In the Central baseline, Catalan uses x and ix for the voiceless palatal fricative /ʃ/, the sound at the beginning of English ship. It uses tx and, at the end of many words, ig for the voiceless affricate /tʃ/, like English ch. Sound identifies which pair you need in that baseline; position and the word family usually identify the exact spelling. (regional: Western and Camp de Tarragona) Initial and postconsonantal x is often affricated [tʃ], so Western learners must follow the positional spelling rules rather than mapping every [tʃ] automatically to tx.
This page is about those two palatal sounds. The letter x can also represent /ks/ or /gz/ in words such as taxi and examen; those readings are covered under the sounds of x.
In the Central baseline, first separate /ʃ/ from /tʃ/
The fricative /ʃ/ is continuous: air passes through a narrow channel with no complete closure. The affricate /tʃ/ begins with a brief stop and releases into friction. Confusing them makes both pronunciation and spelling harder.
| Sound | Frequent spellings | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| /ʃ/ continuous | x, ix | xarop, panxa, caixa, peix |
| /tʃ/ stop + friction | tx, final ig/g | cotxe, despatx, maig, passeig, desig |
Deixa la caixa petita dins del cotxe.
Leave the small box inside the car.
Caixa has /ʃ/ and therefore belongs to the x/ix set. Cotxe has /tʃ/ and belongs to the tx/ig set. Spanish spelling is not a shortcut: Catalan caixa is not Spanish caja, and Catalan cotxe is not Spanish coche.
Writing the x/ix series: the main distribution
Write x at the beginning of a word: xai, xarop, xerrar, xicot, xop. Also write x after a consonant: arxiu, ganxo, panxa, punxar, torxa. In both positions, there is no preceding vowel whose spelling needs the extra i.
En Xavier guarda l'arxiu en una capsa taronja.
Xavier keeps the file in an orange box.
La nena vol xerrar mentre infla el globus amb la manxa.
The girl wants to chat while she inflates the balloon with the bellows.
After a, e, o, or u that is not a semivowel, /ʃ/ is generally written ix, especially between vowels and at the end of a word: caixa, reixa, angoixa, maduixa; calaix, feix, boix, fluix. The i is part of the standard spelling.
Hem comprat maduixes i les hem deixat al calaix de baix.
We've bought strawberries and left them in the bottom drawer.
Write x, not ix, after written i: guix, guixar, pixar. Also write x after a semivocal u, as in rauxa and disbauxa. A morpheme boundary can preserve x where the simple positional pattern suggests ix, as in electroxoc.
Han pintat la paret amb guix i després l'han tornada a enguixar.
They painted the wall with plaster and then plastered it again.
The letter i in ix is not pronounced identically everywhere. In the Central baseline it is often not a separate glide, so caixa has a simple /ʃ/. (regional: Valencian and Northwestern) Many Western speakers pronounce an audible [j] before /ʃ/, and initial or postconsonantal x is commonly [tʃ]. Thus caixa may contain [jʃ] and panxa [tʃ], but the spellings remain the same in every standard variety.
Position narrows the choice only after you have identified /ʃ/. The same letter x represents /ks/ in asfíxia, elixir, and auxili, but /ʃ/ in clixé, pixar, and rauxa. In these less predictable learned or lexical items, there is no completely productive visual rule. Check a current dictionary and learn the pronunciation with the spelling. This is genuine lexical difficulty, not a failure to understand the x/ix distribution.
Writing the tx/ig series inside a word: normally tx
Inside a native word belonging to the tx/ig series, the consonant is normally written tx: butxaca, cotxe, dutxa, fletxa, metxa, motxilla. This does not change Western x spellings such as panxa, even where that x is pronounced [tʃ]. Initial tx is uncommon and appears especially in loans and proper names such as txec and Txékhov.
Tinc les claus a la butxaca de la motxilla.
I have the keys in the backpack pocket.
Després de la dutxa, ha penjat la tovallola al costat de la fletxa verda.
After the shower, she hung the towel beside the green arrow.
Do not replace tx with Spanish ch. Catalan uses ch only in a limited set of foreign forms and historical spellings; it is not the ordinary spelling of /tʃ/.
At the end: use the family to choose tx, ig, or g
At the end of a word, tx, ig, and g can all sound /tʃ/ in Central Catalan. The decisive evidence is what happens when a vowel-bearing ending follows.
- Write final tx if related forms keep a voiceless /tʃ/ and the spelling tx: cartutx → cartutxos/cartutxera; despatx → despatxar; esquitx → esquitxar.
- Write final ig after stressed a, e, o, or u if the family reveals a voiced palatal written j, g, tj, or tg: faig → fageda; passeig → passejar; rebuig → rebutjar; lleig → lletja.
