Hi ha soroll al passadís, i la meva filla no pot dormir.

Hi ha is the normal Catalan way to say there is or there are.

It is made of:

• hi — historically a locative element
• ha — the 3rd person singular of haver

But for a learner, the easiest approach is to treat hi ha as one fixed expression meaning there is/there are.

Examples:

• Hi ha un llibre. — There is a book.
• Hi ha llibres. — There are books.

Because hi ha expresses existence or presence: it tells you that something is present somewhere.

So:

• Hi ha soroll al passadís = there is noise in the hallway.

By contrast:

• és usually identifies or describes something
• està usually tells you where something/someone is or what state they are in

A simple way to remember it:

• hi ha = something exists / is present
• està = something is located somewhere

Because soroll is being used as a general, uncountable noun: noise in general.

So:

• Hi ha soroll = there is noise / it is noisy

If you say:

• Hi ha un soroll

that usually means there is a noise, meaning one specific sound or disturbing noise.

So the version in the sentence sounds more natural if you mean general noise in the hallway.

Because a + el contracts to al in Catalan.

So:

• a + el passadís → al passadís

This is very common.

Similar contractions:

• de + el → del
• a + els → als
• de + els → dels

Examples:

• Vaig al mercat.
• Vinc del centre.

The accent mark shows where the stress goes.

Passadís is stressed on the last syllable:

• pas-sa-DÍS

That is why the accent is written.

A rough pronunciation for an English speaker is:

• pah-sah-DEES

The accent mark is not optional here; it is part of the correct spelling.

In Catalan, possessives are usually used together with the definite article.

So Catalan normally says:

• la meva filla — my daughter
• el meu pare — my father
• la nostra casa — our house

This is different from English, where you normally say just my daughter without the.

So for English speakers, this is something to get used to:

• Catalan often uses article + possessive + noun

Pot is the 3rd person singular present tense of poder, which means to be able to / can.

So:

• pot = can or is able to

In the sentence:

• la meva filla no pot dormir means my daughter cannot sleep or my daughter can’t sleep

A few forms of poder in the present tense:

• puc — I can
• pots — you can
• pot — he/she/it can
• podem — we can
• podeu — you all can
• poden — they can

Because Catalan normally forms negation by putting no before the conjugated verb.

So:

• pot dormir — can sleep
• no pot dormir — cannot sleep

More examples:

• Dorm. — He/She sleeps.
• No dorm. — He/She does not sleep.
• Vol venir. — He/She wants to come.
• No vol venir. — He/She does not want to come.

So the position of no here is completely normal.

Because after poder, Catalan uses a bare infinitive directly, just like English uses can + verb.

So:

• pot dormir — can sleep
• puc venir — I can come
• pots marxar — you can leave

No preposition is needed between poder and the infinitive.

Filla is pronounced roughly like FEE-lya, though in some accents it may sound closer to FEE-ya.

Important points:

• stress is on the first syllable: FI-lla
• ll in Catalan is traditionally a palatal sound, something like ly

So for an English speaker, FEE-lya is a good approximation.

In standard modern Catalan, hi ha is used for both singular and plural.

So:

• Hi ha un problema. — There is a problem.
• Hi ha dos problemes. — There are two problems.

That means Catalan does not normally change the expression the way English does with is/are.

This is why learners should memorize hi ha as the general present-tense existential form.