Catalan proofreading is more reliable when it is divided into passes. Trying to notice stress accents, diaereses, apostrophes, hyphens, and l·l simultaneously overloads attention, especially when a spell-checker accepts both the intended word and a wrong homograph. A fixed sequence turns “check the accents” into a set of concrete decisions.
This page is a workflow, not a replacement for the individual rules. Use it after drafting and follow its links whenever a pass uncovers a pattern you do not yet control.
The five-pass workflow
| Pass | Search target | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | acute and grave accents | Does stress class require an accent, and is e/o open or close? |
| 2 | diaereses | Must i/u be a separate syllable, or must u sound in güe/güi/qüe/qüi? |
| 3 | apostrophes | Is a function-word vowel omitted, with no space around the apostrophe? |
| 4 | hyphens | Does a numeral, lexicalized compound or no-expression, or postverbal clitic require one? |
| 5 | l·l and family spellings | Is every middle dot genuine, and does a related form reveal a hidden letter? |
Perform the passes in either direction through the text. The discipline matters more than the direction: finish one category before beginning the next.
Pass 1: stress accents, including current diacritics
For every word of two or more syllables, locate the stress and classify it as aguda, plana, or esdrúixola. Then apply the ending rule from written accent rules. Do not add Spanish acute accents automatically: Catalan fàcil, anglès, and però require grave accents.
Demà enviaré la còpia definitiva de l'informe.
Tomorrow I'll send the final copy of the report.
Demà and enviaré are final-stressed words ending in vowels. Còpia is esdrúixola. A proofreader should be able to justify each mark rather than relying on the word's familiar shape.
Next check the restricted current set of diacritical monosyllables: és/es, té/te, més/mes, and the other pairs. These accents distinguish grammatical or lexical categories; ordinary stress rules do not predict them. See current IEC diacritics.
Sé que té més temps aquest mes.
I know that she has more time this month.
The first sé, té, and més take diacritics; final mes means “month” and does not. A spell-checker may accept all four strings, so syntax and meaning must decide.
Pass 2: high-vowel sequences and the diaeresis
Search visually for adjacent vowels and for gue/gui/que/qui. A diaeresis on ï/ü either separates a high vowel into its own syllable (veïna, països, conduïa) or makes u audible after g/q (lingüista, qüestió, aigües).
La lingüista suïssa viu amb una veïna de Reus.
The Swiss linguist lives with a neighbor from Reus.
Three diaereses do three related jobs: ü is audible in lingüista, while ï marks hiatus in suïssa and veïna. If the high vowel itself requires a stress accent, the accent replaces the diaeresis: país but països.
Aquest país exporta productes a molts països.
This country exports products to many countries.
Do not “correct” systematic exceptions such as agrair, conduir, conduint, egoisme, or reiniciar. The diaeresis rules explain why their hiatus remains unmarked.
Pass 3: apostrophe placement and spacing
Check short function words beside vowel-initial words: articles, de, and weak pronouns. An apostrophe replaces a vowel and attaches without spaces: l'escola, d'hora, m'agrada, s'ha acabat. It is not a free marker for every spoken contraction.
L'Alícia m'ha dit que arribarà d'hora a l'estació.
Alícia told me that she'll arrive at the station early.
Look in both directions. L' Alícia has an illegal following space; lAlícia lacks the apostrophe; la Alícia fails to mark required elision. Then check non-apostrophizing environments such as la infermera, la universitat, and la història, where the feminine article is preserved before unstressed initial i/u (with or without silent h) under the standard rule.
Pass 4: hyphens in structured environments
Do not use a hyphen merely because an English or Spanish form has one. Check the Catalan categories:
- numerals following the D-U-C pattern: vint-i-dos, trenta-quatre, dos-cents;
- postverbal weak pronouns: porta-me'l, digueu-nos-ho, anar-se'n;
- established compounds and lexicalized no-expressions: nord-americà, no-res, no-violència;
- line-break hyphens, which are layout marks rather than part of the stored word.
Envieu-me'n vint-i-dos abans de les quatre.
Send me twenty-two of them before four.
This short sentence combines the clitic hyphen in envieu-me'n with the numeral hyphens in vint-i-dos. The apostrophe inside me'n and the hyphen perform different jobs; neither replaces the other.
L'exdirectora nord-americana va presentar l'informe.
The former North American director presented the report.
Current spelling joins ordinary ex- directly to a simple base in exdirectora, whereas the lexical compound nord-americana keeps its hyphen. When structure is uncertain, consult Catalan hyphens instead of copying another language.
Pass 5: the middle dot and morphological families
Search for every sequence that might be l·l. The ela geminada requires the true middle-dot character U+00B7: col·legi, pel·lícula, intel·ligent. A period, bullet, hyphen, or plain ll is not equivalent.
