Learn Catalan - The Lazy Linguist Podcast
Hola! We are Alex and Christina, a couple from the UK. Christina is a languages teacher originally from Catalonia and is teaching Alex Catalan right from the basics up to intermediate and hopefully advanced level!
We are documenting the journey through these podcasts, so if you are also learning Catalan this will help you learn along with us...
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We also have a Patreon where you can access bonus content, detailed lesson notes and transcripts to consolidate your understanding and help you make faster progress with your Catalan. You can find it at www.patreon.com/thelazylinguist
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In future there is potential to make episodes for Spanish and French learners too, so please let us know if you would be interested in that!
Learn Catalan - The Lazy Linguist Podcast
Episodi 2. More Greetings - Catalan for Beginners
Hola!
Benvinguts i benvingudes al episodi dos! Welcome to episode 2.
In today's lesson we are going to learn some different greetings, depending on the time of day it is. This is quite a short episode but with a bit of cultural information in there too. Let us know if you like short episodes or you would rather have longer ones!
Gràcies per escoltar!
Thanks for listening!
Group Lessons starting 7th April 2025: Group Programmes
Beginners Course: Catalan for Beginners Course
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00:00:11 Christina
Hola i benvinguts al episodi dos! Hello and welcome to episode two. Did you see how I slipped in some more Catalan there? I'll probably do that more and more as we learn more Catalan, but I know it is only episode 2, which is what I said episodi dos, so I won't get too carried away. Com estàs, Alex?
00:00:30 Alex
Molt bé gràcies, i tu?
00:00:32 Christina
Molt bé, també. Great recap of last lesson.
But did you notice I threw in another word in there?
00:00:39
Yes, I did.
00:00:40 Christina
Yeah, també, what do you think that means?
00:00:45
I don't know.
00:00:47 Christina
So it means too or as well, yeah? So I'm saying. Oh, I'm also very good today. So if you don't understand our little conversation just then saying com estàs and molt bé, etcetera, make sure you check out episode one where we learn to talk about how we're feeling.
00:01:02 Alex
What are we learning today?
00:01:04 Christina
Well, today I thought it would be a good idea to learn some different greetings in Catalan. So if you're ready, som-hi.
00:01:16 Christina
So we've already learned one greeting, probably the most common way to greet people in Catalan, which is:
00:01:22
Hola
00:01:23 Christina
Sí, molt bé.
00:01:24 Christina
But there are other things that you can say depending on the time of the day it is.
So firstly, we've got bon dia, which means good morning. Again you at home listening, repeat it and then Alex will do the same - bon dia.
00:01:42
Bon dia.
00:01:44 Christina
Molt bé... Interestingly, though, Catalans do tend to say this even after 12:00 o'clock even though means good morning, it kind of also means good day up until around the time they usually eat, which is later than us as well around two or three o'clock that's when you'll hear more of ‘bona tarda’, which you can probably guess what that's going to mean.
00:02:07 Alex
Good afternoon.
00:02:09
Exacte, exactly. So we've got bon dia and bona tarda. Now again, the Catalans are a bit different here as most of them will usually carry on saying this right up until around eight-ish or nine-ish. The word for evening is ‘vespre’, but you don't really hear a lot of people say ‘bon vespre’, they just stick to saying ‘bona tarda’. When it gets to much later, they'll then say ‘bona nit’, which just means good night.
00:02:37 Christina
OK, so we have bon dia.
00:02:45 Alex
Bon dia.
02:44
Molt bé. Bon dia. Then we have bona tarda.
02:52
Bona tarda Alex
00:02:52 Christina
Molt bé. Bona tarda. And then... bona nit.
00:03:02 Alex
Bona nit
00:03:03 Christina
Molt bé. We also had I mentioned about ‘bon vespre’, kind of like good evening, but not many people say it. Right, now I'm going to give you a time and you're going to have to give me an appropriate greeting that you would use in Catalonia, for example.
00:03:21 Christina
OK, let's say it's 10 AM. What would you say?
00:03:27
Bon dia.
00:03:28 Christina
Sí. Yeah. Good. What about 11:00 PM?
00:03:36
Bona nit.
00:03:40 Christina
Molt bé. What about 1:00 PM?
00:03:47
Bon dia.
00:03:48 Christina
Yeah. Yeah, good. So even though technically it is afternoon, like I said, even at 1:00 o'clock, when it's early afternoon, we would stick to saying bon dia. What about 6:00 PM?
00:04:04 Alex
Bona tarda.
00:04:06 Christina
Sí, again bona tarda. Good afternoon, 6:00 PM. OK, good. I think you've got it just.
Before we go, I want to throw in a couple other little greetings that you might come across. The first one is ‘bones’.
00:04:24 Alex
Bones.
00:04:25
Sí. Bones. It's a way of saying ‘good’ as well, but it's just kind of saying how's it going? Hello. Another greeting.
The second one is also quite common and very informal. Is just to say ‘ei’.
00:04:43
Ei.
00:04:44 Christina
Sí, ei. It's like saying, hey. Yeah, like, hey, how's it going? Ei, què tal? Ei, com estàs? What would you say?
00:04:55
Molt bé.
00:04:58 Christina
Molt bé. OK. And that is all for this week's episode. We hope you enjoyed it and found it somewhat useful. Again, we really would love any feedback if there's anyone out there listening, please do let us know as we're obviously very early days into this podcast right now we're just doing it ourselves, but it would be great to know that some other people are learning Catalan with us or with Alex as well. Right then. Moltes gràcies i fins aviat!
00:05:20 Both
Adéu!