La reunió acabarà aviat i després tornarem a casa.

The meeting will end soon and afterwards we will return home.

Breakdown of La reunió acabarà aviat i després tornarem a casa.

• i: and
• la casa: the home
• aviat: soon
• després: afterwards
• la reunió: the meeting
• acabar: to end
• tornar: to return

Questions & Answers about La reunió acabarà aviat i després tornarem a casa.

Why is it la reunió and not el reunió?

Because reunió is a feminine noun in Catalan, so it takes the feminine singular article la.

• la reunió = the meeting
• el is the masculine singular article, so it would be wrong here.

As in many Romance languages, grammatical gender is something you often just have to learn with the noun. A useful habit is to memorize nouns together with their article: la reunió, not just reunió.

How do I pronounce reunió, and what does the accent mean?

Reunió is pronounced roughly reh-oo-nee-OH, with the stress on the last syllable.

The written accent in -ó tells you that:

• the syllable is stressed
• the vowel is an o sound with marked stress

So the stress is not RE-u-nio or re-U-nio, but reu-ni-Ó.

This is very common in Catalan: accents often show where the stress goes.

Why is it acabarà? What tense is that?

Acabarà is the future tense of acabar = to finish / to end.

Here it means:

• acabarà = it will end

The subject is la reunió, which is third person singular, so Catalan uses the future ending -à here.

For acabar, the future forms are:

• acabaré = I will finish
• acabaràs = you will finish
• acabarà = he/she/it will finish
• acabarem = we will finish
• acabareu = you all will finish
• acabaran = they will finish

So La reunió acabarà aviat means the meeting will end soon.

Why is it tornarem? Is that also future tense?

Yes. Tornarem is also future tense, from tornar = to return / to go back.

• tornarem = we will return / we will go back

The ending -em here marks first person plural in the future:

• nosaltres tornarem = we will return

So the sentence has two future verbs:

• acabarà = it will end
• tornarem = we will return

Why do the two future forms look different: acabarà and tornarem?

Because they have different subjects.

• acabarà goes with la reunió = the meeting → third person singular
• tornarem implies nosaltres = we → first person plural

Catalan changes the verb ending depending on who does the action.

So:

• la reunió acabarà = the meeting will end
• nosaltres tornarem = we will return

Even though both verbs are in the future, the endings are different because the subjects are different.

Could Catalan use the present tense here instead of the future?

Yes, sometimes Catalan can use the present to talk about the near future, especially in everyday speech. For example, speakers may sometimes say something equivalent to The meeting ends soon and then we go home.

But in this sentence, the future tense is perfectly natural and very clear. It emphasizes that these actions are still ahead.

So:

• acabarà / tornarem = explicitly future
• present forms can sometimes be used too, depending on context and style

What does aviat mean, and where does it go in the sentence?

Aviat means soon.

In this sentence:

• La reunió acabarà aviat = The meeting will end soon

It often comes after the verb, as it does here, but Catalan word order can sometimes be flexible for emphasis.

Common patterns:

• acabarà aviat = will end soon
• aviat acabarà = soon it will end

The version in your sentence is the most straightforward and natural.

What does després mean here?

Després means afterwards, later, or then, depending on context.

In this sentence:

• i després tornarem a casa = and afterwards we will return home

It is a very common linking word used to show sequence:

• first the meeting ends
• després = after that
• then we go home

You will also see:

• després de
  • noun/infinitive = after
    • després de la reunió = after the meeting
    • després de menjar = after eating

But here després stands on its own and means afterwards / then.

Why is it a casa and not a la casa?

Because a casa is the normal idiomatic way to say home in Catalan.

So:

• tornar a casa = to go back home / to return home

This works like an expression. When you mean home in the general sense, Catalan usually says a casa without the article.

Compare:

• Som a casa = We are at home
• Tornem a casa = We’re going home

If you mean a specific house as a building, then you may use an article or another structure:

• a la casa de la Maria = to Maria’s house

So a casa is not literally to house in awkward English terms; it is the normal Catalan equivalent of home.

Why use tornar here? Doesn’t it literally mean to return?

Yes, tornar literally means to return or to go back, and that is exactly why it is used here.

In Catalan, tornar a casa is a very common way to say:

• to go home
• to go back home
• to return home

English often prefers go home, while Catalan often uses tornar a casa when the idea is returning to where you normally live.

So this is a very natural Catalan choice.

Is the subject nosaltres missing before tornarem?

Yes, but that is normal in Catalan.

Catalan often drops subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows who the subject is. This is called a pro-drop language feature.

• tornarem already means we will return
• so nosaltres is not necessary

You could say:

• després nosaltres tornarem a casa

but that would usually add emphasis or contrast, something like:

• afterwards, we will go home

Most of the time, the simpler version without nosaltres is more natural.

What is the role of i in the sentence?

I means and.

It connects the two parts of the sentence:

• La reunió acabarà aviat
• i després tornarem a casa

So the structure is:

• first event
• i = and
• second event

It is a very basic and very common conjunction in Catalan.

What is the basic sentence structure here?

The structure is:

• La reunió = subject
• acabarà = verb
• aviat = adverb
• i = conjunction
• després = sequencing adverb
• tornarem = verb
• a casa = destination/complement

So, piece by piece:

• La reunió → the meeting
• acabarà → will end
• aviat → soon
• i després → and then / and afterwards
• tornarem a casa → we will return home

This is a very typical Catalan sentence pattern and a good example of how future forms and time adverbs work together.