Breakdown of El meu pare està molt ocupat avui.
Questions & Answers about El meu pare està molt ocupat avui.
In Catalan, it is very common to use the definite article with possessives:
- el meu pare = my father
- la meva mare = my mother
- els meus amics = my friends
So although English says just my father, Catalan normally says the my father, literally speaking. This is just standard Catalan grammar, especially with family members and many other nouns.
Meu means my, but it changes to match the noun in gender and number:
- meu = masculine singular
- meva = feminine singular
- meus = masculine plural
- meves = feminine plural
So:
- el meu pare = my father
- la meva mare = my mother
- els meus germans = my brothers / my siblings
- les meves germanes = my sisters
Since pare is masculine singular, meu is the correct form.
This is about the Catalan distinction between ser and estar, which is similar to Spanish.
Here, ocupat describes a temporary state or condition, so Catalan uses estar:
- El meu pare està molt ocupat avui. = My father is very busy today.
If you are talking about a more essential or defining characteristic, Catalan often uses ser instead.
A simple way to think about it:
- ser = what someone/something is
- estar = how someone/something is at the moment
Being busy today is clearly temporary, so està is the natural choice.
Està is the 3rd person singular form of estar in the present tense.
So:
- jo estic = I am
- tu estàs = you are
- ell/ella està = he/she is
Since el meu pare is he, the verb form is està.
The accent mark in està shows where the stress falls: es-TÀ.
It also helps distinguish the correct written form. In Catalan, written accents are important and are part of correct spelling, not optional marks.
So you should write:
- està ✅
not - esta ❌
Here, molt means very.
So:
- molt ocupat = very busy
This is a very common pattern in Catalan:
- molt alt = very tall
- molt interessant = very interesting
- molt cansat = very tired
Be careful: molt can also mean much or a lot, depending on the context.
Ocupat is an adjective, and in Catalan adjectives usually agree with the noun they describe.
Since pare is masculine singular, the adjective is also masculine singular:
- ocupat = masculine singular
- ocupada = feminine singular
- ocupats = masculine plural
- ocupades = feminine plural
Examples:
- El meu pare està ocupat.
- La meva mare està ocupada.
- Els meus pares estan ocupats.
Yes. Catalan word order is fairly flexible, especially with time expressions like avui (today).
All of these are natural:
- El meu pare està molt ocupat avui.
- Avui el meu pare està molt ocupat.
- El meu pare avui està molt ocupat.
The most neutral choices are usually the first two. Putting avui first can give it a little more emphasis.
Yes, but only if the subject is already clear from context.
Catalan often drops subject pronouns, but here el meu pare is not a pronoun — it is a full noun phrase. If the listener already knows you are talking about your father, you could simply say:
- Està molt ocupat avui. = He’s very busy today.
If the subject is not clear, keeping el meu pare is better.
A rough pronunciation guide for an English speaker is:
el meu PA-rə es-TA molt oo-koo-PAT ah-VUI
A few notes:
- pare sounds roughly like PA-rə in many accents
- està is stressed on the last syllable
- ocupat is stressed on the last syllable: oo-koo-PAT
- avui is stressed on the second syllable: ah-VUI
Pronunciation varies somewhat across Catalan-speaking regions, but this will help you say it recognizably.
Yes, it is a very natural and standard sentence.
A native speaker might also say something similar like:
- Avui el meu pare està molt ocupat.
- El meu pare avui va molt enfeinat. (more idiomatic in some contexts/regions)
But El meu pare està molt ocupat avui is completely normal, correct, and easy for learners to use.