettuce | enciam |
| olives | olives |
| onions | cebes |
| peppers | pebrots |
| potatoes | patates |
| pumpkin | carbassa |
| beans | Mongetes/fesols |
| tomatoes | tomàquets |
Definite and Indefinite Articles have a very important role in Catalan, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with the Català Articles, you might want to check the rest of our Catalan lessons here: Learn Catalan. Don't forget to bookmark this page.
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