Catalan for Romanian speakers
You already know more Catalan than you think. Of the 2,264 everyday words in Cognata, 1,312 have a Romanian cognate — the same word, reshaped by centuries of speech. Start from those, learn the regular changes that link the two languages, and keep the false friends in sight.
Sets your pairing to Romanian → Catalan and opens the cognates.
- share a source
- 58%
- inherited on both sides
- 12%
- to learn fresh
- 42%
2,264 words compared
Words you already know
Everyday words whose Romanian and Catalan forms come from the same source.
The sound laws between them
Regular changes that turn a Romanian word into its Catalan cognate — learn one and it pays out across hundreds of words.
- Stressed short E breaks into ieie; ia before a or ă (piatră); fused with a preceding d, t (zece, țară)e [ɛ] (no diphthong); i next to a palatal (llit)PETRAMpiatrăpedra
- Stressed short O breaks into ue / uo / euo; oa [o̯a] when a or e follows (poartă, moarte)o [ɔ] (no diphthong)NOVUMnounou
- French stressed free A becomes ea (kept); â before n (câine)a (kept)MAREmaremar
- French fronts long U to [y]u [u] (kept)u [u] (kept)LŪNAMlunălluna
- AU becomes oau (kept); ău unstressedoAURUMauror
- French vowel + nasal becomes a nasal vowelvowel + n kept; vowel raised before n (pâine, mână, timp)oral vowel; final n after the stress lost (pa, vi)PĀNEMpâinepa
- Spanish initial F- becomes h- (silent)f- keptf- keptFĪLIUM (fr. from nom. FĪLIUS)fiufill
- Voiceless stops between vowels softenkept (p t c)b (v) d g; p t c again at the end of a word (amic, agut)VĪTAMvităvida
- C before E and Itʃ (c)s (c, ç); between vowels lost, or u at the end (veí, deu)CAELUMcercel
- French CA becomes chaca kept (câ-, că- in Romanian spelling)ca keptCABALLUMcalcavall
- Initial I- (J-) and G before E, Ij [ʒ] (joc); g [dʒ] before e, i (ger)j, g [ʒ]IOCUMjocjoc
- B and V merge in Spanishv kept; B and V between vowels often lost (cal)merged as in Spanish (Central Catalan); v kept in Balearic and parts of ValenciaVĪNUMvinvi
- L before a consonant becomes ul kept (alt, cald)l kept (altre, falç)ALTERUMaltaltre
- CTptit, t (the i absorbed by the vowel: nit, fet)NOCTEMnoaptenit
- L + yodi [j] (the l lost)ll [ʎ]FOLIAMfoaiefulla
- C'L inside a wordchi, che [kʲ]ll [ʎ]OCULUMochiull
- CL-, PL-, FL- at the start of a wordCL- → che-, chi- [kʲ]; PL-, FL- keptcl- pl- fl- (kept)CLĀVEMcheieclau
- NN, GN and N + yodNI → i (vie); GN → mn (pumn); NN → n (an)ny [ɲ], also from NN (any)ANNUManany
- S + consonant at the start of a words- (kept)es-STELLAMsteaestrella
- French loses S before a consonant (^)s kepts keptCOSTAMcoastăcosta
- Italian assimilates clusterspt and mn kept (șapte, somn); x → s, pssimplified: pt → t, mn → n; x → ix [ʃ]SEPTEMșapteset
- Final vowels-a → -ă, -e kept; -o (-U) dropped after a single consonantdropped except -a (said [ə]); -e kept after clustersLUPUMlupllop
- Plurals: -s or -i-i, -e (like Italian); -uri for many neuters-s, -es (from the accusative)LUPŌS (acc.) / LUPĪ (nom.)lupillops
- -TĀTEM: -dad, -té, -tà-tate-tatCĪVITĀTEMcetateciutat
- -TIŌNEM: learned -ción, inherited -zón-țiune (learned); inherited -ciune (tăciune)-ció (learned); inherited -ó (raó, tió)RATIŌNEMrațiune (learned)raó
- -ĀRIUM: -ero, -ier, -aio-ar, -are (căldare)-er, -eraCALDĀRIAMcăldarecaldera
- Single L between vowels: lost in Portuguese, r in Romanianr (cer, fir, sare)l keptFĪLUMfirfil
- Portuguese loses single N between vowelsn kept; a before it raised to â (lână, mână)n kept; lost where it became final (mà; see final-n)LĀNAMlânăllana
- Romanian turns velars into labialspt, ps, mn; p, b (labial)it/t, ix [ʃ], ny; qu, guOCTŌoptvuit
- Romanian T, D, S before i become ț, z, șț [ts], z, ș [ʃ]t, d, s keptDĪCEREzicedir
- Catalan drops -n at the end of a wordn kept (pâine, vin)lost (pa, vi); back in the plural (pans, vins)PĀNEMpâinepa
False friends to watch
No classic traps between these two in Cognata yet — but every word page flags the ones it knows.
Words to learn fresh
Common words where Catalan went its own way.