Abans d'adormir-se, em va preguntar si jo encara recordava la joguina que m'agradava més.

Abans de + infinitive is a very common Catalan structure meaning before doing something.

So:

• abans de menjar = before eating
• abans de sortir = before leaving
• abans d'adormir-se = before falling asleep

Here, de becomes d' because the next word starts with a vowel: adormir-se.

This opening phrase works like an English time expression: Before falling asleep, ...

Adormir-se means to fall asleep.

The -se is a reflexive pronoun. In Catalan, many verbs change meaning when they are used reflexively:

• adormir = to put someone/something to sleep
• adormir-se = to fall asleep

So the reflexive form is the one you use when the subject itself is the one drifting into sleep.

This is just elision, which is very common in Catalan.

When de comes before a word beginning with a vowel, it often becomes d':

• de + adormir-se → d'adormir-se
• de + anar → d'anar

So Abans d'adormir-se is simply the normal contracted form of Abans de adormir-se.

Va preguntar is the periphrastic past, one of the main ways Catalan expresses the past.

It is formed with:

• present tense of anar
• • infinitive

So:

• va preguntar = he/she asked

This tense is extremely common in spoken and written Catalan.

In this sentence:

• em va preguntar = he/she asked me

Em is the unstressed object pronoun meaning me.

Catalan object pronouns usually go before a conjugated verb:

• em va veure = he/she saw me
• em va preguntar = he/she asked me

So em va preguntar literally corresponds to asked me.

Here si means if / whether and introduces an indirect yes-no question.

Compare:

• Direct question: Encara recordes...? = Do you still remember...?
• Indirect question: Em va preguntar si encara recordava... = He/she asked me if I still remembered...

So this si does not mean yes. It means whether / if.

Yes, Catalan often omits subject pronouns because the verb ending usually makes the subject clear.

So you could say:

• si encara recordava...

But the sentence has:

• si jo encara recordava...

The pronoun jo is included for emphasis, clarity, or contrast. It can suggest something like:

• if I still remembered...
• perhaps contrasting with someone else

So jo is not strictly necessary, but it is perfectly natural.

Recordava is the imperfect.

Catalan often uses the imperfect in reported speech or after a past verb when referring to an ongoing mental state, background situation, or something viewed as continuing at that time.

Here:

• em va preguntar = he/she asked me
• si jo encara recordava = whether I still remembered

Using recordava makes good sense because remembering is treated as a state at that moment, not as one completed action.

If you used va recordar, it would sound more like a specific completed act of remembering, which is not what this sentence is focusing on.

Encara here means still.

So:

• si jo encara recordava = whether I still remembered

Depending on context, encara can also sometimes mean yet or even, but in this sentence still is the natural meaning.

This means the toy that I liked the most.

Breakdown:

• la joguina = the toy
• que = that / which
• m'agradava més = I liked most

So que introduces a relative clause describing la joguina.

Literally, the structure is something like:

• the toy that pleased me most

But in natural English, that becomes:

• the toy I liked the most

M'agradava comes from agradar, which works differently from English to like.

Literally:

• m'agradava = it was pleasing to me

So instead of saying I liked the toy, Catalan structures it more like:

• the toy pleased me

In this sentence:

• la joguina que m'agradava més

literally means:

• the toy that pleased me most

But the correct English translation is:

• the toy I liked most

The m' is a contraction of me before a vowel:

• me agradava → m'agradava

With agradar, Catalan often uses més after the verb to express most in context:

• m'agradava més = I liked most / I liked better

Because the sentence is already talking about the toy among possible toys, més naturally gives the sense of the most.

So:

• la joguina que m'agradava més = the toy I liked the most

Catalan does not need to add a separate word equivalent to English the in this part.

As written, Abans d'adormir-se most naturally means before he/she fell asleep if it refers to the same person as va preguntar.

That is because -se is a third-person reflexive form.

So the most likely reading is:

• Before falling asleep, he/she asked me...
• or more explicitly, Before he/she fell asleep, he/she asked me...

If the speaker wanted to say before I fell asleep, Catalan would normally use:

• abans d'adormir-me

So the reflexive pronoun helps tell you who is falling asleep.

Yes:

• Abans d'adormir-se, = Before falling asleep / Before he/she fell asleep,
• em va preguntar = he/she asked me
• si jo encara recordava = if I still remembered
• la joguina = the toy
• que m'agradava més = that I liked the most

So the structure is:

[Time expression] + [main past verb] + [indirect question] + [object with relative clause]

That is a very typical Catalan sentence pattern.