La cortina blanca toca el terra.

In Catalan, adjectives often come after the noun, so cortina blanca is the normal order for white curtain.

• cortina = curtain
• blanca = white

Putting the adjective before the noun is sometimes possible, but it can sound more literary, emphatic, or stylistically marked. For a basic descriptive sentence, la cortina blanca is the most natural choice.

Because the adjective has to agree with the noun in gender and number.

Here:

• cortina is feminine singular
• so the adjective must also be feminine singular
• therefore: blanca

Compare:

• la cortina blanca = the white curtain
• el paper blanc = the white paper
• les cortines blanques = the white curtains

This kind of agreement is very important in Catalan.

Because nouns in Catalan have grammatical gender.

• la cortina is feminine
• el terra is masculine

A noun’s ending often gives you a clue, but not always. Even though terra ends in -a, it is still masculine in this meaning: the floor / the ground.

So you have to learn the article together with the noun:

• la cortina
• el terra

That is a very good habit when learning vocabulary.

Catalan often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed, because the verb ending already shows the person and number.

Here, toca means:

• he/she/it touches
• or you (formal singular) touch

Since la cortina blanca is already the subject, there is no need to add ella.

So Catalan prefers:

• La cortina blanca toca el terra.

rather than:

• Ella toca el terra.

unless you want extra emphasis or contrast.

Toca is the third person singular present tense of tocar.

So:

• jo toco = I touch
• tu toques = you touch
• ell/ella toca = he/she touches
• la cortina toca = the curtain touches

In this sentence, toca agrees with la cortina blanca, which is singular.

No. Tocar has several common meanings in Catalan, just like in other Romance languages. Depending on context, it can mean:

• to touch
• to play an instrument
  
  • Toca el piano. = He/She plays the piano.
• to be someone’s turn / to fall to someone
• sometimes to handle or to affect

But in La cortina blanca toca el terra, the meaning is clearly touches.

Yes. Terra can mean:

• ground
• earth
• floor, depending on context

In this sentence, because we are talking about a curtain hanging down, el terra is naturally understood as the floor.

Catalan also has other words related to this area of meaning, such as sòl, but terra is very common and natural here.

Because tocar directly takes an object in this meaning.

So Catalan says:

• toca el terra = touches the floor

There is no extra preposition needed between the verb and el terra.

This works much like English touch the floor.

You would make the noun, adjective, and verb agree in the plural:

• Les cortines blanques toquen el terra.
  = The white curtains touch the floor.

Changes:

• la → les
• cortina → cortines
• blanca → blanques
• toca → toquen

This is a good example of how agreement works across the sentence.

A helpful approximation is BLAHN-kuh, but with Catalan sounds.

A few points:

• blan- has a broad a
• the c before a sounds like k
• the final -a is an unstressed vowel, softer than English a

So blanca sounds roughly like BLAHN-kə in Central Catalan.

If you are just starting out, the main thing is to remember that the c here is a k sound, not an s sound.