Breakdown of Dijous hi haurà una funció curta, però divendres el concert serà més llarg i hi tocarà tota l'orquestra.
ser
to be
un
a
haver-hi
there be
i
and
però
but
més
more
hi
there
el dijous
Thursday
el divendres
Friday
l'orquestra
the orchestra
tocar
to play
la funció
the performance
el concert
the concert
curt
short
llarg
long
tot
whole
Questions & Answers about Dijous hi haurà una funció curta, però divendres el concert serà més llarg i hi tocarà tota l'orquestra.
Why is Dijous capitalized but divendres is not?
In Catalan, days of the week are normally written in lowercase. Dijous is capitalized here only because it is the first word of the sentence. divendres stays lowercase because it appears in the middle.
Why is there no word for on before Dijous and divendres?
Catalan often uses the bare weekday name as a time expression, especially in plans, schedules, and announcements. So Dijous hi haurà... is a natural way to say On Thursday there will be... English usually needs on, but Catalan usually does not here.
Why is there no article before the weekdays?
Bare weekday names are very common in Catalan when you mean a specific day in a schedule or sequence. If you use forms like els dijous, that clearly means on Thursdays / every Thursday. So the sentence uses the simple, natural form for Thursday and Friday as upcoming days.
What does hi do in hi haurà?
In hi haurà, hi is part of the fixed expression haver-hi, which means there is / there are / there will be. So hi haurà una funció curta means there will be a short performance. In this expression, hi is not optional.
Why is it haurà and not something like haverà?
Because haver has an irregular future stem: haur-. So the future forms are hauré, hauràs, haurà, haurem, haureu, hauran. Catalan has several common irregular futures, and serà in the same sentence is another example.
Does funció really mean function here?
Usually not in this kind of sentence. Funció often means performance, showing, session, or presentation, especially for theater, cinema, or staged events. So here it refers to a performance, not the usual English word function.
Why is it curta but llarg?
Because adjectives must agree with the noun in gender and number. funció is feminine singular, so you get curta. concert is masculine singular, so you get llarg; with més, that becomes més llarg.
What exactly does més llarg mean, and what is it being compared with?
més makes the comparative, like more or the English ending -er. So més llarg means longer. The comparison is left unstated because the context makes it clear: the Friday concert is longer than the Thursday performance, or longer than the other event just mentioned.
Why does the sentence use serà and not estarà?
Catalan usually uses ser for characteristics such as identity, type, size, or duration. The length of the concert is treated as a characteristic of the event, so el concert serà més llarg is the natural choice. Estar is more often used for states, conditions, or locations.
What does hi mean in hi tocarà tota l'orquestra?
Here hi means there or at that event/venue. Unlike hi in hi haurà, this is a regular locative pronoun that refers back to a place or occasion already understood from context. So hi tocarà tota l'orquestra means the whole orchestra will play there.
Why is the subject after the verb in hi tocarà tota l'orquestra?
Catalan allows subject-verb order to be fairly flexible. Putting the subject after the verb is very natural when the sentence is presenting new information or continuing the flow of what will happen. Tota l'orquestra hi tocarà is also possible, but hi tocarà tota l'orquestra sounds very natural in this context.
Why is the verb singular in tocarà tota l'orquestra if an orchestra has many people?
Because orquestra is grammatically singular. Even though it refers to many musicians, the noun itself is singular, so the verb is singular too: tocarà. The phrase tota l'orquestra means the whole orchestra, and tota agrees with the feminine singular noun orquestra.
Does tocar mean touch or play here?
Here it means play music / perform. In Catalan, tocar can mean to touch, but it is also the normal verb for playing an instrument or performing music. Since the subject is l'orquestra, the musical meaning is the obvious one.
Why is it l'orquestra and not la orquestra?
Because Catalan commonly apostrophizes articles before a vowel. So la orquestra becomes l'orquestra. The same thing happens in words like l'escola and l'obra.
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