Quan estava trista, l'àvia em donava una joguina i jo estava més feliç.

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Breakdown of Quan estava trista, l'àvia em donava una joguina i jo estava més feliç.

• estar: to be
• i: and
• em: me

Questions & Answers about Quan estava trista, l'àvia em donava una joguina i jo estava més feliç.

Why are estava and donava used here instead of a completed past tense?

Both estava and donava are in the imperfect.

In Catalan, the imperfect is commonly used for:

• ongoing states in the past
• background description
• repeated or habitual actions

That fits this sentence well: it describes a repeated situation in the past. The idea is basically Whenever I was sad, grandma would give me a toy, and I would feel happier.

If you wanted to talk about one single completed event, you would normally use a different past tense, such as: Quan vaig estar trista, l'àvia em va donar una joguina... That would sound more like one specific occasion.

Does quan here mean when or whenever?

In this sentence, quan can often be understood as whenever, because the imperfect suggests a habitual past situation.

So although the literal word is when, the full sense is closer to: Whenever I was sad, grandma would give me a toy...

Catalan often lets the tense give that repeated meaning, without needing a separate word for whenever.

Why is it trista? Does that mean the speaker is female?

Yes. Trista is the feminine singular form of trist.

Since the subject is omitted, the adjective helps show who is being described. Here estava trista means the speaker is feminine: I was sad said by a female speaker.

If the speaker were male, it would be: Quan estava trist...

So the ending of the adjective agrees with the understood subject.