Català Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hello, good day!

Quite similar to Spanish -- iHola! iBuenos días!

Answer: Molt bé.

'How are you?' 'Very well!' 'Molt bé' is a very popular expression in Catalonia and something you will learn very quickly if you visit!

Answer: D'on és el teu amic?

This is really a conjugation question! 'Sóc dels Estats Units' means 'I am from the U.S.' 'D'on és el teu amic' means 'Where is your friend from?' so you cannot answer it with 'sóc' or 'I am'. 'D'on ets?' and 'D'on és vostè?' are both ways to say 'Where are you from?', informally and formally, respectively. And 'On vius?' is an informal way to ask 'Where do you live?'

Answer: vint-i-tres

'Quants anys tens?' means 'How old are you?', so 'vint-i-tres', or 'twenty-three', is a good answer. However, 'ara no' (not now), 'sí, gràcies' (yes, thank you), and 'si us plau' (please) are not good answers to this question!

Answer: tancat

'Tancar' means 'to close' in Catalan. The wrong answers were made up from words for 'to close' in other Romance languages -- 'cerrar' in Spanish, 'fechar' in Portuguese, and 'fermer' in French -- with the Catalan '-at' past participle suffix at the end.

Answer: hi ha

To English speakers, the Catalan phrase looks a bit like a greeting and a laugh, doesn't it? It is pronounced, however, like 'ee ah', and often spoken so fast that it sounds like 'yah'. In Catalan, the sentence 'There are many people' is, 'Hi ha molt gent.' In Spanish, it's 'Hay mucha gente.' In Portuguese, it's 'Há muita gente.' In French, it's 'Il y a beaucoup de monde.'

Answer: germà

As a general rule, if a feminine form ends in '-na', the masculine form will end in '-à'. Likewise, if a masculine noun or adjective ends in '-à', and you want to make the feminine form, your best bet is to tack a '-na' at the end! This is different from Spanish, where the masculine form retains the 'n', as in 'hermana/hermano', 'sister/brother'.

Answer: to the left

'A l'esquerra' is to the left, and 'a la dreta' is to the right. 'At the corner' is 'a la cantonada', 'at the stairway' is 'a l'escala', and 'at school' (or 'at the school', depending on the context) is 'a l'escola'.

Answer: Long live Catalonia!

You know the song 'Viva Las Vegas'? That 'viva' is a Spanish command, given to the city, meaning, 'Live!', and 'visca' is the Catalan word that means exactly the same thing.

Answer: Benvingut

'Benvingut' means 'Welcome' (masculine singular)! 'Adéu' means goodbye, literally 'to God' (the same as 'adiós' in Spanish and 'adieu' in French). 'Fins aviat' means 'see you soon', where 'fins' means 'until' and 'aviat' means 'soon' (like 'hasta pronto' in Spanish). 'A reveure' also means 'see you soon', where 'reveure' means 'to see again', and 'a' means 'at', in this case more like 'at the time of'.