el mateix
“el mateix” — self, the same in Catalan. Pronoun, level A1, topic — pronouns. Ell mateix ho va fer — he did it himself. One word covers the emphatic self and the sameness. In a live sentence: “Ell mateix va fer el pastís” — He made the cake himself. One of 27 words in the set “pronouns” in the Catalan course.
In short
| Written in Catalan | el mateix |
| Translation | self, the same |
| Part of speech | pronoun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Ell mateix ho va fer — he did it himself. One word covers the emphatic self and the sameness
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.
- Ell mateix va fer el pastísHe made the cake himself
Nearby words: pronouns
I, you, we, they. There is a handful of them, they turn up in every sentence, and politeness rides on them: most of these languages keep a formal “you” apart from a familiar one, and choosing the wrong one is noticed faster than a mispronounced word.
- joICatalans usually drop it: the verb ending already says who acts. Jo goes in for emphasis
- tuyouPeople switch to first names and the informal you quickly here — even with a shopkeeper. Moving to vostè signals distance, not default politeness
- vostèyou (formal)The polite you, for strangers and elders. The verb stays in the third person: vostè és — literally 'you is he'
- ellheAlso stands for masculine things, since every noun carries a gender: the pronoun simply follows it
- ellasheThe plural elles is for women only; ells covers men and mixed company
- nosaltresweNo gender: one we for men and women alike — here Catalan is simpler than Spanish
- ellstheyElls for men and mixed company, elles for women only. One man is enough to make it ells
- el meumyPossessives go with an article and agree in gender: el meu llibre, la meva casa. The plural els meus covers both 'my things' and 'my folks'
- el teuyour (informal)Built the same way: el teu cotxe, la teva casa. The article is obligatory — without it the word does not read
- el nostreourOurs is longer: el nostre pis, la nostra ciutat. The -tre/-tra ending announces 'our' at once
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “pronouns”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “self, the same” in Catalan?
Ell mateix ho va fer — he did it himself. One word covers the emphatic self and the sameness
- How do you say “they” in Catalan?
Ells for men and mixed company, elles for women only. One man is enough to make it ells
- How do you say “you (formal)” in Catalan?
The polite you, for strangers and elders. The verb stays in the third person: vostè és — literally 'you is he'
- How do you say “our” in Catalan?
Ours is longer: el nostre pis, la nostra ciutat. The -tre/-tra ending announces 'our' at once
- How do you say “we” in Catalan?
No gender: one we for men and women alike — here Catalan is simpler than Spanish
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 “self, the same” in Catalan?
«el mateix». In a live sentence: “Ell mateix va fer el pastís” — He made the cake himself. Pronoun, level A1, from the set “pronouns”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Ell mateix ho va fer — he did it himself. One word covers the emphatic self and the sameness. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.