el semàfor
“el semàfor” — traffic light in Catalan. Noun, level A1, topic — the city and its places. The same Greek root as semaphore: "carrying a sign". Green is verd, red is vermell: the colors of unit two. In a live sentence: “El semàfor és vermell: espera una mica” — The traffic light is red: wait a little. One of 157 words in the set “the city and its places” in the Catalan course.
In short
| Written in Catalan | el semàfor |
| Translation | traffic light |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
The same Greek root as semaphore: "carrying a sign". Green is verd, red is vermell: the colors of unit two
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.
- El semàfor és vermell: espera una micaThe traffic light is red: wait a little
Nearby words: the city and its places
Street, square, pharmacy, bank. An address is built out of these, and an address is something you have to both say and understand.
- el restaurantrestaurantMasculine. As in Spain, people more often go to el bar: morning coffee, lunch and an evening beer all happen there
- la ciutatcityFeminine, like everything in -tat. Stress at the end: seeyoo-TAT. The mid-dot in tranquil·la nearby is that same dot
- el carrerstreetWith two r's: the first is short, between vowels it trills. Addresses abbreviate it: c/ Major, 12
- 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
- la farmàciapharmacyLook for the green cross on the sign. The night duty one is farmàcia de guàrdia — the list hangs on every door
- el bancbankThe same word means 'bench', as in Spanish. Both come from the Germanic bench: money changers worked behind one
- l'estacióstationBoth the subway station and the train station: l'estació de metro, l'estació de tren. Before a vowel la shrinks to l'
- la bicicletabicycleIn speech pressed to la bici. Pista de bicicletes — a bike lane: in Valencia there are more of them than car lanes
- la parada d'autobúsbus stopLiterally "the stop of the bus": la parada — from parar, to halt. Taxis wait at the parada de taxis
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “the city and its places”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “traffic light” in Catalan?
The same Greek root as semaphore: "carrying a sign". Green is verd, red is vermell: the colors of unit two
- How do you say “bank” in Catalan?
The same word means 'bench', as in Spanish. Both come from the Germanic bench: money changers worked behind one
- How do you say “street” in Catalan?
With two r's: the first is short, between vowels it trills. Addresses abbreviate it: c/ Major, 12
- How do you say “bus stop” in Catalan?
Literally "the stop of the bus": la parada — from parar, to halt. Taxis wait at the parada de taxis
- How do you say “pharmacy” in Catalan?
Look for the green cross on the sign. The night duty one is farmàcia de guàrdia — the list hangs on every door
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 “traffic light” in Catalan?
«el semàfor». In a live sentence: “El semàfor és vermell: espera una mica” — The traffic light is red: wait a little. Noun, level A1, from the set “the city and its places”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The same Greek root as semaphore: "carrying a sign". Green is verd, red is vermell: the colors of unit two. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.