· 6 min read
Learn Catalan for English Speakers: A Guide
By Language Lab editorial team
Learn Catalan as an English speaker: what kind of language it is, the free official Parla.cat course from A2 to C1, the special letters and first phrases.
Catalan is a Romance language, a direct descendant of Latin, written in the Latin alphabet, so an English speaker starts with a familiar script. It is the official language of Andorra and is co-official with Spanish in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. The best starting point is free and official: Parla.cat, the Government of Catalonia's online learning environment, offers four levels from Basic (A2) to Advanced (C1). Each level is divided into three courses of 45 hours, and the self-managed mode has free registration. The US State Department's list of learning times does not name Catalan, but the Romance languages it does list, such as Spanish, French and Italian, are all in Category I, its shortest group. Start with the sounds and special letters, then follow the course in order.
Catalan at a glance
| Catalan | |
|---|---|
| Family | Romance; closely related to Occitan |
| Script | Latin alphabet |
| Special marks | Acute and grave accents, the dieresis, the letter ç and the l·l |
| Official status | Official in Andorra; co-official with Spanish in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands |
| Also spoken | Part of Aragon, the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales, and Alghero in Sardinia |
| Free official course | Parla.cat, levels A2 to C1 |
What kind of language it is
The BBC's language profile describes Catalan as a modern Romance language, closely related to Occitan, the language of southern France, and a direct descendant of Latin. It is not a dialect of Spanish. It belongs to the same family as Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian, so anything you know of those languages will help with vocabulary. The profile also notes that Valencian, spoken in the region of Valencia, is regarded by some as a variant of Catalan and by others as a distinct language.
How long it takes
The US State Department publishes the time its students usually need to reach a speaking and listening score of 3 on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale. Its list does not include Catalan. For orientation, the Romance languages on the list are all in Category I, languages close to English: Italian, Portuguese and Romanian at 24 weeks of classes, and French and Spanish at 30 weeks. Parla.cat gives a second measure. Its four levels contain twelve courses of 45 hours each, which is 540 hours of course material from the start of Basic to the end of Advanced (C1).
The free official course: Parla.cat
Parla.cat is a virtual learning environment for learning Catalan. The responsible authority is the Government of Catalonia's Department of Language Policy, and the University of Barcelona's listing of the course also names the Institut Ramon Llull. The government's own description says it is for anyone who wants to learn Catalan using the internet.
| Level | Framework level | Courses |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | A2 | Basic 1, 2 and 3 |
| Elementary | B1 | Elementary 1, 2 and 3 |
| Intermediate | B2 | Intermediate 1, 2 and 3 |
| Advanced | C1 | Advanced 1, 2 and 3 |
- Length: each course is 45 hours.
- Self-managed mode: free registration, and you can enrol at any time.
- Tutored mode: paid; the fee is set by the organisation that offers the tutoring.
- Level test: after registering you can take a test to find the most suitable course.
- Extras: registration also opens the complementary materials of the site's Virtual Rambla.
Learn the special letters first
Catalan uses the Latin alphabet with a few additions, and learning them early makes everything you read clearer. The BBC's profile lists acute and grave accents, as in é and è; the dieresis, as in ï; the ce trencada, ç; and the ela geminada, l·l, in which a mid dot separates two letters l. You will meet the accents at once in everyday words such as gràcies, thank you, and adéu, goodbye.
First phrases
| Catalan | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Hola. | Hello. |
| Adéu. | Goodbye. |
| Gràcies. | Thank you. |
| Sí. | Yes. |
| Em dic ... | My name is ... |
| Necessito ajuda. | I need help. |
| On és el lavabo, sisplau? | Where is the toilet, please? |
These come from the BBC's archived list of essential Catalan phrases.
A plan for English speakers
- Register on Parla.cat and take the level test.
- Begin Basic 1 in self-managed mode, and work through the courses in order.
- Learn the accents, ç and l·l in your first week.
- Say the phrases above aloud every day.
- Test yourself on each unit before moving on, and return to it after a day, a week and a month.
The last step follows the research: a 2013 review of learning techniques rated practice testing and distributed practice as high utility, and rereading and highlighting as low. A course gives you structure. Speaking needs practice of its own. Language Lab's Catalan course is built around voiced real-life scenarios with an AI tutor, which supplies spoken practice.
Frequently asked
Is Catalan hard for English speakers?
Catalan is a Romance language written in the Latin alphabet. The US State Department's list does not name Catalan, but it places the Romance languages it lists, including Spanish, French and Italian, in Category I, languages close to English.
Can I learn Catalan for free?
Yes. Parla.cat, the Government of Catalonia's online course, has a self-managed mode with free registration, covering levels A2 to C1.
Is Catalan a dialect of Spanish?
No. Catalan is a separate Romance language, closely related to Occitan. It is co-official with Spanish in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.
Where is Catalan spoken?
In Andorra, where it is the official language, in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, in part of Aragon, in the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales and in Alghero in Sardinia.
How many hours is the Parla.cat course?
Each of its twelve courses is 45 hours, which makes 540 hours from Basic 1 to Advanced 3.
What do ç and l·l mean in Catalan?
They are Catalan letters: ç is called the ce trencada, and l·l, the ela geminada, is two letters l separated by a mid dot.
Sources: Government of Catalonia (gencat.cat), Online Catalan courses at Parla.cat (updated 1 October 2025); University of Barcelona, Learn Catalan on Internet; BBC Languages, European Languages: Catalan, and Quick Fix essential Catalan phrases (archived); US Department of State, National Foreign Affairs Training Center, Foreign Language Training; UCLA, Background Information (Romanian); Dunlosky et al., Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2013. Checked on 13 October 2026. Photo: Farmhouse below the Montserrat massif, Catalonia, Pere López Brosa / CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
