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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Please get in touch and let us know if you are also learning Catalan! Instagram - @lazylinguistcatalan ... Facebook page - The Lazy Linguist Podcast...
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 10. Describing others & Review of lessons 6-9 - Catalan for Beginners
Ei! Com va tot?
This lesson will bring what we have learnt in previous episodes together with some new grammar to be able give information about our family, describing them, saying where they are from, what nationality they are and what hobbies you like to do with them.
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Gracies i fins la propera!
Group Lessons starting 7th April 2025: Group Programmes
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Hola! Benvinguts i benvingudes al episodi deu! What a nice round number ay, Alex?
Yeah, little milestone for us, 10 episodes.
Christina
Com estàs?
Alex
Christina.
Alex
Uh oh.
Christina
Trust me, it won't be too difficult. OK, let's get to it. Som-hi!
…
So to recap, what key verbs do we need to describe ourselves?
Um, we need to say I am. So soc.
Alex
Tinc
Christina
Tinc! Molt bé. In English we would change this to describe others, right? So ‘I am’ would change to he is or she is, so we're going to learn how to say these things in Catalan as well, because they also change in Catalan.
So he or she is, and Catalan is simply the word ‘és’
Alex
És
Christina
És. OK, so it's the same for he and she. The verb is the same. OK, again, if you're familiar with the languages, it's the same as this. So I'm going to bring in some family members, which we covered in episode 7, and some descriptions that we covered in episode 8 and put these together to say something. See if you can understand. La meva germana és alta.
Molt bé. La meva germana es My sister is tall. OK, try another one. El meu germá és prim.
Sí, el meu germa és prim, my brother is thin. We could also bring knowledge of countries and nationalities from episode 6. For example, we could talk about where your family's from. See if you know what this means. La meva mare és de Catalunya a Espanya.
My mum is from Catalonia in Spain.
Genial. Yes. What about… El meu pare és anglès.
Amazing. You're getting it. Now it's a lot easier translating from Catalan to English, obviously. I'm going to push you and see if you can translate a couple from English to Catalan. OK, so let's do… My mum is short.
Sí gairebe, nearly… but it's the masculine version is baix, we're talking about my mum.
Alex
Oh, baixa.
Christina
Baixa. OK, try this one. My grandad is fat.
I can't remember what gra- So it's la, no it’s el meu… I can't remember what grandad is.
Alex
Alta
Christina
No, that’s tall. 3 letters. It is 3 letters but A… AV.
Avi… So, so it would be el meu… avi és gordo.
Sí, el meu avi és gordo. However, I did kind of realise listening back to it, but I made a bit of a ‘barbarisme’ here, which is basically using the borrowed word from Spanish. The word gordo… Technically the official Catalan word for fat is ‘gras’. Yeah, ‘gras’ or ‘grassa’. But it doesn't really matter because people say gordo and gorda all the time in Catalonia as well. You hear lots of these barbarismes when people say a word that they probably even think is Catalan, but it's actually borrowed from Spanish.
OK, now we might want to describe multiple people as well. And here the verb has to change once more. So just like in English, ‘he or she is’ would change to ‘they are’, yeah? So in Catalan ‘they are’ would be ‘són’. OK, what does this mean? Són alemanys.
They are German.
Christina
Yeah, bé. What about, els meu cosins són petits.
Alex
Would it be? My cousins are small.
Genial! A couple from English to Catalan. So let's see if you were just listening. My siblings are big, or my siblings are old.
Alex
Els meus germana? germans?
Christina
Germans, yeah. Germana would be sister. Germans would be either brothers or siblings.
So els meus germans són… we've just said it… són gran.
OK. Yeah, són gran - but again, annoyingly, we always have to agree our adjectives. And because we're talking about more than one person, it's plural. We have to change gran.
Alex
Grans?
Christina
Yeah, grans, molt bé. OK, what about my parents are from France?
I can't remember the word for parents.
It’s the same as saying my dad's because remember we always take the masculine, yeah.
So it would be ‘els meus pares’. Oh, what was France?
Hmm. We did a lot of countries. It feels like a while ago, doesn't it?
Just to stop you there, you said ‘és’, that would be he or she is. What are they are?
Alex
Oh són.
Christina
Són, yeah. So els meus pares són. And then how do you say that word from?
I can't remember.
Can’t remember? So for example, I could say sóc de Catalunya.
So it would be ‘de’?
Sóc d’Anglaterra. Yeah. So els meus pares són de… And then you need a bit of help with the word France?
Yeah
Christina
Alex
Ohh should have been able to guess that.
França is similar, I tried to give you an easy one, but we need clearly need to revise our countries a bit.
