mica en mica
“mica en mica” — little by little in Valencian. Adverb, level B1. Bit by bit; little by little the town fills with life with the coming of spring. In a live sentence: “Mica en mica, el poble s'omple de vida quan arriba la primavera” — Little by little the town fills with life with the coming of spring. A word from the everyday Valencian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Valencian | mica en mica |
| Translation | little by little |
| Part of speech | adverb |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Bit by bit; little by little the town fills with life with the coming of spring
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.
- Mica en mica, el poble s'omple de vida quan arriba la primaveraLittle by little the town fills with life with the coming of spring
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 “little by little” in Valencian?
«mica en mica». In a live sentence: “Mica en mica, el poble s'omple de vida quan arriba la primavera” — Little by little the town fills with life with the coming of spring. Adverb, level B1.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Bit by bit; little by little the town fills with life with the coming of spring. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.