l'escombriaire
“l'escombriaire” — street sweeper in Valencian. Noun, level A1, topic — the city and its places. The sweeper of the streets; he passes with his cart before sunrise. In a live sentence: “L'escombriaire passa amb el carro abans que surti el sol” — The street sweeper passes with his cart before sunrise. One of 157 words in the set “the city and its places” in the Valencian course.
In short
| Written in Valencian | l'escombriaire |
| Translation | street sweeper |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
The sweeper of the streets; he passes with his cart before sunrise
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'escombriaire passa amb el carro abans que surti el solThe street sweeper passes with his cart before sunrise
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, and the everyday meal happens in el bar: morning coffee, lunch and an evening beer
- la ciutatcityFeminine like every -tat word. Stress at the end: siu-TAT. The dot in tranquil·la is the same geminated l as in the alphabet
- el carrerstreetWith two r's: the first is a short tap between vowels. Addresses use the short form: c/ Major, 12
- la botigashopThe local word — Spanish tienda is not used here. Botiga de tot — a little shop of everything
- el mercatmarketThe indoor city market is el mercat; the street one on set days is el mercadillo, a word borrowed from Spanish
- la farmàciapharmacyLook for the green cross on the sign. The night-duty one is the farmàcia de guàrdia — every pharmacy posts the list on its door
- el bancbankThe same word means bench, as in Spanish. Both come from the Germanic bench: money-changers worked at one
- l'estacióstationBoth the metro stop and the train station: estació de metro, estació de tren. The article la shrinks before the vowel: l'estació
- el semàfortraffic lightThe traffic light; it's red — wait a little
- la bicicletabicycleThe bicycle; we ride to the park on it
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 “street sweeper” in Valencian?
The sweeper of the streets; he passes with his cart before sunrise
- How do you say “bank” in Valencian?
The same word means bench, as in Spanish. Both come from the Germanic bench: money-changers worked at one
- How do you say “street” in Valencian?
With two r's: the first is a short tap between vowels. Addresses use the short form: c/ Major, 12
- How do you say “bicycle” in Valencian?
The bicycle; we ride to the park on it
- How do you say “pharmacy” in Valencian?
Look for the green cross on the sign. The night-duty one is the farmàcia de guàrdia — every pharmacy posts the list on its 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 “street sweeper” in Valencian?
«l'escombriaire». In a live sentence: “L'escombriaire passa amb el carro abans que surti el sol” — The street sweeper passes with his cart before sunrise. Noun, level A1, from the set “the city and its places”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The sweeper of the streets; he passes with his cart before sunrise. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.