- After stressed i, this voiced-family ending is written only g, not ig: desig → desitjar; mig → mitja.
| Final form | Family evidence | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| despatx | despatxar | voiceless family: tx |
| cartutx | cartutxera | voiceless family: tx |
| passeig | passejar | voiced relative: ig |
| lleig | lletja | voiced relative: ig |
| desig | desitjar | voiced relative after stressed i: final g |
Han reformat el despatx i ara hi podem despatxar els clients.
They've renovated the office and now we can serve clients there.
Després del passeig, vam passejar una estona més pel port.
After the walk, we strolled around the harbor a little longer.
El seu desig és viatjar, i desitja començar aquest maig.
His wish is to travel, and he hopes to start this May.
The family test is powerful but not completely predictable from the final word alone. Boig → boja and lleig → lletja reveal different medial spellings. Learn the family member together with the final form rather than inventing one universal conversion.
Inflection preserves the graph
Inflection follows the established family alternation rather than the sound of the isolated final. Compare peix → peixos, calaix → calaixos, and cartutx → cartutxos, which preserve their graphs, with passeig → passejos, where the voiced relative reveals j. Many nouns in final ig/g also allow a shorter plural that simply adds s, such as passeigs and desigs, alongside passejos and desitjos. The whole paradigm, not the isolated final sound, determines these spellings.
Al mercat venen peix fresc i dos calaixos plens de maduixes.
At the market they sell fresh fish and two drawers full of strawberries.
Els cartutxos buits són al costat dels estoigs.
The empty cartridges are beside the cases.
The pronunciation page on Catalan affricates explains regional and boundary voicing. Spelling does not change when final ig voices before a following vowel.
Editing exercise
Correct this message: L' estudiant ha deixat la motxila i el dibux al col.legi on treballa la veina. Check the target consonants first, then the apostrophe, middle dot, accent, and diaeresis.
❌ L' estudiant ha deixat la motxila i el dibux al col.legi on treballa la veina.
Incorrect — the sentence has x/ix/tx, apostrophe, middle-dot, and diaeresis errors.
✅ L'estudiant ha deixat la motxilla i el dibuix al col·legi on treballa la veïna.
The student left the backpack and the drawing at the school where the neighbor works.
The correction dibux → dibuix uses ix after an ordinary u. Motxilla needs tx, and the other marks follow independent rules. A correct consonant choice does not excuse missing ï or replacing l·l with a period.
Common Mistakes
Omitting i after a vowel in the /ʃ/ spelling
❌ Deixa la caxa damunt del moble.
Incorrect — /ʃ/ after a is written ix in «caixa».
✅ Deixa la caixa damunt del moble.
Leave the box on the piece of furniture.
Adding i after another i
❌ Han tornat a enguixar el passadís amb guiix.
Incorrect — /ʃ/ after written i is represented by x, as in «guix».
✅ Han tornat a enguixar el passadís amb guix.
They replastered the hallway with plaster.
Importing Spanish ch
❌ El coche té una roda punxada.
Incorrect Catalan spelling — the standard word is «cotxe».
✅ El cotxe té una roda punxada.
The car has a flat tire.
Choosing final spelling from sound alone
❌ Han obert un nou despaig al centre.
Incorrect — «despatxar» reveals final tx in «despatx».
✅ Han obert un nou despatx al centre.
They've opened a new office downtown.
Writing ig after stressed i
❌ Tinc el desiig de tornar-hi aviat.
Incorrect — after stressed i, the voiced-family ending is written with final g only.
✅ Tinc el desig de tornar-hi aviat.
I want to go back there soon.
Key Takeaways
- In the Central baseline, separate continuous /ʃ/ from affricate /tʃ/ before choosing a spelling; in Western speech, remember that initial and postconsonantal x can also be [tʃ].
- Write /ʃ/ with x initially, after a consonant, after i, and after semivocal u; use ix after ordinary a, e, o, or u.
- Write medial /tʃ/ as tx in native vocabulary.
- For final /tʃ/, use family evidence: persistent voiceless tx gives final tx; a voiced relative gives final ig after another stressed vowel, or g after stressed i.
- Regional pronunciation of the i in ix varies, but standard spelling does not.
Related Topics
- The Many Sounds of XA2 — Learn when Catalan x represents /ʃ/, /ks/, /gz/, or the regional affricate /tʃ/, including ix and learned ex- words.
- TX, TG, TJ, DJ, and IGA2 — Master Catalan voiceless and voiced affricates, their principal spellings, final ig, and alternations across related words.
- Choosing G, J, TG, and TJB1 — Spell Catalan palatal fricatives and affricates with g, j, tg, or tj according to position and word family.
- Proofreading Catalan DiacriticsB1 — Use a repeatable proofreading workflow to catch missing accents, diaereses, apostrophes, hyphens, and middle dots.
- Allomorphy in Derivational FamiliesC1 — Why one Catalan lexical family can show several stems, with productive spelling alternations, stress shifts, and inherited or learned variants.