Catalan has always borrowed vocabulary: from Arabic, Occitan, Spanish, French, Italian, English, and many other languages. Borrowing itself is not a flaw. The practical question is whether a word has been adapted to Catalan, remains an unadapted foreign expression, or has an established Catalan alternative that is clearer in the intended context.
These categories affect spelling, pronunciation, gender, plurals, and typography. English often preserves the donor spelling with little visible change; Catalan more readily marks its own stress and sound system in established adaptations: football became futbol, stress became estrès, and podcast became pòdcast.
Three degrees of integration
An adapted loan is written and inflected as Catalan. A non-adapted loan retains foreign spelling and is conventionally set in italics in careful running prose when its foreign status matters. A quotation or code-switch is an explicitly foreign stretch rather than part of the Catalan lexicon.
| Status | Examples | Normal treatment |
|---|---|---|
| adapted loan | futbol, estrès, eslògan, xat, xip, pòdcast | Catalan spelling and ordinary inflection |
| unadapted loan | software, hardware | foreign spelling; normally italicized in careful prose |
| established Catalan term | programari, maquinari, correu electrònic, enllaç | usually preferred in neutral public communication |
Fa anys que juga a futbol, però encara s'estressa abans de cada partit.
He has played football for years, but he still gets stressed before every match.
He escoltat el pòdcast mentre tornava cap a casa.
I listened to the podcast on my way home.
El tècnic ha actualitzat el programari i ara l'ordinador torna a funcionar.
The technician updated the software and now the computer works again.
Phonological and orthographic adaptation
Adaptation can replace unfamiliar sound–letter patterns, add an initial vowel before a difficult cluster, or mark Catalan stress. Compare slogan → eslògan, stress → estrès, chat → xat, and chip → xip. These are lexical conventions, not instructions to respell every English word by ear. A form becomes standard through sustained usage and codification.
L'eslògan de la campanya és fàcil de recordar, però diu ben poca cosa.
The campaign slogan is easy to remember, but it says very little.
Obre el xat de l'equip i comprova si t'han contestat.
Open the team chat and check whether they have replied.
Aquest xip consumeix menys energia que el model anterior.
This chip uses less energy than the previous model.
Sometimes the donor spelling survives even after a word has been integrated. Jazz, for example, is a Catalan dictionary headword and is not italicized merely because its spelling still looks foreign. Conversely, keeping the donor spelling does not authorize a private phonetic respelling. Check a current dictionary or terminology source: the hardest part is genuinely arbitrary, because community and editorial convention decide whether a possible adaptation, the original spelling, or a Catalan alternative wins.
Assigning gender
Loanwords need gender as soon as they combine with an article or adjective. Gender may follow an equivalent Catalan head noun, an established semantic class, or conventional usage. Thus el pòdcast is masculine, as are el xat and el xip. A clipped form can instead inherit gender from its source, as in la foto from la fotografia.
There is no universal rule that every English word is masculine. Nor can final letters from the donor language reliably predict Catalan gender. Learn the article with the noun, especially when dictionaries record competing uses or when gender distinguishes senses.
Han publicat un pòdcast nou sobre arquitectura sostenible.
They have released a new podcast about sustainable architecture.
El xat intern estarà tancat durant el manteniment.
The internal chat will be closed during maintenance.
La foto original ocupa massa espai al servidor.
The original photo takes up too much space on the server.
Plural formation
Fully adapted loans normally take Catalan plural morphology: xips, xats, eslògans, líders, pòdcasts. The written ending can look surprising because the singular was adapted as a whole. Acronyms are different: an uppercase initialism such as PDF normally shows plural through its determiner, as explained on the clippings and acronyms page.
Els líders dels dos equips s'han reunit abans del debat.
The leaders of the two teams met before the debate.
Tinc tres pòdcasts pendents, però avui no podré escoltar-ne cap.
I have three podcasts queued, but I won't be able to listen to any today.
For an unadapted foreign item, plural practice may remain unstable. Replacing it with an established Catalan term often avoids both uncertainty and unnecessary opacity. Dos programes or dues aplicacions is clearer than forcing a donor-language plural into Catalan syntax.
Italics and editorial register
In carefully edited prose, italics can mark a foreign word that has not been adapted: software. Adapted words such as futbol and pòdcast do not take italics simply because they originated elsewhere. Brand names, file formats, code, and interface labels follow their own typographic conventions; typography is not identical to grammatical integration.
