La meva mare va menjar sopa i amanida.

In Catalan, a definite article is very often used before a possessive, especially with family members.

So:

• la meva mare = my mother
• literally, it looks like the my mother

This is normal Catalan grammar, not extra emphasis.

A few examples:

• el meu pare = my father
• la teva germana = your sister
• els nostres avis = our grandparents

English does not use the here, but Catalan usually does.

Because meva has to agree with mare, which is a feminine singular noun.

The possessive changes form:

• meu = my (masculine singular)
• meva = my (feminine singular)
• meus = my (masculine plural)
• meves = my (feminine plural)

Examples:

• el meu pare = my father
• la meva mare = my mother
• els meus llibres = my books
• les meves amigues = my female friends

So mare is feminine singular, so meva is the correct form.

Va menjar is a past tense form meaning ate.

Catalan very commonly forms the past with: present tense of anar + infinitive

So:

• va
  • menjar
• literally it looks like goes to eat
• but in Catalan it actually means ate

This is called the periphrastic past and it is one of the most common ways to talk about completed actions in the past.

Examples:

• va parlar = spoke
• va arribar = arrived
• va dormir = slept

So in your sentence:

• La meva mare va menjar... = My mother ate...

Good question. On its own, va can be the present form of anar (to go), but in the structure:

va + infinitive

it usually forms the past tense.

So:

• va = goes / he-she goes, when used by itself
• va menjar = ate, when followed by an infinitive

Context and structure tell you which meaning it has.

Compare:

• Ella va a casa. = She goes home.
• Ella va menjar sopa. = She ate soup.

So in your sentence, because va is followed by menjar, it is the past tense construction.

Because Catalan often leaves out the article when talking about food in a general, non-specific way, especially after verbs like menjar (to eat).

So:

• va menjar sopa i amanida = ate soup and salad

This sounds natural when you mean the type of food, not a particular identified soup or salad.

If you want to refer to specific ones, you could use articles:

• va menjar la sopa i l’amanida = ate the soup and the salad

So the difference is roughly:

• sopa i amanida = soup and salad in general
• la sopa i l’amanida = the soup and the salad, specific ones

I is the Catalan word for and.

So:

• sopa i amanida = soup and salad

It works like English and:

• pa i formatge = bread and cheese
• cafè i llet = coffee and milk

A useful extra point: before words beginning with i or hi, Catalan often changes i to e for pronunciation reasons.

For example:

• pare e fill = father and son

But here it stays i because amanida starts with a:

• sopa i amanida

Yes, in this sentence the word order is very similar to English:

• La meva mare = subject
• va menjar = verb
• sopa i amanida = object

So it follows the basic pattern:

Subject + Verb + Object

Just like:

• My mother ate soup and salad

This makes the sentence very straightforward for an English speaker.

Usually menjar is the verb to eat.

In this sentence:

• va menjar = ate

But menjar can also sometimes be used as a noun meaning food in some contexts.

Examples:

• Menjar és important. = Eating is important.
• No hi ha menjar. = There is no food.

So the meaning depends on how it is used. Here, because it follows va, it is definitely the verb to eat.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation guide would be:

lah MAY-vuh MAH-ruh vuh mun-JAR SOH-puh ee uh-muh-NEE-duh

A few notes:

• meva sounds roughly like MAY-vuh
• mare is about MAH-ruh
• menjar has the stress on the last syllable: mun-JAR
• i is pronounced like ee
• amanida is stressed on ni: uh-muh-NEE-duh

Pronunciation varies somewhat by dialect, but this is a helpful approximate version.

Yes, but it would mean something different.

• va menjar = ate / a completed action
• menjava = was eating, used to eat, or ate in an ongoing/background sense, depending on context

So:

• La meva mare va menjar sopa i amanida. = My mother ate soup and salad.
  
  • one completed action
• La meva mare menjava sopa i amanida. = My mother was eating soup and salad / used to eat soup and salad
  
  • ongoing, habitual, or background action

So va menjar is the better choice for a simple finished event.

Yes, it is a completely natural and correct everyday sentence.

It uses:

• a very common possessive structure: la meva mare
• the normal spoken past tense: va menjar
• ordinary food vocabulary: sopa i amanida

So it sounds like normal real-life Catalan, not an unnatural textbook sentence.