tres
“tres” — three in Catalan. Numeral, level A0, topic — numbers and counting. Hence trimestre — three months — and triple. In a live sentence: “L'autobús passa cada tres minuts” — The bus runs every three minutes. One of 56 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Catalan course.
In short
| Written in Catalan | tres |
| Translation | three |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Hence trimestre — three months — and triple
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.
- L'autobús passa cada tres minutsThe bus runs every three minutes
Nearby words: numbers and counting
A price, the change, a house number, the time you agreed on, the floor. Numbers are the first thing you have to catch by ear — and the first thing people say fast.
- unoneMasculine: un cafè. For a woman or a feminine thing: una. Counting has no full uno in Catalan
- dostwoIt does not change by gender: dos cafès and dos cases alike
- quatrefourThe qu reads k, the u is silent: KWA-truh. Its neighbor què is the question word 'what'
- cincfiveThe final c devoices and sounds like k: sink
- sissixSixteen is setze, literally ten-six: numbers past ten are fused
- setsevenThe same word means 'thirst': tinc set — I'm thirsty, literally 'I have thirst'
- vuiteightNot Spanish ocho: the Catalan word is its own, buoyt. Eighteen is divuit
- nounineThe same word means 'new': un llibre nou. Only the context tells them apart — and the hint nearby
- deutenNineteen is dinou, literally ten-nine: the tens go first
- onzeelevenA fused ten-one: from ten up, Catalan builds its numbers with no conjunction
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “numbers and counting”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “three” in Catalan?
Hence trimestre — three months — and triple
- How do you say “eight” in Catalan?
Not Spanish ocho: the Catalan word is its own, buoyt. Eighteen is divuit
- How do you say “four” in Catalan?
The qu reads k, the u is silent: KWA-truh. Its neighbor què is the question word 'what'
- How do you say “eleven” in Catalan?
A fused ten-one: from ten up, Catalan builds its numbers with no conjunction
- How do you say “seven” in Catalan?
The same word means 'thirst': tinc set — I'm thirsty, literally 'I have thirst'
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 “three” in Catalan?
«tres». In a live sentence: “L'autobús passa cada tres minuts” — The bus runs every three minutes. Numeral, level A0, from the set “numbers and counting”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Hence trimestre — three months — and triple. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.