La meva veïna va treballar ahir, però avui també vol anar a un restaurant lluny de l'oficina.

My neighbor worked yesterday, but today she also wants to go to a restaurant far from the office.

Breakdown of La meva veïna va treballar ahir, però avui també vol anar a un restaurant lluny de l'oficina.

• un: a
• voler: to want
• avui: today
• a: to

Questions & Answers about La meva veïna va treballar ahir, però avui també vol anar a un restaurant lluny de l'oficina.

Why is it la meva veïna and not just meva veïna?

In standard Catalan, a possessive usually goes together with a definite article: el meu, la meva, els meus, les meves, and so on.

So la meva veïna is the normal way to say my neighbor.

Leaving out the article here would sound unnatural in standard Catalan. English says my neighbor, but Catalan normally says literally the my neighbor.

What does veïna mean exactly? Is it feminine?

Yes. Veïna is the feminine form, so it means female neighbor.

• veí = male neighbor
• veïna = female neighbor

If the gender is known and the person is a woman, veïna is the correct form.

Why does va treballar mean worked? Doesn’t va mean goes or went?

This is one of the most important points in Catalan grammar.

In Catalan, va + infinitive is a very common past tense, called the periphrastic past.

So:

• va treballar = worked
• literally it looks like goes/went to work, but grammatically it means a past action

Here, va is not acting as the normal verb to go. It is part of a past-tense construction.

So La meva veïna va treballar ahir means My neighbor worked yesterday.