La cantimplora és plena.

It means a canteen, flask, or water bottle—the kind you carry with you.

A useful note for English speakers: in some varieties of English, canteen can mean a cafeteria, but cantimplora does not mean that. Here it means the container you drink from.

La is the feminine singular definite article, so it means the.

Catalan nouns have grammatical gender, and cantimplora is feminine. That is why you get:

• la cantimplora = the canteen
• not el cantimplora

English does not usually force you to think about noun gender, but Catalan does.

És with an accent is the 3rd person singular of ser, so it means is.

The accent matters because es without an accent is a different word: it is a pronoun used in reflexive and other constructions.

So:

• és = is
• es = a pronoun, not the verb is

Because adjectives in Catalan agree with the noun they describe.

Since cantimplora is feminine singular, the adjective must also be feminine singular:

• ple = masculine singular
• plena = feminine singular
• plens = masculine plural
• plenes = feminine plural

So:

• El got és ple. = The glass is full.
• La cantimplora és plena. = The canteen is full.

You may hear that, but La cantimplora és plena is perfectly normal and standard.

This is important because Catalan does not use ser and estar in exactly the same way as Spanish. English speakers sometimes learn Spanish first and expect the same pattern, but Catalan works differently.

So the safest takeaway here is:

• és plena is correct and natural
• do not assume Catalan must copy Spanish está llena

Add de or d' after plena:

• La cantimplora és plena d’aigua. = The canteen is full of water.
• La cantimplora és plena de sorra. = The canteen is full of sand.

Use d' before a vowel sound and de before a consonant.

Normally, no. In a basic sentence like this, Catalan usually needs an article or another determiner before a common noun.

So these are normal:

• La cantimplora és plena. = The canteen is full.
• Una cantimplora és plena. = A canteen is full. / One canteen is full.

But Cantimplora és plena sounds incomplete or ungrammatical in normal standard Catalan.

The normal, neutral order is:

La cantimplora + és + plena

That is the standard way to say it.

Catalan can change word order for emphasis in some contexts, but for an ordinary statement, this sentence order is the natural one. So if you are learning, stick with:

La cantimplora és plena.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

la can-tim-PLO-ra ehs PLE-na

A few helpful points:

• cantimplora is stressed on plo
• plena is stressed on ple
• és sounds roughly like ehs
• the r in Catalan is lighter than an English r

This is only an approximation, but it is a useful starting point.