Quan plou, no podem estendre la roba al balcó.

not

Breakdown of Quan plou, no podem estendre la roba al balcó.

• a: on
• poder: to be able to
• quan: when

Questions & Answers about Quan plou, no podem estendre la roba al balcó.

Why does the sentence start with quan?

Quan means when. It introduces a time clause: Quan plou = When it rains.

In this sentence, quan is used in a general sense, meaning whenever it rains rather than one specific moment. Catalan often uses the present tense for this kind of general truth or repeated situation.

Why is it plou and not something with a subject, like ell plou?

Ploure means to rain, and in Catalan it works like an impersonal verb, just like to rain in English. There is no real subject.

So:

• Plou = It is raining / It rains

The it in English is only a grammatical placeholder. Catalan does not need one here, so plou by itself is complete.

Why is there a comma after Quan plou?

The comma separates the introductory subordinate clause from the main clause.

So the structure is:

• Quan plou, = time clause
• no podem estendre la roba al balcó. = main clause

This is very similar to English:

• When it rains, we can’t hang the clothes on the balcony.

In short sentences, punctuation can sometimes vary a bit in informal writing, but the comma here is standard and helpful.