Ss ss — essa doble
«essa doble» is a digraph of Catalan, the “The Catalan Latin alphabet” script, read as “s (always voiceless)”. The double s keeps the plain s even between vowels. For example, in the word “classe” — class. The Catalan alphabet has 35 letters in total. The pair tells words apart: casa has a z sound; wherever an s is needed instead, ss is written. It appears, for example, in the word “disset” — seventeen.
In short
| Character | Ss ss |
| Name | essa doble |
| Sound | s (always voiceless) |
| What it is | a digraph |
In our course the character comes 25th of 35: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are s and t, appears in 132 words of this site.
How it sounds
The double s keeps the plain s even between vowels
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.
- classeclass
The character in the “the letters that mislead” group
Here Catalan parts ways both with Spanish and with what the eye expects: j is a zh, s between vowels is a z, a final r goes silent.
- H hsilenthac
- J jzhjota
- G gg before a, o, u; zh before e and ige
- V vv (sounds almost like b)uve baixa
- B bb; sounds like p at the end of a wordbe alta
- C ck; s before e and ice
- Q qk (always with a silent u)cu
- S ss; z between vowelsesse
- R rr; usually silent at the end of a worderre
- Rr rra rolled r (between vowels)erra doble
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 «essa doble» it is “s (always voiceless)”, as in the word “classe”), 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 ss read?
As “s (always voiceless)” — it is a digraph of the “The Catalan Latin alphabet” script. The double s keeps the plain s even between vowels. For example, in the word “classe” — class.
What is the letter ss called?
Essa doble. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Catalan script: it is called “essa doble” and reads as “s (always voiceless)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can ss be confused with?
The pair tells words apart: casa has a z sound; wherever an s is needed instead, ss is written. 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.