OK, good. So now we know I am, sóc. He or she is. Or it could also be it is actually or it could be vosté. So in the bonus content we've learned some formal ways of saying things. Yeah. So if you're talking to someone in a polite way, you would also say és.. And now we've just learned that they are, which is són.
OK. Moving on. What if we want to describe somebody's eye or hair colour? The verb we need here instead of tinc - I have, it becomes té.
Alex
Té
Christina
So I could say, el meu cosí té el cabell ros. What do you think that means?
My cousin has… blonde hair?
Molt bé. Again, I'm going to give you a couple to translate into Catalan now. My grandmother has white hair.
La meva avia té el cabell… blanc.
What about ‘my uncle has brown eyes.’
Alex
El meu tiet?
Christina
Sí, tiet is uncle.
Alex
Té els ulls marrons.
Christina
Marrons, well done for making it plural as well. Yeah. So we've got two eyes, most people. So we'd say, els ulls marrons. Genial!
Again, if we want to describe more than one person, the verb changes here as well. So to say they have in Catalan, we say ‘tenen’.
Alex
Tenen.
Christina
Tenen. Bé. Can you understand this? Els meus pares tenen el cabell pèl-roig.
Tenen… What would that verb be then? My parents…
Have… And they have.
El cabell pèl-roig.
So this is hair… pèl-roig?
Yep. Do you remember this one?
Alex
No…
Christina
It’s been a couple of weeks - pèl-roig. It's my sister's hair. She has…
Alex
Ginger.
Christina
Ginger hair. Yeah, not my parents. Well, my dad does, but I really should say ‘el meu pare té’, although now it's more like ‘blanc’. OK, So what about, ‘les meves germanes tenen els ulls blaus.’
Alex
So would this be my siblings? Or is this my brothers?
Les meves germanes.
Oh wait, sisters.
Christina
Sisters, yeah.
Alex
So it would be. My sisters have… blue eyes.
Blue eyes, els ulls blaus, molt bé. Les meves germanes tenen els ulls blaus.
OK, a couple English to Catalan to finish with. My aunties have black hair.
Alex
Les meves tietes
Christina
Sí.
Alex
Tens.
Christina
Tenen.
Alex
Tenen.
Wait, black hair. El cabell… negre.
Negre, molt bé. And last one, my brothers have blonde hair.
Alex
Els meus germans tenen… blonde hair… um, el cabell… ros?
Christina
Sí, genial! Molt bé. So yeah, we say remember ‘el cabell’ first, the hair and then the adjective afterwards. Brilliant. OK, now, I do just wanna recap some of the hobbies that we learned last week as well, but this time I'm going to change things up a little bit. Without saying anymore, I'm gonna just go straight to a sentence and see if you can understand it. M’agrada sortir amb la meva germana.
So that hobby we learned was it sortir amb amics was to go out with friends, so the word ‘amb’ means with, right? Yeah so you just changed it to sortir amb la meva germana. So is that I like to go out with my sister?
Sí, molt bé! That's exactly what it is. Yeah. So sortir is to go out. Amb… It's written AMB, but we just say ‘am’ then la meva germana is my sister. So I like to go out with my sister. OK, what about ‘m’encanta mirar la tele amb la meva cosina’.
Is that I love to watch TV with my cousin… girl cousin?
Christina
La meva cosina, yeah so it's specifying that it's a girl cousin. OK, try a couple from English to Catalan. I don't like to do sport with my brothers.
No m’agrada fer e-sport amb els meus
Christina
Esport.
Alex
-esport amb els meus germans.
Christina
Sí, molt bé. No m’agrada fer esport amb els meus germans. And last one, I hate to read with my mom, or I hate reading with my mum.
Feel like reading was the one I really struggled to say last time you got me to attempt this.
Yeah, sorry for the difficult one.
I also can't remember how to say it… so it was odio
Yeah, odio. Do you remember this? It's similar to Spanish odio, but the Os sound like Us here. So ‘udiu’ (odio)
I can't even attempt read cause I can't remember how to say it.
Yuh
Christina
Yeah ‘yuh’ , ‘lyuh’, lleg-
Alex
Yeah, you're just gonna have to say the word at this point.
Christina
Llegir
Alex
So, odio llegir…
With my mum.
Alex
Amb la meva mare.
Christina
Amb la meva mare. Molt bé. Odio llegir amb la meva mare. Again, it's quite a strong word. It's, you know, really, if you really hate something. A lot of the time, people might just say, ‘no m’agrada gens’, you no ‘no m’agrada’ to say don't like something. But well done! That's it for this week.
What's coming up next week then?
That would actually be really useful.
So we'll see you for lots more learning next week.
Adéu, fins aviat!
Alex
Adéu!