Breakdown of El meu pare va menjar un plat de peix amb arròs.
un
a
amb
with
el pare
the father
menjar
to eat
Questions & Answers about El meu pare va menjar un plat de peix amb arròs.
Why is there an El before meu pare? In English we just say my father, not the my father.
In Catalan, it is very common to use the definite article before a possessive:
- el meu pare = my father
- la meva mare = my mother
- el meu cotxe = my car
So el meu pare is completely normal Catalan.
This is one of the biggest differences from English. English usually says just my father, but Catalan often says the my father literally.
A few notes:
- This article + possessive pattern is especially common with family members, body parts, and everyday nouns.
- In some contexts, the article may be omitted, but in a basic sentence like this, el meu pare is the standard form.
What does va menjar mean exactly? Doesn’t va mean goes?
Here, va menjar is a past tense, not a movement verb.
Catalan often forms the past using:
- anar in the present + infinitive
So:
- va menjar = ate
Literally, it looks like goes to eat, but that is not how it functions here. It is a grammatical past tense called the periphrastic past, and it is one of the most common ways to talk about completed actions in Catalan.
For example:
- va parlar = spoke
- va arribar = arrived
- va dormir = slept
So in this sentence:
- El meu pare va menjar... = My father ate...