la duana
“la duana” — customs in Catalan. Noun, level A2, topic — transport. A word from the tolls of the old customs unions. Passar la duana — to go through customs. In a live sentence: “A la duana no em van aturar” — At customs I was not stopped. One of 104 words in the set “transport” in the Catalan course.
In short
| Written in Catalan | la duana |
| Translation | customs |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
A word from the tolls of the old customs unions. Passar la duana — to go through customs
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.
- A la duana no em van aturarAt customs I was not stopped
Nearby words: transport
Bus, metro, taxi, stop, station. These are words you need to recognize in writing — off a departure board and off a sign.
- l'estacióstationBoth the subway station and the train station: l'estació de metro, l'estació de tren. Before a vowel la shrinks to l'
- el metrosubwayMasculine and unchanging: el metro, vaig en metro. The same word is the meter of length
- l'autobúsbusIn the plural the apostrophe vanishes: els autobusos. The intercity bus goes by another name — l'autocar
- el taxitaxiMasculine: el taxi. You take it at the stand — la parada de taxis — rather than wave your arm
- el bitlletticketFrom the basic phrase dos bitllets per a Girona. Train, bus and cinema — one word for all tickets
- l'horaritimetableoh-ruh-REE. The train timetable is l'horari de tren; the working one is horari laboral
- la sortidadepartureFrom sortir, to go out: a departure and an exit at once. Sortida on the board is the departure
- l'arribadaarrivalFrom arribar, to arrive. Arribades on the board — arrivals, against sortides
- la viaplatformLiterally "way": a platform here is a way. The same word is the rail track and the via in addresses
- el vagócarriageA relative of wagon. Vagó de primera — a first-class carriage
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “transport”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “customs” in Catalan?
A word from the tolls of the old customs unions. Passar la duana — to go through customs
- How do you say “departure” in Catalan?
From sortir, to go out: a departure and an exit at once. Sortida on the board is the departure
- How do you say “bus” in Catalan?
In the plural the apostrophe vanishes: els autobusos. The intercity bus goes by another name — l'autocar
- How do you say “carriage” in Catalan?
A relative of wagon. Vagó de primera — a first-class carriage
- How do you say “timetable” in Catalan?
oh-ruh-REE. The train timetable is l'horari de tren; the working one is horari laboral
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 “customs” in Catalan?
«la duana». In a live sentence: “A la duana no em van aturar” — At customs I was not stopped. Noun, level A2, from the set “transport”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
A word from the tolls of the old customs unions. Passar la duana — to go through customs. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.