les espècies
“les espècies” — spices in Catalan. Noun, level B1, topic — food and drink. With the accent on the é. The same word as espècie, a species in biology: spices here are "kinds". Valencian saffron is the priciest of them. In a live sentence: “Les espècies fan bona olor a la cuina” — The spices smell good in the kitchen. One of 241 words in the set “food and drink” in the Catalan course.
In short
| Written in Catalan | les espècies |
| Translation | spices |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
With the accent on the é. The same word as espècie, a species in biology: spices here are "kinds". Valencian saffron is the priciest of them
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.
- Les espècies fan bona olor a la cuinaThe spices smell good in the kitchen
Nearby words: food and drink
A menu, a market, a shop sign, the question “what is this?”. Food is the most frequent subject of the first weeks and the safest excuse to start talking.
- el cafècoffeeThe drink and the place in one. The el is the masculine article — and a gender hint
- el teteaEl te with the accent is 'tea'; te without it is 'to you'. The pair works like sí and si
- l'aiguawaterA feminine word, yet the article is el, which shrinks to l' before a vowel: l'aigua. The apostrophe is not decoration — it is obligatory spelling
- el pabreadThe bakery is a fleca — a word Spanish does not have. Pa amb tomàquet, bread with tomato, is the country's signature snack
- el formatgecheeseA cousin of French fromage and it sounds like it: fur-MAH-juh. The final t is faint
- la carnmeatMeat of any kind. The cuts are described: carn de vedella is beef, carn de porc is pork
- el peixfishThe x is a sh here: pesh. The fish in the sea is peix too — unlike Spanish, which keeps a separate word for it
- la fruitafruitA collective, so it stays singular: m'agrada la fruita — I like fruit. One piece is una fruita
- la pomaappleHence pomar, an apple orchard. In Catalan New York stays la Gran Poma — the Big Apple
- la taronjaorangeBoth the fruit and the color: una samarreta taronja — an orange T-shirt. Valencia, which sent the word across Europe, is orange country
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “food and drink”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “spices” in Catalan?
With the accent on the é. The same word as espècie, a species in biology: spices here are "kinds". Valencian saffron is the priciest of them
- How do you say “fish” in Catalan?
The x is a sh here: pesh. The fish in the sea is peix too — unlike Spanish, which keeps a separate word for it
- How do you say “water” in Catalan?
A feminine word, yet the article is el, which shrinks to l' before a vowel: l'aigua. The apostrophe is not decoration — it is obligatory spelling
- How do you say “orange” in Catalan?
Both the fruit and the color: una samarreta taronja — an orange T-shirt. Valencia, which sent the word across Europe, is orange country
- How do you say “meat” in Catalan?
Meat of any kind. The cuts are described: carn de vedella is beef, carn de porc is pork
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 “spices” in Catalan?
«les espècies». In a live sentence: “Les espècies fan bona olor a la cuina” — The spices smell good in the kitchen. Noun, level B1, from the set “food and drink”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
With the accent on the é. The same word as espècie, a species in biology: spices here are "kinds". Valencian saffron is the priciest of them. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.