General Information » Culture & Lifestyle » Language

Barcelona is a bilingual city. A survey by the Generalitat in 2003 claimed equal usage of Catalan and Spanish in everyday situations. A 2001 Linguistic Census established that 94.5% of the Catalonian population could understand Catalan, while 74.5% could speak it and 49.8% could write it. Barcelona itself has the lowest statistics, with 93.8% of its citizens understanding Catalan. Street signs are in Catalan and businesses are also obliged to display information in Catalan or receive heavy fines. Business is conducted in both languages, although contracts are often written in Spanish. Public education is in Catalan and only partly in Spanish. Because of this, 10-29 year olds are the most Catalan-literate of all age groups. Immigrants are also encouraged to learn Catalan, with free courses offered by the city council. Restaurant menus tend to be in both Spanish and Catalan, unless they’re near La Rambla, where English, French and German translations can be found. Barcelona’s growing immigrant population means that in the Raval you’re just as likely to hear Urdu as Catalan, whilst Chinese is omnipresent between Plaça Urquinaona and Berber. Dialects of Arabic are commonplace in the squares of La Ribera.



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English Spanish Catalan



Yes si si

No no no

Please Por favor Si us plau

Thank you Gracias Graciès

Good morning/hello Buenos dias Bon dia

Goodbye Adios Adeu

How are you? Qué tal? Qué tal?

Fine, thank you Muy bien, gracias Molt bé, graciès

Welcome Bienvenido benvinguts

Bad Malo malament

My name is… Me llamo… el meu nom és…

What’s your name? Come te llamas? Quin és el teu nom?

Where are you from? De donde eres? D’on ets?

I am from… Yo soy de… Jo soc de…

One uno(a) un(a)

Two dos dos (dues)

Three tres tres

Four cuatro cuatre

Five cinco cinc

Six seis sis

Seven siete set

Eight ocho vuit

Nine nueve nou

Ten dies deu

Eleven once onze

Twelve doce dotze

Thirteen trece tretze

How much? Cuanto es? Cuant és?

When? Cuando? Cuan?

How? Como? Com?

What Que qué

Who quien qui

Monday Lunes dilluns

Tuesday Martes dimarts

Wednesday miercoles dimecres

Thursday Jueves dijous

Friday Viernes divendres

Saturday sabado dissabte

Sunday Domingo diumenge

Why? Por que? Per que?

Where is? Donde esta? On es?

What time is it? Que hora es? Que hora és?

Is this road to…? Este es el camino a…? és quest el camí a?

Stop Parada parar

Right derecha dreta

Left izquierda esquerra

Straight ahead todo recto tot recte

North norte ...