LingoflyR r — erre
«erre» is a consonant of the Catalan script, read as “r; often silent at the end of a word”. A short tapped r inside a word. It goes silent at the end of infinitives and in -er, -or: cantar — "kuhn-TAH", senyor — "suh-NYOH". In mar, though, you hear it. For example, in the word “mar” — sea. The Catalan alphabet has 27 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. The silent final r is the signature of the central norm: cantar comes out "kuhn-TAH".
In short
| Character | R r |
| Name | erre |
| Sound | r; often silent at the end of a word |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 22nd of 35: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are q and rr, appears in roughly every other word on this site.
How it sounds
A short tapped r inside a word. It goes silent at the end of infinitives and in -er, -or: cantar — "kuhn-TAH", senyor — "suh-NYOH". In mar, though, you hear it
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.
- marsea
The character in the “letters that mislead” group
Here Catalan parts ways with what the eye expects. J is a zh, s between vowels is a z, and 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)ve 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
- Ss sss (always voiceless)essa doble
- 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 «erre» it is “r; often silent at the end of a word”, as in the word “mar”), 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 — 27 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 r read?
As “r; often silent at the end of a word” — it is a consonant of the Catalan script. A short tapped r inside a word. It goes silent at the end of infinitives and in -er, -or: cantar — "kuhn-TAH", senyor — "suh-NYOH". In mar, though, you hear it. For example, in the word “mar” — sea.
What is the letter r called?
Erre. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Catalan script: it is called “erre” and reads as “r; often silent at the end of a word”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.