Catalan and Spanish look alike, which helps you read and can trip you up when you speak. "I went" is vaig anar in Catalan, and to anyone who knows Spanish, that looks like "I'm going to go." Some everyday words also change from region to region: a child is a nen in Barcelona and a xiquet in Valencia. So the prompts below name a region and ask ChatGPT to keep Spanish words out.
Which ChatGPT Prompts Work for Catalan?
Read Catalan from Your Region
Ask for the accent marks on every word in the list, since they show how a vowel sounds.
I'm learning Catalan, the way it's spoken in Barcelona. I can read short sentences about my day. Write 6 to 8 sentences in Catalan about the Sant Jordi book fair, using these words: llibre, rosa, parada. Use Catalan words even where people sometimes borrow from Spanish. Below the text, list each new word with its accent marks and its English meaning.
Ask What vaig, en, and hi Do
Catalan talks about the past with a form of anar plus a verb, so vaig menjar means "I ate." It also has two small words that stand in for something: en for "some" or "of it," as in En vols? (Do you want some?), and hi for "there."
Explain this Catalan sentence: "Ahir hi vaig anar amb la meva germana." If it uses vaig, vas, va, or another form of anar with a verb, tell me what time it's about, and whether the form is standard Catalan. If it uses en or hi, tell me what each one stands for. End with one new sentence I could say about my own weekend, using the same pattern.
Order at a Bar
In a Catalan bar, you might ask for a tallat, a coffee with a little milk, and pa amb tomàquet, bread rubbed with tomato. Ask ChatGPT to stay in Catalan the whole time, even when you get stuck.
Let's role-play in Catalan. I've just come into a bar in Barcelona, and you're behind the counter. I'd like a tallat and pa amb tomàquet. Keep speaking Catalan even if I slip into Spanish or English, and give me a chance to reply after every line. When I ask for the bill, give me the Catalan for every Spanish or English word I used.
Check Your Accents and Spanish Words
An accent mark can change a Catalan word. És means "is," while es is a small word like "himself," and són means "they are," while son means "sleep." Ask ChatGPT to check every accent and to find any Spanish words.
Check this Catalan text I wrote: "Paste what you wrote here" Check every accent mark, every l·l, and the words en and hi. Mark any Spanish word and give me the Catalan one. Show each of my sentences next to the fixed one, with a short reason in English for each change.
A role-play prompt for any language lets you pick a different place, like a pharmacy or a train station.
How Do You Check ChatGPT's Catalan?
Check each new word in a Catalan source, most of all when it looks like Spanish. Some look-alikes are fine, like casa, but bueno isn't Catalan: Catalan says bo for "good" and bé for "well."
- Search OptimotOptimot is the Catalan government's free search for word and grammar questions, made with the Institute for Catalan Studies. It can also search from a Spanish word to the Catalan one.
- Find It in the DIEC2The Institute for Catalan Studies has its dictionary, the DIEC2, free online. If a word ChatGPT gave you isn't there, ask it for another one.
- Ask for the One-Word PastBooks also use a one-word past, like anà for "he went." When you start reading novels, ask ChatGPT to show both forms side by side.
- Check the RegionIf you picked Valencia, ask ChatGPT to mark any word people in Barcelona would say differently, like eixir, which is sortir there.
Where Does Bubblegum Fit?
Bubblegum is a language app, and its Catalan lessons come with audio, so you hear each sentence as you read it.
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Catalan. You learn from Catalan you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
Pick a topic, and Poppy, your AI tutor, writes a Catalan lesson about it.
- Ask Poppy what en or hi stands for in the middle of a lesson.
- Point your camera at a café menu, and Poppy explains the Catalan on it.
- Live voice chat lets you talk with Poppy in Catalan when you're ready to speak.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- A Catalan novel or magazine you own can't be opened in Bubblegum's reader.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do I Need Spanish to Learn Catalan?
No. You can learn Catalan straight from English. If you know some Spanish, many words will look familiar, but check each one, because a Spanish word like entonces isn't Catalan, which says llavors.
Is Valencian the Same as Catalan?
Valencian is what people in the Valencia region call their language, and it's usually treated as a kind of Catalan. It has some words and verb endings of its own, so if you live there, choose Valencia in the prompts above.
Which App Should a Catalan Beginner Choose?
Is Bubblegum Free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Optimot, consultes lingüístiques: Generalitat de Catalunya with the IEC and TERMCAT; Spanish-to-Catalan search (checked 2026-10-15)
- Institut d'Estudis Catalans, DIEC2 dictionary (checked 2026-10-15)
- Wikipedia, Valencian language (checked 2026-10-15)
- Bubblegum
Checked on October 5, 2026 against each app's own pages.
