Breakdown of El compte d'estalvi té diners.
Questions & Answers about El compte d'estalvi té diners.
Because compte is a masculine noun in Catalan, so it takes the masculine singular article el.
- el compte = the account
- la would be used with feminine nouns
This is something you usually have to learn with the noun, since grammatical gender does not always match English logic.
d'estalvi means of savings or more naturally savings in English.
So:
- compte = account
- compte d'estalvi = savings account
This structure is very common in Catalan:
- X de Y = X of Y
- but when de comes before a word beginning with a vowel, it often becomes d'
So de estalvi becomes d'estalvi.
The apostrophe appears because de is shortened before a vowel.
- de + estalvi → d'estalvi
This is called elision. Catalan does this often to make pronunciation smoother.
Other examples:
- l'amic = the friend
- d'aigua = of water
- s'escriu in some contexts and varieties
So in your sentence, d'estalvi is just the normal contracted form.