La vacant és nova.

The job vacancy is new.

Breakdown of La vacant és nova.

• ser: to be
• nou: new
• la vacant: the job vacancy

Questions & Answers about La vacant és nova.

What part of speech is vacant in this sentence?

Here, vacant is a noun, not an adjective. It means something like vacancy or open position.

You can tell because it has the article la in front of it and acts as the subject of the sentence:

• La vacant = the vacancy
• és nova = is new

In other contexts, vacant can also be an adjective:

• una plaça vacant = an open / vacant position

Why is it la vacant and not el vacant?

Because vacant is feminine in Catalan when used as this noun.

Catalan nouns have grammatical gender, so you need the feminine article:

• la vacant = the vacancy

Even though the word does not end in -a, it is still feminine. This is normal in Catalan: gender is not always predictable from the ending, so it is best to learn nouns together with their article.

Why is it nova and not nou?

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

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

• nou = masculine singular
• nova = feminine singular
• nous = masculine plural
• noves = feminine plural

So:

• La vacant és nova.

and not:

• La vacant és nou.