La pel·lícula explica una història paral·lela al col·legi.
The film tells a parallel story at the school.
Then use word families to recover letters that speech hides. Compare nul → nul·la, tranquil → tranquil·la, examen → exàmens, amic → amiga, compte → comptar, and passeig → passejar. The point is not that every relative has identical spelling; it is that the family supplies evidence for stress, consonants, and morpheme boundaries.
| Family | Proofreading clue |
|---|---|
| veí → veïna | stress accent becomes a hiatus diaeresis |
| país → països | same accent-to-diaeresis alternation |
| nul → nul·la | feminine reveals l·l |
| examen → exàmens | plural ending makes the accent necessary |
| compte → comptar | family preserves silent p |
Els exàmens de la veïna suïssa han estat excel·lents.
The Swiss neighbor's exams were excellent.
One complete editing exercise
Correct the message below one pass at a time:
❌ Dema, l' Alicia enviara vint i dos correus a la direccio del col.legi i portara l' informe a la veina.
Incorrect draft — it contains errors from all five proofreading passes.
✅ Demà, l'Alícia enviarà vint-i-dos correus a la direcció del col·legi i portarà l'informe a la veïna.
Tomorrow, Alícia will send twenty-two emails to the school's administration and take the report to the neighbor.
Pass 1 restores Demà, Alícia, enviarà, direcció, and portarà. Pass 2 restores veïna. Pass 3 removes spaces after l'. Pass 4 hyphenates vint-i-dos. Pass 5 replaces the period in col.legi with the middle dot.
What software can and cannot do
A Catalan spell-checker is valuable, but choose the correct language and regional standard. It may detect col.legi yet accept both mes and més, both te and té, or both conte and compte. It also cannot always know whether a Spanish-looking word is an intended quotation or an accidental import.
Read the final text aloud after the visual passes. Sound can expose a missing syllable or misplaced stress, but sound alone cannot recover silent p in compte, choose b/d/g after final devoicing, or distinguish every current diacritic.
Common Mistakes
Doing only one general “accent check”
❌ La linguista viu al costat del colegi.
Incorrect — a stress-only pass misses the diaeresis and middle dot.
✅ La lingüista viu al costat del col·legi.
The linguist lives next to the school.
Copying Spanish accent direction
❌ És una qüestió fácil de resoldre.
Incorrect — Catalan writes «fàcil» with a grave accent.
✅ És una qüestió fàcil de resoldre.
It's an easy question to solve.
Using a period as a middle dot
❌ La novel.la és excel.lent.
Incorrect — both words require a true middle dot.
✅ La novel·la és excel·lent.
The novel is excellent.
Spacing an apostrophe like punctuation
❌ L' alumne ha arribat d' hora.
Incorrect — Catalan apostrophes take no surrounding space.
✅ L'alumne ha arribat d'hora.
The student arrived early.
Trusting pronunciation where morphology decides
❌ El biòlec revisa el comte del banc.
Incorrect — the families «biòloga» and «comptar» reveal «biòleg» and «compte».
✅ El biòleg revisa el compte del banc.
The biologist reviews the bank account.
Key Takeaways
- Proofread in separate passes: accents, diaereses, apostrophes, hyphens, then l·l and word families.
- Decide by rule and grammatical meaning, not by visual familiarity alone.
- Spanish spellings and a Spanish-configured checker are especially unreliable for accent direction, l·l, and Catalan lexical choices.
- A real middle dot, an apostrophe, a diaeresis, and a hyphen are distinct characters with distinct functions.
- Use related forms to check hidden consonants and changing diacritics, then run one final read for meaning.
Now practice Catalan
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- When Catalan Words Take a Written AccentA1 — Decide when Catalan stress must be marked by classifying words as aguda, plana, or esdrúixola.
- The Diaeresis: ï and üB1 — Use Catalan ï and ü to mark hiatus or a pronounced u, and recognize the systematic contexts where the mark is omitted.
- The ApostropheA2 — Use the Catalan apostrophe with articles, de, and weak pronouns, including the vowel and clitic contexts that block elision.
- Hyphens in Pronouns, Compounds, and NumbersB1 — Apply current Catalan hyphen rules to postverbal pronouns, lexical compounds, coordinated prefixes, and written numbers.
- The Middle Dot in L·LA2 — Write the Catalan ela geminada accurately, distinguish l·l from ll, and use word families to remember where it belongs.
- Current IEC Spelling and Reduced Diacritical AccentsB1 — Use the current fifteen-word IEC diacritic system and recognize legacy accents in older Catalan texts.