el primer
“el primer” — first in Valencian. Adjective, level A1, topic — numbers and counting. The first ordinal is its own word — from Latin primus. The feminine is primera. In a live sentence: “El primer dia de l'any” — The first day of the year. One of 56 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Valencian course.
In short
| Written in Valencian | el primer |
| Translation | first |
| Part of speech | adjective |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
The first ordinal is its own word — from Latin primus. The feminine is primera
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 primer dia de l'anyThe first day of the year
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. About a woman or a feminine thing — una. There is no full uno for counting
- dostwoIt does not change by gender: dos cafès and dos cases alike
- tresthreeHence trimestre — three months — and triple
- quatrefourThe qu reads k, the u stays silent: KWA-treh. Its neighbor què is the question-word what
- cincfiveThe final c goes voiceless and sounds k: sink
- sissixSixteen is setze, literally ten-six: the teens are plain fusions
- setsevenThe same word means thirst: tinc set — I'm thirsty, literally I have thirst
- huiteightThe Valencian huit — with an h, like hui: a hallmark of the norm; central Catalan says vuit. Eighteen is divuit
- nounineThe same word means new: un llibre nou. Only the context tells them apart
- deutenNineteen is dinou, literally ten-nine: tens come 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 “first” in Valencian?
The first ordinal is its own word — from Latin primus. The feminine is primera
- How do you say “seven” in Valencian?
The same word means thirst: tinc set — I'm thirsty, literally I have thirst
- How do you say “three” in Valencian?
Hence trimestre — three months — and triple
- How do you say “ten” in Valencian?
Nineteen is dinou, literally ten-nine: tens come first
- How do you say “six” in Valencian?
Sixteen is setze, literally ten-six: the teens are plain fusions
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 “first” in Valencian?
«el primer». In a live sentence: “El primer dia de l'any” — The first day of the year. Adjective, level A1, from the set “numbers and counting”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The first ordinal is its own word — from Latin primus. The feminine is primera. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.