Phone turns: "Està en Pau?" and "Passa-m'ho"
To ask whether a person is in, estar helps: Està en Pau? — can Pau come to the phone? Està la Rosa? — may I have Rosa? For example: “Està en Pau? — Un moment, ara va” — Is Pau there? — One moment, he is coming now. A rule from the Valencian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
To ask whether a person is in, estar helps: Està en Pau? — can Pau come to the phone? Està la Rosa? — may I have Rosa?
The answers are short: Sí, ara va — he is coming, Un moment, si us plau — one moment. Picking up, one says Sóc jo — it is me.
Requests on the phone glue the pronoun to the verb with a hyphen: passa-m'ho — pass me the phone. Digues-li que truqui — tell him to call.
"Me + ho" contracts into m'ho: passa-m'ho, digues-m'ho.
Table
| construction | meaning | example |
|---|---|---|
| Està + name? | available? may I have him? | Està la Maria? — Sí, ara va |
| passa-m'ho | pass it/the phone to me | Passa-m'ho, si us plau |
| digues-li / li passo | tell him / putting him through | Digues-li que truqui més tard |
By example
- Està en Pau? — Un moment, ara vaIs Pau there? — One moment, he is coming now
- Passa-m'ho: la mare vol parlar amb tuPass the phone: mother wants to talk to you
- Digues-m'ho de nou, que no t'he sentitSay it to me again, I did not hear you
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Phone turns: how does it work in Valencian?
To ask whether a person is in, estar helps: Està en Pau? — can Pau come to the phone? Està la Rosa? — may I have Rosa?
What does it look like in an example sentence Valencian?
“Està en Pau? — Un moment, ara va” — Is Pau there? — One moment, he is coming now. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.