El manual encara parla de software, però la resta de la documentació fa servir programari.
The manual still uses software, but the rest of the documentation uses programari.
In (informal) messages, italics are often unavailable, and speakers freely use international words. In (formal) institutional, educational, or legal writing, consistency and accessibility matter more: introduce a necessary specialist loan, define it, and do not alternate capriciously among three spellings.
When Catalan already has a term
The existence of an English word does not prove a lexical gap. Catalan commonly uses correu electrònic (or simply correu in a clear digital context), enllaç, programari, maquinari, contrasenya, and emmagatzematge al núvol. These choices are neither literal purism nor word-for-word translation; they are established terms.
Envia'm l'enllaç per correu i ja hi entraré aquesta tarda.
Send me the link by email and I'll open it this afternoon.
Hem desat una còpia de seguretat al núvol per si falla el disc.
We have saved a backup in the cloud in case the drive fails.
Specialists may nevertheless need an internationalism to communicate precisely across languages. The decision therefore depends on domain, audience, and attested usage. An established Catalan term should not be rejected merely because an English form sounds newer; nor should a clear international term be hidden behind an improvised calque.
A realistic editorial decision
—Al web hi deixem «software de codi obert»? —Millor «programari de codi obert»; és el terme establert i el públic l'entendrà.
—Should we leave ‘open-source software’ on the website? —Better ‘programari de codi obert’; it is the established term and the audience will understand it.
This is a register decision, not a claim that software is incomprehensible. In a quotation, a product name, or a discussion of English terminology, the original may be exactly what is needed.
Productive integration and lexical limits
Once a loan is established, Catalan affixes can build a family: xat → xatejar, escàner → escanejar, líder → lideratge. The resulting verbs and nouns follow Catalan spelling and inflection. However, formal possibility is not proof of idiomaticity. English to google does not license every Catalan speaker to derive a different verb from every product name; conventional usage still decides.
Escaneja les dues pàgines i desa-les en un sol document.
Scan the two pages and save them in a single document.
Vam xatejar una estona, però la connexió es tallava contínuament.
We chatted for a while, but the connection kept dropping.
Common Mistakes
❌ El podcast nou s'estrena dilluns.
Incorrect under the adapted Catalan spelling used here: the stressed first syllable requires a grave accent.
✅ El pòdcast nou s'estrena dilluns.
The new podcast launches on Monday.
❌ La eslògan de la campanya és massa llarg.
Incorrect: eslògan is masculine, and the article cannot agree in the feminine.
✅ L'eslògan de la campanya és massa llarg.
The campaign slogan is too long.
❌ Han substituït tots els xip defectuosos.
Incorrect: the adapted noun forms its plural in Catalan.
✅ Han substituït tots els xips defectuosos.
They have replaced all the defective chips.
❌ Necessito una nova software per editar el vídeo.
Incorrect agreement: software is treated as masculine here; in neutral formal Catalan, programari is preferable.
✅ Necessito programari nou per editar el vídeo.
I need new software to edit the video.
Key Takeaways
- Adapted loans follow Catalan spelling and inflection: futbol, estrès, eslògan, xat, xip, pòdcast.
- Unadapted foreign words may take italics in careful prose; adapted words do not.
- Gender belongs to the Catalan lexical item and must be learned with the article.
- Established Catalan terms such as programari, maquinari, enllaç and correu electrònic are often clearest in neutral public communication.
- A plausible phonetic adaptation or derivative is not automatically standard: consult attested usage and current reference works.
Related Topics
- Clippings, Acronyms, and InitialismsB1 — How shortened words and letter-based names acquire Catalan gender, articles, pronunciation, plurals, and capitalization.
- Creating and Evaluating NeologismsC1 — How Catalan creates and assesses new words through productive morphology, transparent meaning, terminology work, and evidence of real use.
- Noun-Forming SuffixesA2 — Form and interpret Catalan nouns in -ció, -ment, -tat, -esa, -eria, and -dor while controlling gender, stress, spelling, and lexical competition.
- When Catalan Words Take a Written AccentA1 — Decide when Catalan stress must be marked by classifying words as aguda, plana, or esdrúixola.
- Masculine and Feminine NounsA1 — Learn how Catalan noun gender controls articles, determiners, and adjectives, and why gender cannot be reduced to natural sex or English translation.