on és?
“on és?” — where is it? in Catalan. Phrase, level A0, topic — asking the way. Literally 'where is?': the question goes through ésser, not through estar — a difference from Spanish. The verb is never dropped. In a live sentence: “On és el metro?” — Where is the subway? One of 28 words in the set “asking the way” in the Catalan course.
In short
| Written in Catalan | on és? |
| Translation | where is it? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Literally 'where is?': the question goes through ésser, not through estar — a difference from Spanish. The verb is never dropped
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.
- On és el metro?Where is the subway?
Nearby words: asking the way
Right, left, straight on, how far. You ask the way rarely — and always at the moment when there is no time to work it out.
- la dretarightA la dreta — to the right. The word itself is feminine: la mà dreta — the right hand
- l'esquerraleftA word of its own, from Latin — not the Basque izquierda of Spanish. A l'esquerra — to the left
- tot rectstraight aheadLiterally 'all straight'. Recte is the same word as 'straight' in recta final, the final straight
- a propnearA prop de — close to something: a prop de casa. Without de it is simply 'near'
- llunyfarOpens with the double ll — one fused ly sound: lyoon. Lluny de — far from something
- aquíhereCatalan splits space three ways: aquí is here by me, allí is there by you, allà is out there in the distance
- allàthereThe far 'there', out of reach. The nearer 'over there, by you' is allí
- per on s'hi vahow do I get there?Literally 'through where does one go there': an impersonal — the road is not yours or mine, it simply is
- arribar-hito get thereArribar + hi: to arrive there — hi stands for the place. S'hi arriba en bus — you can get there by bus
- a l'altra bandaon the other sideLiterally 'on the other side', as it reads. La banda — the side: you knew it
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “asking the way”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “where is it?” in Catalan?
Literally 'where is?': the question goes through ésser, not through estar — a difference from Spanish. The verb is never dropped
- How do you say “there” in Catalan?
The far 'there', out of reach. The nearer 'over there, by you' is allí
- How do you say “straight ahead” in Catalan?
Literally 'all straight'. Recte is the same word as 'straight' in recta final, the final straight
- How do you say “on the other side” in Catalan?
Literally 'on the other side', as it reads. La banda — the side: you knew it
- How do you say “here” in Catalan?
Catalan splits space three ways: aquí is here by me, allí is there by you, allà is out there in the distance
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 “where is it?” in Catalan?
«on és?» In a live sentence: “On és el metro?” — Where is the subway? Phrase, level A0, from the set “asking the way”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally 'where is?': the question goes through ésser, not through estar — a difference from Spanish. The verb is never dropped. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.