Ell mira el cas.

Yes, Catalan often does drop subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person.

• mira = he/she looks, he/she watches, he/she considers
• So Mira el cas can already mean He/She looks at the case

The pronoun ell is added when the speaker wants to:

• make the subject extra clear
• add emphasis
• create contrast, such as He looks at the case, not someone else

So Ell mira el cas is grammatical, but in many contexts Mira el cas would also be natural.

Mira is the 3rd person singular present indicative of the verb mirar.

So it matches:

• ell mira = he looks / watches / considers
• ella mira = she looks / watches / considers
• vostè mira = you (formal singular) look

A few present-tense forms of mirar are:

• jo miro = I look
• tu mires = you look
• ell/ella mira = he/she looks
• nosaltres mirem = we look
• vosaltres mireu = you all look
• ells/elles miren = they look

Not always. Mirar is broader than just the English look at. Depending on context, it can mean:

• to look at
• to watch
• to examine
• to consider

So in Ell mira el cas, the exact sense depends on context. It could be something like:

• he looks at the case
• he examines the case
• he considers the case

If the noun is something abstract, like cas, English may sometimes prefer examines or considers rather than a literal looks at.

El is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

• el cas = the case

Catalan uses definite articles very regularly, and in many situations it uses them more often than English does. In this sentence, el cas is completely normal and expected.

So the structure is straightforward:

• ell = he
• mira = looks at / examines
• el cas = the case

Cas usually means case, matter, or situation, depending on context.

It can refer to things like:

• a legal case
• a particular situation
• an issue under discussion

It is a masculine noun:

• el cas
• plural: els casos

English speakers may also meet cas in the expression fer cas, which means to pay attention or to obey, but that is a different structure. In Ell mira el cas, cas is just the direct object of mira.

Yes. Ell mira el cas follows the normal subject + verb + object order:

• Ell = subject
• mira = verb
• el cas = object

This is the most neutral word order in Catalan.

Catalan can change word order for emphasis, but this sentence is basic and standard.

By itself, mira can indeed be the imperative of mirar for tu:

• Mira! = Look!

But in this sentence, because you have Ell before it, the reading is clearly present indicative:

• Ell mira el cas = He looks at / examines the case

So here it is not a command.

The pronunciation of ell varies by dialect.

In careful Central Catalan, it is often pronounced approximately like:

• eʎ

That final sound ʎ is the palatal ll sound, similar to the lli sound in some pronunciations of words like million, though it is not exactly the same in all accents.

In some modern accents, especially in colloquial speech, ll may sound more like:

• y

So learners may hear something closer to ey.

The important point is that ell is the normal masculine singular pronoun meaning he.

A simple learner-friendly guide:

• mira ≈ MEE-ruh
• cas ≈ kahs

A bit more precisely in standard Catalan:

• mira = /ˈmi.ɾə/ in many Eastern varieties
• cas = /kas/

Notes:

• The r in mira is a tapped r, not the strong rolled rr
• The final a in many Eastern accents is reduced to a neutral vowel, something like uh
• cas has a clear a sound, not the English cat vowel

It can definitely be omitted.

Both are possible:

• Ell mira el cas
• Mira el cas

The version with ell sounds more explicit. The version without ell is often more natural if the subject is already understood from context.

This is one of the first big differences English speakers notice: Catalan often does not need subject pronouns the way English does.