Breakdown of Fa una setmana que la meva mare està refredada.
estar
to be
la mare
the mother
meu
my
refredat
having a cold
Questions & Answers about Fa una setmana que la meva mare està refredada.
Why does the sentence start with fa?
Because fa is part of a very common Catalan time expression:
fa + period of time + que + present tense
It means something like for / since / it’s been in English.
So:
- Fa una setmana que... = For a week now... / It’s been a week that...
- Fa dos dies que... = For two days now...
- Fa un any que... = For a year now...
Here, fa comes from the verb fer, but in this pattern it works like an impersonal time marker.
Why is it està and not a past tense or a present perfect?
Catalan often uses the present tense for something that started in the past and is still true now.
So:
- Fa una setmana que la meva mare està refredada.
literally uses the present està, even though in English you would usually say:
- My mother has had a cold for a week
- My mother has been sick for a week
This is one of the big differences between English and Catalan:
- English often uses the present perfect
- Catalan often uses present tense with a duration expression like fa... que
What exactly does que do here?