La professora diu que avui no hi ha classe.

In Catalan, it is very common to use the definite article (el, la, els, les) before nouns, including professions when you are talking about a specific person.

So la professora means the teacher.

Here it refers to a particular teacher, not just any teacher in general.

• la professora = the female teacher
• el professor = the male teacher

Catalan uses grammatical gender, so professora is feminine and takes la.

Because professora is the feminine form of professor.

Catalan often marks gender in nouns referring to people:

• professor = male teacher
• professora = female teacher

Since the sentence uses la, the noun also has to be feminine: la professora.

Diu means says or is saying.

It is the third person singular form of the verb dir (to say):

• jo dic = I say
• tu dius = you say
• ell/ella diu = he/she says

So:

• La professora diu = The teacher says

Catalan often uses the present tense where English might also use the present simple.

Here que means that.

It introduces the clause that follows what the teacher says:

• La professora diu que... = The teacher says that...

Just like in English, that can introduce reported speech. In Catalan, que is very common in this structure.

So the sentence literally works like:

• The teacher says that today there is no class

Avui means today.

It appears right after que because it modifies the statement that follows:

• diu que avui no hi ha classe = says that today there is no class

Catalan word order is fairly flexible, but this placement is very natural. It puts today near the beginning of the reported statement, which is similar to English:

• She says that today there is no class

You could think of avui as setting the time frame for the whole second part of the sentence.

Because hi ha is the normal Catalan way to say there is / there are.

So:

• hi ha classe = there is class
• no hi ha classe = there is no class

This expression comes from the verb haver in an impersonal form:

• hi ha = there is / there are

The no simply negates it:

• no hi ha = there isn’t / there aren’t

This is one of the most important basic structures in Catalan.

In hi ha, the word hi is part of the fixed expression meaning there is / there are.

For learners, it is best to memorize hi ha as a whole chunk.

Examples:

• Hi ha un llibre. = There is a book.
• Hi ha estudiants. = There are students.
• No hi ha classe. = There is no class.

Even though hi has other uses in Catalan, in this very common expression it is simply part of how Catalan says existential there is/are.

Because in this sentence classe is being used in a general sense, like class in English when we say:

• There is no class today

Catalan often leaves out the article in this kind of expression.

So:

• No hi ha classe = There is no class
• No hi ha la classe would mean something much more specific, like the class is not happening / there is no such specific class, which is not the usual meaning here.

Without the article, classe refers to classes in general or the scheduled lesson.

In this sentence, it usually means there is no class in the sense of there is no lesson today.

Even though English distinguishes singular and plural, Catalan hi ha can mean both there is and there are depending on context.

Here classe is singular, so the most direct meaning is:

• there is no class

But in real usage, it can also carry the broader idea that classes are not taking place.

Not exactly, but it is quite close.

Word by word, it is roughly:

• La professora = the teacher
• diu = says
• que = that
• avui = today
• no hi ha = there is not / there isn’t
• classe = class

So a very literal version would be:

The teacher says that today there isn’t class

But natural English would usually be:

The teacher says that there is no class today

or simply:

The teacher says there’s no class today.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation is:

lah pruh-fuh-SO-ruh DEE-oo keh uh-VWEE no ee AH KLAH-suh

A few notes:

• diu sounds roughly like DEE-oo
• avui sounds roughly like uh-VWEE
• hi ha is often pronounced smoothly together
• classe has a clear s sound

Pronunciation varies somewhat by region, but this approximation will help you recognize it.