Phone turns: "Està en Pau?" and "Passa-m'ho"
To ask whether a person is "in" — through estar: "Està en Pau?" — is Pau available? "Està la Rosa?" — may I have Rosa? The answer is short: "Sí, ara va" — coming now, "Un moment, si us plau" — one moment. Picking up the receiver, one introduces oneself as "Sóc jo" — "it is me", not with a long name. For example: “Està en Pau? — Un moment, ara va” — Is Pau there? — One moment, he is coming now. A rule from the…
How it works
To ask whether a person is "in" — through estar: "Està en Pau?" — is Pau available? "Està la Rosa?" — may I have Rosa? The answer is short: "Sí, ara va" — coming now, "Un moment, si us plau" — one moment. Picking up the receiver, one introduces oneself as "Sóc jo" — "it is me", not with a long name.
Requests on the phone glue the pronoun right to the verb with a hyphen: passa-m'ho — pass it to me (literally "pass me it"), digues-li que truqui — tell him to call, li passo la trucada — I am putting him through. The combination "me + ho" contracts into "m'ho": passa-m'ho, digues-m'ho, porta-m'ho. The same "m'ho" works off the phone too: "Digues-m'ho de nou" — say it to me again.
Table
| construction | meaning | example |
|---|---|---|
| Està + name? | available? may I have him? | Està 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
- Està en Pau? — Un moment, ara vaIs Pau there? — One moment, he is coming now
- Passa-m'ho: la mare vol parlar amb tuPass the phone: mother wants to talk to you
- Digues-m'ho de nou, que no t'he sentitSay it to me again, I did not hear you
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" — through estar: "Està en Pau?" — is Pau available? "Està la Rosa?" — may I have Rosa? The answer is short: "Sí, ara va" — coming now, "Un moment, si us plau" — one moment. Picking up the receiver, one introduces oneself as "Sóc jo" — "it is me", not with a long name.
What does it look like in an example sentence Catalan?
“Està 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.