fornar

Fornar is a Catalan verb meaning to bake, specifically to cook items in an oven. It is commonly used in culinary contexts to refer to baking bread, pastries, and other foods.

As a regular -ar verb, fornar follows the standard Catalan conjugation pattern in the present indicative. Typical present forms are: jo forno, tu fornes, ell/ella forna, nosaltres fornem, vosaltres forneu, ells/elles fornen. For example, “El cuiner forna pa al forn cada matí” means “The cook bakes bread in the oven every morning.” Beyond the present, fornar forms other tenses like any regular -ar verb, and its past participle is forn at, used in perfect tenses as in “He forn at pa” (I have baked bread).

The term is used across Catalan-speaking regions, including Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and parts of Valencia. In Valencian varieties, the verb retains the same spelling and meaning, with pronunciation adapted to local speech. It can appear in recipes, menus, and instructional cooking language, as well as in everyday talk about baking.

Etymology and related terms: fornar derives from the noun forn (oven), with the -ar suffix forming a verb meaning “to bake in the oven.” It shares the same semantic field with cognate verbs in related Romance languages that reference oven-based cooking. Related concepts include the noun forn, the place where baking occurs, and the broader family of Catalan cooking verbs.

See also: Catalan verbs, oven in Catalan (forn).