La pau és important.

La is the feminine singular definite article, equivalent to the.

In Catalan, it is very common to use the definite article with abstract nouns when talking about them in a general sense. So La pau means peace as a general concept, not just the peace in a very specific context.

That is why La pau és important sounds natural in Catalan.

Yes, pau is feminine, which is why it takes la.

There is not always a reliable ending that tells you the gender in Catalan. Unlike nouns ending in -a, pau ends in a consonant-like sound, so you mostly just have to learn its gender together with the noun:

• la pau
• la salut
• la llibertat

A good habit is to memorize nouns with their article, not by themselves.

És is the he/she/it is form of the verb ser.

So in this sentence:

• La pau = the subject
• és = is
• important = important

It works just like English is in Peace is important.

The accent in és is important because it distinguishes it from es.

• és = is (from ser)
• es = a pronoun, often meaning something like oneself, itself, or part of a pronominal verb

So the accent is not optional here; it helps show that this is the verb form.

Because important is an adjective that has the same form for both masculine and feminine singular.

So you get:

• un tema important
• una qüestió important
• la pau és important

Many Catalan adjectives do change for gender, but some do not. Important is one of the ones that stays the same in the singular.

In the plural, it becomes:

• importants

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

Here, ser is used because important describes an essential or general characteristic of peace, not a temporary state.

So:

• La pau és important = Peace is important

Using estar here would not sound natural for this meaning.

The normal, neutral order is:

• La pau és important

This is the most standard way to say it.

Catalan can sometimes change word order for emphasis, but for a simple statement like this, subject + verb + adjective is the natural choice.

For example, you might also hear a more marked structure in some contexts, but learners should stick with:

• La pau és important

A simple pronunciation guide:

• pau sounds roughly like pow in English
• és sounds roughly like ess

More approximately:

• pau = /paw/
• és = /es/

So the whole sentence is approximately:

• la pow ess eem-por-TANT

The final stress of important falls on the last syllable: imporTANT.

Normally, no, not with this meaning.

Pau without la would usually be understood as a proper name, because Pau is also a common male name in Catalan.

So:

• La pau és important = Peace is important
• Pau és important = Pau is important

That is another reason why the article matters here.

For a negative sentence, add no before the verb:

• La pau no és important = Peace is not important

To ask a yes/no question, Catalan often just uses intonation, especially in speech:

• La pau és important? = Is peace important?

You may also see inversion for emphasis or in more formal styles:

• És important la pau?

But the most basic pattern for a learner is very simple:

• statement: La pau és important
• negative: La pau no és important
• question: La pau és important?