ells
“ells” — they in Catalan. Pronoun, level A0, topic — pronouns. Ells for men and mixed company, elles for women only. One man is enough to make it ells. In a live sentence: “Ells arriben dissabte al matí” — They arrive on Saturday morning. One of 27 words in the set “pronouns” in the Catalan course.
In short
| Written in Catalan | ells |
| Translation | they |
| Part of speech | pronoun |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Ells for men and mixed company, elles for women only. One man is enough to make it ells
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.
- Ells arriben dissabte al matíThey arrive on Saturday morning
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
- 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
- el vostreyour (plural)El vostre for masculine, la vostra for feminine — nostre/nostra with a v. One word for one person or a group
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 “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 “my” in Catalan?
Possessives 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'
- 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 “your (plural)” in Catalan?
El vostre for masculine, la vostra for feminine — nostre/nostra with a v. One word for one person or a group
- 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 “they” in Catalan?
«ells». In a live sentence: “Ells arriben dissabte al matí” — They arrive on Saturday morning. Pronoun, level A0, from the set “pronouns”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Ells for men and mixed company, elles for women only. One man is enough to make it ells. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.