despertar-se
“despertar-se” — to wake up in Catalan. Verb, level A1, topic — everyday life and routine. Reflexive: to wake oneself — em desperto. El despertador — the alarm clock: the same family. In a live sentence: “Em desperto a les set cada dia” — I wake up at seven every day. One of 14 words in the set “everyday life and routine” in the Catalan course.
In short
| Written in Catalan | despertar-se |
| Translation | to wake up |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Reflexive: to wake oneself — em desperto. El despertador — the alarm clock: the same family
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Em desperto a les set cada diaI wake up at seven every day
Nearby words: everyday life and routine
Work, home, rest, errands. The words the answer to “how are things?” is made of.
- el treballworkThe double ll is one fused ly sound: truh-BAL. Work as the place, and tinc treball — I'm busy
- treballarto workTo work on something is treballar en; to work as something is treballar de
- aixecar-seto get upReflexive, Latin 'to lift upward': to lift oneself — m'aixeco. About prices rising, the same verb without -se
- rentar-seto wash upReflexive: to wash oneself — em rento. Without -se the same verb washes the dishes: rentar els plats
- pentinar-seto comb one's hairReflexive, from el pentinat, the hairstyle: em pentino. With el cabell it combs the hair — still about oneself
- afaitar-seto shaveReflexive: s'afaita al bany — he shaves in the bathroom. Stress the last a
- vestir-seto get dressedReflexive: to dress oneself. Em vesteixo — I get dressed: mind the -ixo, as in començo
- despullar-seto get undressedReflexive, from la pell, the skin: literally to un-skin. Es despulla abans del bany — he undresses before the bath
- seureto sit downTo sit down and to sit are one word: seure. Seu aquí — sit here: the verb is both the pose and the motion
- ficar-se al llitto go to bedLiterally 'to get oneself into the bed': no ceremony. El llit — the bed: a word of its own
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “everyday life and routine”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to wake up” in Catalan?
Reflexive: to wake oneself — em desperto. El despertador — the alarm clock: the same family
- How do you say “to get dressed” in Catalan?
Reflexive: to dress oneself. Em vesteixo — I get dressed: mind the -ixo, as in començo
- How do you say “to get up” in Catalan?
Reflexive, Latin 'to lift upward': to lift oneself — m'aixeco. About prices rising, the same verb without -se
- How do you say “to go to bed” in Catalan?
Literally 'to get oneself into the bed': no ceremony. El llit — the bed: a word of its own
- How do you say “to shave” in Catalan?
Reflexive: s'afaita al bany — he shaves in the bathroom. Stress the last a
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “to wake up” in Catalan?
«despertar-se». In a live sentence: “Em desperto a les set cada dia” — I wake up at seven every day. Verb, level A1, from the set “everyday life and routine”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Reflexive: to wake oneself — em desperto. El despertador — the alarm clock: the same family. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.