Esperarem al menjador fins que la meva mare pengi la cortina nova.

Esperarem is the 1st person plural future of esperar.

• esperar = to wait
• esperarem = we will wait

So the sentence starts with a future action: We will wait...

Catalan forms the simple future by adding endings to the infinitive:

• esperaré = I will wait
• esperaràs = you will wait
• esperarà = he/she will wait
• esperarem = we will wait

Al is the contraction of a + el.

• a = to, at, in
• el = the
• al = to the / at the / in the

So:

• al menjador = in the dining room / in the living-dining room, depending on context

A native English speaker may expect something more like in the dining room, but Catalan often uses a where English uses in or at for location.

Menjador literally means dining room, but in everyday Catalan it can also refer to the main room where people eat and sometimes sit, depending on the house and region.

So in context it usually means the room where the meal table is, but the exact English translation can vary a little.

Use fins que when what follows is a whole clause with its own verb.

Here:

• fins que la meva mare pengi la cortina nova

This part has its own subject and verb:

• subject: la meva mare
• verb: pengi

So fins que means until when it introduces a clause.

By contrast, fins by itself is more likely before a noun, pronoun, or adverbial expression.

Because after fins que, Catalan normally uses the subjunctive when the action is still in the future or has not happened yet.

In this sentence, the mother has not hung the curtain yet. The waiting will continue until that happens. That is why Catalan uses:

• pengi = present subjunctive

So:

• Esperarem ... fins que la meva mare pengi... = We will wait ... until my mother hangs...

Using penja would sound wrong here in standard Catalan for this future meaning.

Pengi is the present subjunctive form of penjar for ell / ella / vostè.

The relevant forms are:

• jo pengi
• tu pengis
• ell / ella pengi
• nosaltres pengem
• vosaltres pengeu
• ells / elles pengin

Here it matches la meva mare, which is she, so we get pengi.

Catalan usually uses the definite article with a possessive:

• la meva mare = my mother
• el meu pare = my father
• la seva casa = his/her house

This is normal Catalan structure. English does not use an article there, but Catalan usually does.

So la meva mare is the standard, natural way to say my mother.

In Catalan, adjectives often come after the noun.

• la cortina nova = the new curtain

That is the most neutral, ordinary order.

You can sometimes put an adjective before the noun, but that often sounds more literary, emphatic, or stylistically marked. So for a straightforward sentence, la cortina nova is the normal choice.

Because la cortina nova is the direct object of pengi.

Here, penjar means to hang something, so the thing being hung is the direct object:

• pengi la cortina nova = hangs the new curtain

English also has a direct object here, but sometimes learners expect an extra preposition because of patterns from other languages. In Catalan, none is needed here.

Not very naturally. The structure is similar, but several parts work differently:

• al covers meanings English splits into to / at / in
• la meva mare includes the article, unlike English
• pengi is a subjunctive form, while English usually just uses hangs

So the sentence matches English in overall meaning, but not in a perfect word-for-word way. That is very normal between Catalan and English.