1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 Colloquial 8 Catalan 9 10 11 1211 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 4211 The Colloquial Series Series Adviser: Gary King The following languages are available in the Colloquial series: * Afrikaans * Japanese * Albanian * Korean * Amharic * Latvian Arabic (Levantine) * Lithuanian * Arabic of Egypt Malay Arabic of the Gulf and * Mongolian Saudi Arabia * Norwegian Basque Panjabi * Breton * Persian Bulgarian * Polish * Cambodian * Portuguese * Cantonese * Portuguese of Brazil * Catalan * Romanian * Chinese * Russian * Croatian and Serbian * Scottish Gaelic * Czech * Slovak * Danish * Slovene * Dutch Somali * Estonian * Spanish * Finnish * Spanish of Latin America * French * Swahili * German * Swedish * Greek * Tamil Gujarati * Thai * Hebrew * Turkish * Hindi * Ukrainian * Hungarian Urdu * Icelandic * Vietnamese * Indonesian * Welsh Italian Accompanying cassette(s) (*and CDs) are available for all the above titles. They can be ordered through your bookseller, or send payment with order to Taylor & Francis/Routledge Ltd, ITPS, Cheriton House, North Way, Andover, Hants SP10 5BE, or to Routledge Inc, 270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016, USA. COLLOQUIALCD-ROMs Multimedia Language Courses Available in: Chinese, French, Portuguese and Spanish 1111 2 3 4 5 Colloquial 6 7 Catalan 8 9 10 11 1211 13 14 The Complete Course 15 16 for Beginners 17 18 19 Toni Ibarz and Alexander Ibarz 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 4211 First edition published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2005 Toni Ibarz and Alexander Ibarz All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Ibarz, Toni. Colloquial Catalan: the complete course for beginners/Toni Ibarz and Alexander Ibarz p. cm – (The colloquial series) 1. Catalan language – Textbooks for foreign speakers – English. I. Ibarz, Alexander, 1974–II. Title .III. Series PC 3827.5.E5I33 2004 449′.982421–dc222004010466 ISBN 0-203-64125-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0–415–23412–3(Book) ISBN 0–415–23413–1(Cassettes) ISBN 0–415–30256–0(CDs) ISBN 0–415–23414–X(Pack) 1111 Contents 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Acknowledgements vii 1211 Introduction viii 13 14 Pronunciation guide xiii 15 16 17 1 Benvinguda i benvingut! 1 18 Welcome! 19 20 2 Com es diu? 8 21 What is your name? 22 23 3 Un cafè, sisplau 19 24 A coffee, please 25 26 4 Què vols? 29 27 What would you like? 28 29 5 Vols el meu mòbil? 38 30 Do you want my mobile? 31 32 6 La meva família 47 33 My family 34 35 7 Perdoni, on és l’Hotel Miramar? 61 36 Excuse me, where is the Miramar Hotel? 37 8 Quina és la teva adreça? 72 38 39 What is your address? 40 9 Tot passejant per la Rambla 83 41 4211 A walk down the Ramblas vi 10 Al Mercat de la Boqueria 102 At the Boqueria fresh food market 11 Com els vol? 115 How would you like them? 12 Al restaurant Planelles 131 At Planelles’ restaurant 13 La vida diària 147 Daily life 14 Què has fet avui? 162 What have you done today? 15 La sobretaula 175 After dinner talk 16 Què vas fer? 190 What did you do? 17 Quin temps farà? 202 What will the weather be like? 18 Em podria donar informació? 213 Could you give me some information, please? 19 El transport públic 221 Public transport 20 Festa major! 230 Grammar reference and verb tables 238 Key to exercises 252 Catalan–English glossary 276 English–Catalan glossary 285 1111 Acknowledgements 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 A language course is always the result of years of experience 1211 learning from those we teach. The first acknowledgement goes to 13 them. We also have to thank those involved in the quality control: 14 Pauline Hart, an experienced ‘teach yourself’ language learner, for 15 checking that the activities and the explanations work; Esther 16 Monzó (Universitat Jaume I), for reading and checking the text 17 (but remaining mistakes are all ours); Puri Gomez and Spencer 18 Groves of POLYGLOTA, for their contribution to some of the 19 units; Steve Woolley, for the feedback; Bob Britton, for the illus- 20 trations, and Alan Yates, to whom we are doubly indebted: for 21 his initial participation in this project and for his influential books 22 on the Catalan language. Finally, we thank the editorial team at 23 Routledge for their guidance and support. 