El pare vol visitar la meva germana a l'hospital avui.

In Catalan, nouns normally take an article, and that includes family words in many everyday contexts.

So el pare is the normal way to say the father or, depending on context, dad.

Using pare without an article is much less common in a neutral sentence. It can sound like:

• a form of address: Pare, vine aquí
• a special or literary style
• part of certain fixed expressions

So in a plain statement, el pare is the expected form.

Because Catalan usually uses the definite article before a possessive.

So:

• la meva germana = my sister
• el meu llibre = my book
• els meus amics = my friends

This is different from English, which normally does not use the before my.

For a learner, the safest rule is: article + possessive + noun

The possessive agrees with the noun it describes.

Since germana is feminine singular, you need the feminine singular form:

• meu = masculine singular
• meva = feminine singular
• meus = masculine plural
• meves = feminine plural

So:

• el meu germà
• la meva germana

The possessive agrees with the thing possessed, not with the owner.

Because Catalan uses voler + infinitive directly.

So:

• vol visitar = wants to visit
• vol menjar = wants to eat
• vol sortir = wants to go out

English needs to after want, but Catalan does not add any extra word here.

This is a very common pattern:

• vull anar
• volen parlar
• vol dormir

Because la meva germana is the direct object of visitar, and Catalan normally does not use the Spanish-style personal a before a human direct object.

So Catalan says:

• visitar la meva germana
• veure el professor
• conèixer la Maria

A Spanish speaker might expect a la meva germana, but in standard Catalan that is usually not the normal choice here.

So the sentence is correct as: El pare vol visitar la meva germana...

It is:

• a = at / to
• l'hospital = the hospital

The noun hospital normally takes the article el, but before a vowel sound or silent h, el becomes l'.

So:

• el hospital becomes l'hospital

After the preposition a, you get:

• a l'hospital

This is completely normal Catalan spelling.

Because the h in hospital is silent.

In Catalan, articles often apostrophize before a vowel sound, and a silent h counts like that here.

So:

• el hospital → l'hospital
• la història → l'història

That is why you see l'hospital, not el hospital.

In practice, it can cover the idea that English often expresses as either at, in, or sometimes to, depending on context.

In this sentence, the natural meaning is that the sister is in the hospital, and the father wants to visit her there.

So in idiomatic English, you would often think of it as:

• at the hospital
• or in the hospital

Catalan uses a much more broadly than English does, so you should not expect a perfect one-to-one match with English prepositions.

Yes, it could go somewhere else. Catalan word order is fairly flexible, especially with time expressions like avui.

The version in your sentence is very natural:

• El pare vol visitar la meva germana a l'hospital avui.

But these are also possible:

• Avui el pare vol visitar la meva germana a l'hospital.
• El pare avui vol visitar la meva germana a l'hospital.

Putting avui at the end is a normal, neutral choice. Putting it at the beginning often gives it a little more emphasis, as if you are setting the time frame first.