La cadena és bruta.

La is the feminine singular definite article in Catalan, equivalent to the in English.

So in la cadena:

• la = the
• cadena = a feminine singular noun

Catalan nouns have grammatical gender, so the article has to match the noun.

Cadena is the basic singular form of the noun. It is a feminine singular noun meaning chain.

If you changed the number, you would get:

• la cadena = the chain
• les cadenes = the chains

So the sentence uses the normal dictionary form of the noun in the singular.

The accent in és is important.

• és = is (from the verb ser, to be)
• es without an accent is a different word, often a pronoun like himself/herself/itself or part of a pronominal verb

So in this sentence, és is the verb and means is.

Because adjectives in Catalan usually agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

Here:

• cadena is feminine singular
• so the adjective must also be feminine singular
• therefore: bruta

Compare:

• el cable és brut = the cable is dirty
  masculine singular
• la cadena és bruta = the chain is dirty
  feminine singular
• les cadenes són brutes = the chains are dirty
  feminine plural

In La cadena és bruta, bruta is a predicate adjective: it comes after the verb és and describes the subject.

This works very much like English:

• The chain is dirty
• La cadena és bruta

So the structure is:

subject + verb + adjective

That is completely normal in Catalan.

This is a very common learner question.

Catalan uses both ser and estar, but not always in exactly the same way as English. In this sentence, és bruta presents dirty more as a quality or description of the chain.

However, està bruta is also possible in many contexts, especially if you want to stress its current state: for example, the chain got dirty and now needs cleaning.

A simple way to think about it:

• és bruta = describes it as dirty
• està bruta = emphasizes that it is currently dirty

In real Catalan, both can appear, but they may suggest slightly different nuances.

Normally, no. In a normal sentence, you would usually need the article:

• La cadena és bruta.

Leaving out the article would sound incomplete or unnatural in most contexts.

Catalan often uses articles in places where English does too, and sometimes even more often than English. Here, since we are talking about the chain, the article is expected.

A broad pronunciation guide is:

luh kuh-DEH-nuh ez BROO-tuh

More approximately in IPA: [lə kəˈðɛ.nə ˈes ˈbɾu.tə]

A few useful notes:

• cadena is stressed on de
• és is a short word, pronounced like ess but with a pure vowel
• bruta is stressed on the first syllable: BRU-ta
• the r in bruta is not the English r; it is a tapped Catalan/Spanish-style r

Pronunciation varies somewhat by dialect, but this is a good general guide.

Catalan word order is somewhat flexible, but La cadena és bruta is the most neutral and natural order.

You could change the order in special contexts for emphasis or style, but it would sound marked, poetic, or contrastive. For everyday speech, stick with:

La cadena és bruta.

That is the standard, straightforward way to say it.

In this sentence, bruta naturally means dirty in the physical sense.

But like English dirty, Catalan brut / bruta can sometimes be used in extended senses too, depending on context, such as:

• morally dirty
• obscene
• unpleasant
• crude

Still, without extra context, La cadena és bruta will normally be understood literally: the chain is dirty.

You make it negative by putting no before the verb:

La cadena no és bruta. = The chain is not dirty.

This is the normal pattern in Catalan:

• és = is
• no és = is not

So the structure is:

subject + no + verb + adjective