El pedal està trencat.

El is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

In Catalan, articles are used very often, just as in English when you mean a specific thing. So:

• el pedal = the pedal
• un pedal = a pedal

Because pedal is a masculine singular noun, it takes el.

In this sentence, you can tell it is masculine because both the article and the adjective match it:

• el = masculine singular
• trencat = masculine singular form of broken

So the grammar shows that pedal is being treated as a masculine noun.

A useful point: many Catalan nouns have grammatical gender, and other words around them must agree with that gender.

Catalan often distinguishes between ser and estar, much like Spanish.

Here, està trencat means is broken in the sense of a state or condition. The pedal is in the condition of being broken, so estar is the natural choice.

• és comes from ser
• està comes from estar

In many cases involving condition, result, or temporary state, Catalan prefers estar.

So:

• El pedal està trencat. = The pedal is broken.

Està is the 3rd person singular present tense of estar.

That means it is used with:

• he/she is
• it is
• sometimes formal you are

Here it refers to el pedal, so it means it is.

A quick mini-paradigm:

• jo estic = I am
• tu estàs = you are
• ell/ella està = he/she is
• el pedal està = the pedal is

The accent in està shows the stressed syllable and also helps distinguish forms in writing.

• està = is
• esta without an accent is not the same standard form here

In pronunciation, the stress falls on the last syllable: es-TÀ.

So the accent is important both for spelling and for correct pronunciation.

Trencat is the past participle of trencar (to break), but here it is being used like an adjective meaning broken.

So:

• trencar = to break
• trencat = broken

In this sentence, it describes the state of the pedal.

This is very common in Catalan:

• La porta està tancada. = The door is closed.
• El vidre està trencat. = The glass is broken.

Because trencat must agree with pedal.

Since pedal is masculine singular, the adjective/participle also appears in the masculine singular form:

• trencat = masculine singular
• trencada = feminine singular
• trencats = masculine plural
• trencades = feminine plural

Examples:

• El pedal està trencat. = The pedal is broken.
• La roda està trencada. = The wheel is broken.
• Els pedals estan trencats. = The pedals are broken.

Yes. El pedal està trencat follows the normal Catalan pattern:

subject + verb + adjective/result

So:

• El pedal = subject
• està = verb
• trencat = adjective/resulting state

This is the most natural and neutral word order.

Yes, but only if the context already makes it clear what is being talked about.

Catalan often omits subject pronouns, but nouns are usually kept unless they are understood from context. So:

• El pedal està trencat. = full sentence, clear on its own
• Està trencat. = It’s broken / He is broken depending on context, so it is less clear by itself

If you are introducing the idea for the first time, keeping el pedal is best.

A simple approximate pronunciation for an English speaker is:

el pe-DAL es-TA tren-KAT

A bit more carefully:

• el = short, like ell without strongly pronouncing the second l
• pedal = stress on the last syllable: pe-DAL
• està = stress on the last syllable: es-TÀ
• trencat = stress on the last syllable: tren-CAT

In standard Central Catalan, the sentence sounds roughly like:

əl pə-DAL əs-TA trən-KAT

But for a learner, the simpler version is fine to start with.

Yes, it is essentially a cognate. Pedal in Catalan also means pedal.

That makes this sentence easier to recognize for English speakers. However, even when a word looks familiar, you still need to pay attention to Catalan grammar around it, such as:

• the article: el
• the verb choice: està
• agreement: trencat

So the vocabulary may feel familiar, but the sentence structure is still important to learn.