La meva mare diu que aquesta idea és bona.

My mother says that this idea is good.

Breakdown of La meva mare diu que aquesta idea és bona.

• ser: to be
• la mare: the mother
• meu: my
• que: that

Questions & Answers about La meva mare diu que aquesta idea és bona.

Why is it la meva mare and not just meva mare?

In Catalan, it is very common to use the definite article before a possessive with family members and many everyday nouns.

So la meva mare literally looks like the my mother, but in normal Catalan it simply means my mother.

This is different from English, where you normally do not say the my mother.

Some common examples:

• el meu pare = my father
• la meva germana = my sister
• el meu cotxe = my car

So la meva mare is the normal Catalan pattern.

Why does meva come before mare?

Catalan possessives usually come before the noun, just like in English.

• la meva mare = my mother
• aquesta idea = this idea

Putting the possessive after the noun is much less common and usually sounds more literary, emphatic, or restricted to certain contexts. For a learner, the normal order to use is:

• article + possessive + noun

So:

• la meva mare
• el meu amic
• les seves idees

What does diu mean, and what form is it?