Catalan/L004

(Prev) Lesson 4: Al¹ cafè - At the café. (Next)

català	English
El Harry i l'Anna2 són al cafè. əl (h)ari i lanə son əl cəfɛ.	Harry and Anna are at the café.
L'Anna encara no parla3 bé català. lanə ənkarə no parlə be kətəla.	Anna doesn't speak Catalan well yet. (yet no she-speaks well Catalan)
El Joan arriba.4 əl ʒuan ərribə.	Joan arrives.
Hola Joan! Com estàs?5 - Molt bé. ɔlə ʒuan! kɔm əstas? - mol be.	Hey Joan! How are you? - Very well.
El Joan diu a l'Anna «Com et dius?» əl ʒuan diu ə lanə «kɔm ət dius?»	Joan says to Anna, "What's your name?"
Em dic Anna. No parlo molt bé català. Parles anglès? əm dik anə. no parlu mol be kətəla. parləz‿ənglɛs?	My name is (myself I-call) Anna. I don't speak Catalan very well. Do you speak English?
Sí, una5 mica. Vols6 un cafè?7 si, unə mikə. bɔlz‿un kəfɛ?	Yes, a bit. Do you want a coffee? (you-want a coffee?)

NOTES
1: al, at the, to the is obligatory contraction of a + el. el cafè can mean the café or the coffee.
2: l'Anna, (the) Anna. la obligatorily contracts to l' before a, e, o sounds. More on this later.
3: parla, he/she/it speaks from the verb parlar, to speak. We have seen parlo, I speak. Also in this lesson: parles, you speak, used when addressing friends, peers, or children.
4: The double 'r' as in arriba should be a trilled r sound.
5: una, a,an is used before feminine nouns. un is the masculine form, as in un cafè, a coffee.
6: Catalan, like Spanish, does not distinguish 'b' and 'v'. The sound is closer to 'b'.
7: Notice there is no word like "do" here to ask a question. It's just the statement with a different intonation.

Translation Exercise

1. El Joan parla anglès? Sí, una mica.
2. El Joan parla català al cafè.
3. Vols un cafè? Sí, gràcies.
4. Com està el cafè?
5. On és el cafè?

Exercise Answers
Does Joan speak English? Yes, a bit. Joan speaks Catalan at the café. Do you want a coffee? Yes, thanks. How is the coffee? Where is the café?