sempre
“sempre” — always in Catalan. Adverb, level A2, topic — time, days and hours. Short and reliable, like what it names. Sempre igual — always the same: said with a smile and with a sigh alike. In a live sentence: “El tren sempre arriba amb retard” — The train always arrives late. One of 160 words in the set “time, days and hours” in the Catalan course.
In short
| Written in Catalan | sempre |
| Translation | always |
| Part of speech | adverb |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Short and reliable, like what it names. Sempre igual — always the same: said with a smile and with a sigh alike
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 tren sempre arriba amb retardThe train always arrives late
Nearby words: time, days and hours
Today, tomorrow, in the morning, at six. You cannot arrange to meet without these — let alone understand the answer.
- el matímorningIts own word — unlike Spanish, where the morning hides inside mañana. Al matí — in the mornings: this is how any day's story begins
- el diadayMasculine despite the -a: el dia, bon dia. One of the main gender exceptions
- avuitodayStress at the end: uh-BOO-ee. Avui en dia is "these days", not "today at noon"
- demàtomorrowFrom the Latin de mane, 'from morning': tomorrow is what arrives with the new morning. The morning itself is el matí, a word of its own
- ahiryesterdayStress at the end: uh-EER. Abans-d'ahir — the day before yesterday, literally 'before yesterday'
- la tardaafternoonTarda stretches from lunch to dark: the second half of the day and the early evening. After dark, la nit begins
- la nitnightIt starts at dark, so a ten o'clock dinner is already a la nit. Hence bona nit too
- l'horahourBoth the hour as a measure and the time on the clock: quina hora és? And 'one o'clock' is already la una, feminine
- primer de totfirst of allLiterally "first of everything": the counting of thoughts begins. Second of all is already near — en segon lloc
- en segon llocsecondlyLiterally "in second place": thoughts line up by places, as on a podium. Next: en tercer lloc — if the arguments last
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “time, days and hours”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “always” in Catalan?
Short and reliable, like what it names. Sempre igual — always the same: said with a smile and with a sigh alike
- How do you say “night” in Catalan?
It starts at dark, so a ten o'clock dinner is already a la nit. Hence bona nit too
- How do you say “today” in Catalan?
Stress at the end: uh-BOO-ee. Avui en dia is "these days", not "today at noon"
- How do you say “secondly” in Catalan?
Literally "in second place": thoughts line up by places, as on a podium. Next: en tercer lloc — if the arguments last
- How do you say “afternoon” in Catalan?
Tarda stretches from lunch to dark: the second half of the day and the early evening. After dark, la nit begins
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 “always” in Catalan?
«sempre». In a live sentence: “El tren sempre arriba amb retard” — The train always arrives late. Adverb, level A2, from the set “time, days and hours”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Short and reliable, like what it names. Sempre igual — always the same: said with a smile and with a sigh alike. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.