Questions & Answers about La sopa és massa picant avui.
Why is it la sopa and not just sopa?
Catalan often uses the definite article more than English does. So la sopa is the normal way to say the soup.
In a sentence like this, leaving out the article would usually sound less natural unless you were speaking in a very general or special context.
- la sopa = the soup
- sopa = soup, in a more general or dictionary-like sense
Why is it és?
És is the third-person singular form of the verb ser (to be).
Here it agrees with la sopa, which is singular:
- jo sóc = I am
- tu ets = you are
- ell/ella és = he/she/it is
So La sopa és... means The soup is...
Also note the accent: és with an accent is the verb form. This helps distinguish it in writing from es, which is a pronoun.
What does massa mean here?
Here, massa means too in the sense of excessively.
So:
- massa picant = too spicy
This is different from English too, which can also mean also. In Catalan, massa only means in this kind of sentence.