Lingoflydinou
- dinounineteen
“dinou” — nineteen in Catalan. Numeral, level A1, topic — numbers and counting. Ten-nine. With this number the teenage years run out. In a live sentence: “El tren de les dinou” — The evening train leaves at nineteen hundred. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 56 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Catalan course.
In short
| Written in Catalan | dinou |
| Translation | nineteen |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Ten-nine. With this number the teenage years run out
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 de les dinouThe evening train leaves at nineteen hundred
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
- tresthreeHence trimestre — three months — and triple
- 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
- 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
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 “nineteen” in Catalan?
Ten-nine. With this number the teenage years run out
- How do you say “seven” in Catalan?
The same word means 'thirst': tinc set — I'm thirsty, literally 'I have thirst'
- How do you say “three” in Catalan?
Hence trimestre — three months — and triple
- How do you say “ten” in Catalan?
Nineteen is dinou, literally ten-nine: the tens go first
- How do you say “six” in Catalan?
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 “nineteen” in Catalan?
«dinou». In a live sentence: “El tren de les dinou” — The evening train leaves at nineteen hundred. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Numeral, level A1, from the set “numbers and counting”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Ten-nine. With this number the teenage years run out. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how this sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.