| English | ES — Spanish | CA — Catalan | PT — Portuguese |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which neighborhood are we in? | ¿En qué barrio estamos? ehn keh · BAH-rryoh · ehs-TAH-mohs |
En quin barri estem? ehn keen · BAH-rree · ehs-TEM |
Em que bairro estamos? ehm kuh · BYE-rroo · shtuh-MOOSH |
| Is the old town far from here? | ¿Está lejos el casco antiguo de aquí? ehs-TAH · LEH-hohs · el KAHS-koh · ahn-TEE-gwoh |
Que és lluny el barri vell d'aquí? keh es · LYOON · el BAH-rree · VEL · dah-KEE |
O centro histórico fica longe daqui? oo SEN-troo · eesh-TOH-ree-koo · FEE-kuh · LONJ · dah-KEE |
| What's this street called? | ¿Cómo se llama esta calle? KOH-moh · seh YAH-mah · EHS-tah · KAH-yeh |
Com es diu aquest carrer? kohm · uhz DEEW · ah-KEHT · kah-RREH |
Como se chama esta rua? KOH-moo · suh SHAH-muh · ESH-tuh · RROO-uh |
| Is this a pedestrian street? | ¿Esta calle es peatonal? EHS-tah · KAH-yeh · ehs · peh-ah-toh-NAHL |
Aquest carrer és per a vianants? ah-KEHT · kah-RREH · es · pehr ah · bee-uh-NAHNTS |
Esta rua é pedonal? ESH-tuh · RROO-uh · eh · puh-doo-NAHL |
| I love this square. | Me encanta esta plaza. meh ehn-KAHN-tah · EHS-tah · PLAH-thah |
M'encanta aquesta plaça. mehn-KAHN-tuh · ah-KEHS-tuh · PLAH-suh |
Adoro esta praça. uh-DOH-roo · ESH-tuh · PRAH-suh |
| Which neighborhood is liveliest at night? | ¿Qué barrio tiene más ambiente por la noche? keh BAH-rryoh · tee-EH-neh · mahs ahm-bee-EHN-teh · por lah NOH-cheh |
Quin barri té més ambient de nit? keen BAH-rree · teh · mehs ahm-bee-EN · duh NEET |
Qual bairro tem mais animação à noite? kwahl BYE-rroo · teng · mighsh uh-nee-muh-SOWNG · ah NOY-tuh |
Spain (Madrid): Locals identify by barrio before city — Malasaña, Lavapiés, and La Latina each carry a reputation, and the plaza mayor of each is its living room, busiest after the evening paseo stroll around 8pm.
Catalonia (Barcelona): The city is a stack of barris grouped into districtes; Gràcia was a separate town until 1897 and still feels like one, with its own chain of small places (squares) that fill at night — ask for a plaça by name and you'll sound local.
Portugal (Lisbon): The bairros climb the hills — Alfama is the Moorish maze that survived the 1755 earthquake, Bairro Alto flips from sleepy to loud after dark. Streets are vertical here; "is it far?" usually means "is it uphill?"
Rule for the trip: name the barrio / barri / bairro out loud when you ask directions — it signals you see the city the way residents do, and you'll get warmer answers than "where's downtown?"
1. Three different Latin roots for one idea. ES calle < Latin callis (a footpath), CA carrer < Latin carraria (a carriage road), PT rua < Latin ruga (a furrow or wrinkle). Same everyday concept, three unrelated etyma — proof that cognates are never guaranteed across the trio.
2. plaza / plaça / praça all share one ancestor. All three come from Latin platea (a broad street), itself borrowed from Greek plateîa. Watch the sibilant split — ES z = /θ/ (a soft "th" in Castilian), CA ç and PT ç = /s/. And PT turns the pl- cluster into pr-: the same liquid shift that gives praia (beach) from plagia.
3. barrio / barri / bairro is the Arabic substrate. Not Latin at all — all three descend from Andalusi Arabic barrī ("outer, on the edge"), a shared loan from the centuries of Al-Andalus that ES, CA, and PT all absorbed. PT keeps the diphthong ai where ES and CA flattened it.
4. The -tion ending nasalizes in Portuguese. Latin -tiōnem becomes ES -ción (animación), CA -ció (animació), and PT -ção (animação) — that final -ão is the nasal vowel English speakers always miss. Same Latin suffix, three regular outcomes you can now predict.
Tap to mark. State persists to localStorage. (Server-side persistence and SRS resurfacing will land via the C3 SRS skill in Sprint 4.)