Breakdown of A la meva germana no li agrada el menjar picant, però a mi sí.
no
not
la germana
the sister
agradar
to like
a
to
Questions & Answers about A la meva germana no li agrada el menjar picant, però a mi sí.
Why does the sentence start with A la meva germana?
Because with agradar, Catalan usually marks the person who experiences the feeling with a.
So A la meva germana literally means to my sister.
Catalan structures this idea more like:
- To my sister, spicy food is not pleasing
- rather than English My sister doesn’t like spicy food
This is very normal with agradar.
Why are both a la meva germana and li used? Don’t they mean the same thing?
Yes, they refer to the same person, and that is normal in Catalan.
- a la meva germana = to my sister
- li = to her
Catalan often uses this kind of doubling with indirect objects. The full noun phrase makes it clear who we are talking about, and the pronoun is still kept because it is part of the normal sentence structure.
So:
- A la meva germana no li agrada...
is more natural than leaving out li.
Why is it agrada and not agraden?