Ig ig — i ge
«i ge» is a digraph of Catalan, the “The Catalan Latin alphabet” script, read as “ch after i (word-final)”. At the end of a word after i it sounds like ch: maig comes out "mach". For example, in the word “maig” — May. The Catalan alphabet has 35 letters in total. May is maig, August is agost, and "May-time" is maigenc. The combination lives only at the very end of a word. It appears, for example, in the word “l'aigua” — water.
In short
| Character | Ig ig |
| Name | i ge |
| Sound | ch after i (word-final) |
| What it is | a digraph |
In our course the character comes 35th of 35: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, before it comes tz, appears in 86 words of this site.
How it sounds
At the end of a word after i it sounds like ch: maig comes out "mach"
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- maigMay
The character in the “signs of its own” group
ç is the only letter with a cedilla, l·l the only mid-word dot. The combinations are not letters, but no menu can be read without them.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «i ge» it is “ch after i (word-final)”, as in the word “maig”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 35 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Catalan character ig read?
As “ch after i (word-final)” — it is a digraph of the “The Catalan Latin alphabet” script. At the end of a word after i it sounds like ch: maig comes out "mach". For example, in the word “maig” — May.
What is the letter ig called?
I ge. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Catalan script: it is called “i ge” and reads as “ch after i (word-final)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can ig be confused with?
May is maig, August is agost, and "May-time" is maigenc. The combination lives only at the very end of a word. Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.