La meva mare diu que la seva mare era feliç quan veia els nostres dibuixos.

My mother says that her mother was happy when she saw our drawings.

Breakdown of La meva mare diu que la seva mare era feliç quan veia els nostres dibuixos.

• ser: to be
• la mare: the mother
• meu: my
• quan: when

Questions & Answers about La meva mare diu que la seva mare era feliç quan veia els nostres dibuixos.

Why does Catalan use la in la meva mare and la seva mare?

Because Catalan usually combines the definite article with a possessive:

• la meva mare = my mother
• la seva mare = his/her/their mother
• els nostres dibuixos = our drawings

This is normal in Catalan, even though English usually uses just the possessive without the.

Why are the forms meva, seva, and nostres different?

Possessives in Catalan agree with the noun being possessed, not with the owner.

Here:

• mare is feminine singular, so you get meva and seva
• dibuixos is masculine plural, so you get nostres

So:

• la meva mare = feminine singular
• la seva mare = feminine singular
• els nostres dibuixos = plural

Does la seva mare mean her mother, his mother, or something else?

Seva can be ambiguous on its own. It can mean his, her, its, their, or formal your, depending on context.

In this sentence, the most natural reading is that la seva mare refers back to la meva mare, so it means her mother — in other words, my mother’s mother.

If a speaker wanted to make it extra clear, they could rephrase it.