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 4211 What is Colloquial Catalan? This book is part of the Routledge Colloquialseries. ‘Colloquial’ is used with its full original meaning of ‘spoken language’ and not with the meaning often favoured by Catalan-speakers of ‘informal’, even ‘vulgar’ language. Colloquial Catalan is a course for absolute beginners which offers the possibility of learning enough spoken Catalan to commu- nicate effectively in real-life situations. The topics included cover daily life, travel, work and leisure, making it suitable for the cultural traveller, those starting a new life in a Catalan-speaking area, and the university student who needs to learn the language in a short period of time. Colloquial Catalanis structured around sequences of life-like dia- logues which offer access to the key aspects of the language and the culture of the Catalan-speaking peoples. In this way the language is always presented in a meaningful context. After studying the first few units you will be able to engage in simple communication and gain the respect of local people. The book covers the main aspects of Catalan grammar and develops your listening and speaking skills, together with reading and, to a lesser extent, writing. Individual learning and group teaching Colloquial Catalanis designed mainly with the self-learner in mind. It requires no previous language learning experience because the explanations are as straightforward and gradual as possible, and are illustrated with examples. The course offers the basic ingredients of language learning: exposure to the language, clear explanations and opportunities to practise. Therefore, it can be easily adapted to small group and classroom teaching. If used in the classroom, it offers the advantage of freeing the tutor from spending time explaining the language. This is particularly useful when the tutor is ix 1111 not an English native speaker, as is often the case, and is not aware 2 of the way some English speakers can be challenged by grammar. 3 4 The Catalan language 5 6 7 Catalan is a Romance language with many similarities to other 8 languages in this group, such as Portuguese, Italian or Spanish. 9 Catalan also shares many features with English, which helps make 10 it easy to learn. If you look at some of the texts you should be able 11 to identify quite a few words, even before you start your studies. 1211 There are close to seven million speakers of Catalan in the 13 eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula who have it as their mother 14 tongue, another 4 million understand Catalan and use it passively. 15 It is also spoken in other areas linked to Catalonia by history and 16 geography: Andorra, where it is the official language, Cerdagne and 17 Roussillon, in what is now south-eastern France, and L’Alguer 18 (Alghero), on the island of Sardinia. Catalan is less well known in 19 the English-speaking world than several other European languages 20 with fewer speakers, because the areas where it is spoken do not 21 correspond to the boundaries of a state. It was only relatively 22 recently that interest in the language has become more widespread 23 in anglophone countries. One factor has been the consolidation of 24 Barcelona as a favourite tourist destination, especially since the 25 Olympic Games of 1992. 26 This course focuses mainly on the Catalan spoken in the area of 27 Barcelona and central eastern Catalonia, a variety sometimes 28 referred to as the central or standard variety, which predominates 29 in the media and education system. Catalan is also spoken in other 30 areas well known to the modern traveller, such as the Balearic 31 Islands and Valencia, where the language has its own distinctive 32 features and its own creative force. Learners whose interest is 33 linked to these areas will still find this book useful. The main 34 features of the language are the same, and you will soon pick up 35 the differences by listening closely to local speakers. Speaking as 36 the locals do is, after all, an important aim of all language learners. 37 38 How is the course structured? 39 40 41 The course is divided into 20 units which in turn are divided into 4211 dialogues linked by a theme. Most learners may choose to cover