el perfum
“el perfum” — perfume in Catalan. Noun, level A2, topic — shopping and money. Literally "through-smoke": from the Latin per fumum — so the incense smelled. Perfume is the most frequent birthday present. In a live sentence: “Un perfum nou per l'aniversari de la mare” — New perfume for mother's birthday. One of 85 words in the set “shopping and money” in the Catalan course.
In short
| Written in Catalan | el perfum |
| Translation | perfume |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "through-smoke": from the Latin per fumum — so the incense smelled. Perfume is the most frequent birthday present
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.
- Un perfum nou per l'aniversari de la mareNew perfume for mother's birthday
Nearby words: shopping and money
How much it costs, whether there is a smaller one, whether cards are accepted. A shop forgives mistakes: miss a word and they will show you the thing with their hands anyway.
- quant costa?how much is it?For one thing: quant costa? For several: quant costen? The verb agrees with the goods, not the buyer
- l'euroeuroIt changes in the plural: un euro, dos euros. The cents are els cèntims
- la botigashopCatalonia's own word: the Spanish tienda is not used here. Botiga de tot — a shop of a little bit of everything
- el mercatmarketThe covered city market is el mercat; the street market on certain days is el mercadillo — a word that arrived from Spanish
- el taulellcounterThe double ll is one fused ly sound: tuh-LYEL. The market counter is a taulell de mercat
- el venedorsellerFrom vendre, to sell. Feminine la venedora: the gender lives in the ending
- el compradorbuyerFrom comprar, to buy — a word shared with Spanish. A woman buyer is la compradora
- la balançascalesbuh-LAN-suh: the ç is always s. Hence balança comercial — the trade balance
- el quilokiloThe short form of quilogram, like English 'kilo'. Un quilo de préssecs — a kilo of peaches
- la meitathalfmuh-TAT. La meitat de quilo — half a kilo. The same word is half a watermelon and half past five
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “shopping and money”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “perfume” in Catalan?
Literally "through-smoke": from the Latin per fumum — so the incense smelled. Perfume is the most frequent birthday present
- How do you say “buyer” in Catalan?
From comprar, to buy — a word shared with Spanish. A woman buyer is la compradora
- How do you say “shop” in Catalan?
Catalonia's own word: the Spanish tienda is not used here. Botiga de tot — a shop of a little bit of everything
- How do you say “half” in Catalan?
muh-TAT. La meitat de quilo — half a kilo. The same word is half a watermelon and half past five
- How do you say “seller” in Catalan?
From vendre, to sell. Feminine la venedora: the gender lives in the ending
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 “perfume” in Catalan?
«el perfum». In a live sentence: “Un perfum nou per l'aniversari de la mare” — New perfume for mother's birthday. Noun, level A2, from the set “shopping and money”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally "through-smoke": from the Latin per fumum — so the incense smelled. Perfume is the most frequent birthday present. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.