Catalan 101

It was Greek to me. ~William Shakespeare

To know how to pronounce vowels in Catalan, is necessary to know the strong syllable of the word. a, i, o change if are in the strong syllable or a weak one.

a
like 'a' in "apple" if in the strong syllable or 'e' in "over" if in a weak syllable

e
like 'e' in "bed" or 'ea' in "bear" if in the strong syllable or 'e' in "over" if in a weak syllable

i
like 'ee' in "bee"

o
like the first component of the diphthong 'ow' in "low" or 'o' in "bond" if in the strong syllable or 'oo' in "hoop" if in a weak syllable

u
like 'oo' in "hoop"

In the case of e and o in a strong syllable, you can only know how it sounds if has the accent sign. è sounds always as 'e' in "bed", é sounds as 'ea' in "bear", ò sounds as 'o' in "bond" and ó sounds as the first component of the diphthong 'ow' in "low".

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