La meva amiga va demanar arròs amb peix.

In standard Catalan, possessives like meu / meva / meus / meves usually appear with a definite article:

• la meva amiga = my friend
• el meu llibre = my book

This is different from English, where you normally say just my friend without the.

There are a few exceptions in Catalan, especially with some family relationships in certain contexts, but for a sentence like this, la meva amiga is the normal form.

Because amiga is a feminine singular noun, so the possessive has to agree with it.

Here are the forms of my in Catalan:

• el meu for masculine singular
• la meva for feminine singular
• els meus for masculine plural
• les meves for feminine plural

So:

• la meva amiga = my (female) friend
• el meu amic = my (male) friend

Yes. Amiga is feminine, so it refers to a female friend. The masculine form is amic.

• amic = male friend
• amiga = female friend

So La meva amiga means My female friend.

Va demanar is a very common Catalan past tense called the periphrastic past.

It is formed with:

• a present-tense form of anar (to go)
• plus an infinitive

So:

• va demanar literally looks like goes to ask/order, but it actually means asked / ordered

In this sentence:

• va = the 3rd person singular form used in this past construction
• demanar = to ask for / to order

So La meva amiga va demanar... means My friend ordered... or My friend asked for...

Good question. On its own, va can indeed be the present of anar (to go). But in the pattern:

• va + infinitive

it usually forms the past tense in Catalan.

Examples:

• va parlar = he/she spoke
• va menjar = he/she ate
• va demanar = he/she asked for / ordered

So in this sentence, va is not showing movement. It is part of a past-tense structure.

It can mean all of those, depending on context.

Demanar often means:

• to ask for
• to request
• to order (especially in a restaurant)

In this sentence, because the object is food — arròs amb peix — the most natural English translation is ordered.

So:

• va demanar arròs amb peix = ordered rice with fish

Catalan often leaves out the article with food items when you are talking about what someone ordered, ate, bought, etc., especially in a general sense.

So:

• va demanar arròs amb peix = ordered rice with fish

If you added an article, the meaning could become more specific depending on context:

• l’arròs = the rice
• el peix = the fish

Without the article here, it sounds like a normal menu item or dish.

Amb means with.

So:

• arròs amb peix = rice with fish

It links the two food items together as part of one dish or combination.

Usually it sounds like a dish of rice with fish, not two completely separate orders.

• arròs amb peix = rice with fish

If you wanted to emphasize two separate items, you might say something like:

• arròs i peix = rice and fish

So amb suggests that the fish is served with the rice, as part of the dish.

The accent in arròs shows the stressed syllable and the quality of the vowel.

• arròs is stressed on the last syllable: ar-ròs

In Catalan, accent marks are important because they help show:

1. where the stress falls
2. sometimes whether the vowel is open or closed

So the accent is not optional — it is part of the correct spelling.

Peix is pronounced roughly like paysh in English approximation.

More carefully:

• peix sounds like /peʃ/

The final x here sounds like sh, not like the English ks sound.

So:

• peix ≈ paysh

Yes. Catalan often omits subject pronouns when they are understood from the verb.

So instead of saying:

• Ella va demanar arròs amb peix

it is very natural to say:

• La meva amiga va demanar arròs amb peix

And once the subject is clear, Catalan often does not need ella at all.

The basic order is:

• Subject: La meva amiga
• Verb: va demanar
• Object: arròs amb peix

So it follows a normal Subject–Verb–Object order, much like English:

• My friend / ordered / rice with fish

That makes this sentence very straightforward for English speakers in terms of word order.

Yes, that is grammatically possible, but it shifts the focus.

• arròs amb peix suggests the main thing is rice, with fish as the accompaniment
• peix amb arròs suggests the main thing is fish, with rice as the accompaniment

So both can be correct, but they do not feel exactly the same. The original sentence presents the dish as rice with fish.

A simple English-friendly approximation is:

la MAY-va a-MEE-ga va da-ma-NAR a-RROS am PAYSH

A few notes:

• meva = MAY-va
• amiga = a-MEE-ga
• demanar = da-ma-NAR
• arròs = a-RROS
• amb is often pronounced with a final m sound before the next word
• peix = PAYSH

The real pronunciation depends somewhat on the dialect, but that approximation is a useful start.