La casa és molt gran.

to be

Breakdown of La casa és molt gran.

• la casa: the house
• gran: big
• molt: very

Questions & Answers about La casa és molt gran.

Why is it la casa and not el casa?

Because casa is a feminine singular noun in Catalan, so it takes the feminine singular definite article la.

• la casa = the house
• el is the masculine singular article, so it would be used with masculine nouns, not casa.

This is something you usually have to learn together with the noun: casa is feminine.

What does és mean here?

És means is.

It is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb ser (to be):

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

So in La casa és molt gran, és is the verb that links the house with the description very big.

Why does és have an accent mark?

The accent in és is important for both spelling and pronunciation.

It helps distinguish és (is) from es, which can be a pronoun in Catalan.

It also shows the stressed vowel quality. In standard Catalan, és has a clear stressed e sound.

So you should write:

• és = is

not:

• es when you mean the verb