El cotxe és petit.

El means the. So el cotxe means the car.

Catalan often uses the definite article the same way English does, but in some contexts Catalan uses it even where English might not. In this sentence, el is simply the normal definite article for a singular masculine noun.

• el cotxe = the car
• un cotxe = a car

So if you changed the sentence to Un cotxe és petit, it would mean A car is small.

Cotxe is masculine, which is why it takes the article el.

You often learn a noun’s gender together with its article:

• el cotxe = the car
• la casa = the house

There is not always a perfect rule for guessing gender from the noun ending, so it is best to memorize nouns with their article. In this case, learn el cotxe, not just cotxe.

És is the he/she/it and formal you form of the verb ser, which means to be.

So:

• El cotxe és petit = The car is small

A few forms of ser are:

• jo soc / sóc = I am
• tu ets = you are
• ell/ella és = he/she is

Here, el cotxe is a singular noun, so Catalan uses és.

The accent in és helps show both pronunciation and meaning.

1. Pronunciation: it tells you the vowel is stressed.
2. Distinction: it helps distinguish és (is) from es, which is a different word used in reflexive or pronominal constructions.

So the accent is important and should be written:

• és = is
• es = reflexive pronoun, like himself/herself/itself in some contexts

In Catalan, adjectives often come after the noun, unlike in English.

So:

• el cotxe petit = the small car
• El cotxe és petit = The car is small

This is very normal in Catalan. English says small car, but Catalan commonly says cotxe petit.

Some adjectives can go before the noun in Catalan, but for a basic descriptive adjective like petit, after the noun is the usual and most natural position.

Because cotxe is masculine singular, the adjective must agree with it.

Catalan adjectives change to match the noun’s gender and number:

• petit = masculine singular
• petita = feminine singular
• petits = masculine plural
• petites = feminine plural

Examples:

• El cotxe és petit = The car is small
• La casa és petita = The house is small
• Els cotxes són petits = The cars are small
• Les cases són petites = The houses are small

Cotxe can be tricky for English speakers because of the tx.

In standard Catalan, tx is pronounced like the ch sound in church.

So cotxe sounds approximately like KO-che.

A rough guide:

• co- like co in coffee, but shorter
• -txe like che

So: KO-che

The exact vowel quality depends a bit on dialect, but tx = ch is the key thing to remember.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

el KOH-che es peh-TEET

A few notes:

• el is short
• cotxe sounds roughly like KOH-che
• és is stressed
• petit is stressed on the last syllable: pe-TIT

So the stress pattern is roughly: El COT-xe és pe-TIT

Normally, no. In this sentence, és is the correct choice.

Catalan has two verbs that can both translate as to be:

• ser for essential qualities, identity, description
• estar for states, locations, conditions in certain contexts

Petit describes a characteristic of the car, so Catalan uses ser:

• El cotxe és petit = The car is small

Using estar with petit would sound unusual in most basic contexts.

You need to change the article, noun, verb, and adjective so they all agree:

• El cotxe és petit = The car is small
• Els cotxes són petits = The cars are small

Changes:

• el → els
• cotxe → cotxes
• és → són
• petit → petits

Agreement is very important in Catalan, so all these parts change together.