és costum
“és costum” — it's the custom in Valencian. Phrase, level B1. Literally it is custom: the way things are done here is said to be in the custom. Què és costum per ací? — what is the custom around here? — the best way into any unfamiliar place. And here is ací: the Valencian giveaway; the central norm says aquí. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Valencian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Valencian | és costum |
| Translation | it's the custom |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- és costumit's the custom
Why it looks that way
Literally it is custom: the way things are done here is said to be in the custom. Què és costum per ací? — what is the custom around here? — the best way into any unfamiliar place. And here is ací: the Valencian giveaway; the central norm says aquí
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.
- Ací és costum dinar tard i sopar més tard encaraHere it's the custom to lunch late, and to sup even later
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 “it's the custom” in Valencian?
«és costum». In a live sentence: “Ací és costum dinar tard i sopar més tard encara” — Here it's the custom to lunch late, and to sup even later. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally it is custom: the way things are done here is said to be in the custom. Què és costum per ací? — what is the custom around here? — the best way into any unfamiliar place. And here is ací: the Valencian giveaway; the central norm says aquí. 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.