saber
“saber” — to know in Catalan. Verb, level A1. soo-BEH, irregular: sé, saps, sap. Saber is knowing facts and knowing how: sé nedar — I can swim. In a live sentence: “Sé la resposta, però em fa vergonya” — I know the answer, but I am shy. A word from the everyday Catalan course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Catalan | saber |
| Translation | to know |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
soo-BEH, irregular: sé, saps, sap. Saber is knowing facts and knowing how: sé nedar — I can swim
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.
- Sé la resposta, però em fa vergonyaI know the answer, but I am shy
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 “to know” in Catalan?
«saber». In a live sentence: “Sé la resposta, però em fa vergonya” — I know the answer, but I am shy. Verb, level A1.
Why does this word look the way it does?
soo-BEH, irregular: sé, saps, sap. Saber is knowing facts and knowing how: sé nedar — I can swim. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.