La meva amiga ha comprat un llibre sobre una actriu i diu que me'l deixarà quan acabi de llegir-lo.

In Catalan, possessives like meu / meva / teu / seva are very often used with a definite article:

• la meva amiga = my friend
• el meu llibre = my book

This is different from English, where you normally do not use the with my.

So:

• la meva amiga is the normal Catalan way to say my friend
• meva amiga without the article is much less usual and sounds more literary, emphatic, or limited to special contexts

Ha comprat is the present perfect:

• ha = has
• comprat = bought

So literally it is has bought.

In this sentence, it means your friend bought the book in the past, but the result is still relevant now: she has it now, and she says she will lend it to you.

Catalan uses this tense a lot in contexts where English also uses has bought. Depending on region and style, Catalan can also use other past forms, but ha comprat is completely natural here.

Yes. Sobre can mean about, on, over, or above, depending on context.

Here:

• un llibre sobre una actriu = a book about an actress

So sobre does not mean physical position here. It means the topic of the book.

The standard Catalan word for actress is actriu.

• actor = actor
• actriu = actress

This is just the normal noun pair in Catalan, even though it may look unfamiliar to an English speaker. The ending changes quite a lot here, so it is best learned as a pair rather than trying to build it mechanically.

Because que introduces the clause that follows diu.

• diu que... = she says that...

In English, that is often omitted:

• She says she’ll lend it to me

In Catalan, que is usually kept:

• diu que me'l deixarà

So this is very normal and important structure after verbs like:

• dir = to say
• pensar = to think
• creure = to believe

Me'l is a combination of two object pronouns:

• me = to me
• 'l = it (masculine singular)

Together:

• me'l deixarà = she will lend it to me

The it refers to un llibre, which is masculine singular, so Catalan uses the masculine singular direct-object pronoun.

You can think of it like this:

• deixarà el llibre a mi = she will lend the book to me
• me'l deixarà = she will lend it to me

Catalan often combines object pronouns into one compact form like this.

Yes, deixar can mean several things depending on context:

• to leave
• to let
• to lend

Here it means to lend.

So:

• me'l deixarà = she will lend it to me

This is very common in Catalan. The meaning comes from context, especially from the presence of pronouns like me'l and from the fact that the object is a book.

Because Catalan uses the subjunctive after quan when the action is in the future.

Here the meaning is:

• when she finishes reading it (in the future)

So Catalan says:

• quan acabi

not

• quan acaba

This is a very important pattern:

• Quan arribi, et trucaré. = When he/she arrives, I’ll call you.
• Quan ho acabis, m'ho dones. = When you finish it, you give it to me.

If the action is habitual or already real/past, Catalan may use the indicative instead. But for a future event, the subjunctive is expected.

Because the verb acabar is commonly followed by de + infinitive.

So:

• acabar de llegir = to finish reading

In this sentence:

• quan acabi de llegir-lo = when she finishes reading it

This is a fixed and very common structure in Catalan.

A learner should also know that acabar de + infinitive can sometimes mean to have just done something, depending on the tense and context:

• Acabo de menjar. = I’ve just eaten.

But here, with quan acabi, the meaning is clearly finish reading it, not have just read it.

Because in Catalan, pronouns are often attached to an infinitive.

So:

• llegir = to read
• llegir-lo = to read it

The -lo refers to the book.

This is very normal after infinitives:

• vull veure'l = I want to see him/it
• sense tocar-lo = without touching it
• abans de llegir-lo = before reading it

So in your sentence:

• acabi de llegir-lo = finishes reading it

Because the book appears in two different clauses, and each clause needs its own pronoun.

1. me'l deixarà

   • 'l = it
   • the book is the thing she will lend

2. acabi de llegir-lo

   • -lo = it
   • the book is the thing she will finish reading

So both pronouns refer to un llibre, but each belongs to a different verb:

• deixarà → me'l
• llegir → -lo

English does exactly the same thing conceptually:

• She’ll lend it to me when she finishes reading it.

Because llibre is a masculine noun:

• un llibre

So when Catalan replaces it with a pronoun, it uses the masculine singular form:

• el / l' / -lo

That is why you get:

• me'l
• llegir-lo

If the noun were feminine, the pronoun would change:

• una revista = a magazine
• me la deixarà = she’ll lend it to me
• acabi de llegir-la = when she finishes reading it

Yes, amiga literally means female friend, and in some contexts it can also mean girlfriend. The exact meaning depends on context.

In a sentence like this, learners may wonder about ambiguity, but normally the surrounding context makes it clear. Since the sentence is simply about buying a book and lending it, la meva amiga will usually be understood as my female friend unless something else suggests a romantic meaning.

It breaks down like this:

• La meva amiga = my friend
• ha comprat = has bought
• un llibre sobre una actriu = a book about an actress
• i diu que = and says that
• me'l deixarà = she’ll lend it to me
• quan acabi de llegir-lo = when she finishes reading it

So the overall pattern is:

subject + present perfect + object + and says that + future + when + subjunctive clause

This is a very natural Catalan sentence with several common features:

• article + possessive
• present perfect
• que after diu
• combined object pronouns
• subjunctive after quan for a future action