LingoflyPhone turns: "Hi és, en Pau?" and "Passa-m'ho"
To ask whether a person is in, estar helps. But the verb alone is not enough: it needs a place, and on the phone that place is the pronoun hi. Hi és, en Pau? — is Pau there? Hi és, la Rosa? — may I have Rosa? Without "hi" the question is left hanging. For example: “Hi és, en Pau? — Un moment, ara va” — Is Pau there? — One moment, he is coming now. A rule from the Catalan course: worked out on examples, not memorized…
How it works
To ask whether a person is in, estar helps. But the verb alone is not enough: it needs a place, and on the phone that place is the pronoun hi. Hi és, en Pau? — is Pau there? Hi és, la Rosa? — may I have Rosa? Without "hi" the question is left hanging.
The answers are short: Sí, ara va — he is coming now, Un moment, si us plau — one moment. Lifting the receiver, you say Sóc jo — it is me.
Requests on the phone glue the pronoun to the verb with a hyphen. Passa-m'ho — pass me the phone. Digues-li que truqui — tell him to call.
The pair "me + ho" squeezes into m'ho: passa-m'ho, digues-m'ho. It works off the phone too: Digues-m'ho de nou — say it to me again.
Table
| construction | meaning | example |
|---|---|---|
| Hi és + name? | available? may I have him? | Hi és, la Maria? — Sí, ara va |
| passa-m'ho | pass it/the phone to me | Passa-m'ho, si us plau |
| digues-li / li passo | tell him / putting him through | Digues-li que truqui més tard |
By example
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Phone turns: how does it work in Catalan?
To ask whether a person is in, estar helps. But the verb alone is not enough: it needs a place, and on the phone that place is the pronoun hi. Hi és, en Pau? — is Pau there? Hi és, la Rosa? — may I have Rosa? Without "hi" the question is left hanging.
What does it look like in a Catalan example sentence?
“Hi és, en Pau? — Un moment, ara va” — Is Pau there? — One moment, he is coming now. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.