La reunió serà curta perquè la meva mare està cansada.

Catalan often distinguishes between ser and estar in a way similar to Spanish.

Here, serà curta uses ser because curta describes a characteristic of the meeting: its duration or nature. In English we say The meeting will be short, and Catalan uses ser for that idea.

By contrast, està cansada uses estar because cansada describes a temporary state: the mother is tired right now.

So:

• La reunió serà curta = the meeting will be short
• La meva mare està cansada = my mother is tired

A useful shortcut:

• ser = what something/someone is like
• estar = how something/someone is at the moment

Serà is the future tense of ser in the third person singular.

It means will be.

So:

• ser = to be
• serà = he/she/it will be

In this sentence, la reunió is singular, so serà matches it:

• La reunió serà curta = The meeting will be short

Because reunió is a feminine singular noun, and the adjective must agree with it.

Catalan adjectives usually agree in:

• gender: masculine or feminine
• number: singular or plural

So:

• curt = masculine singular
• curta = feminine singular
• curts = masculine plural
• curtes = feminine plural

Since la reunió is feminine singular, you need curta.

You can tell from the article: la reunió.

In Catalan:

• el = masculine singular
• la = feminine singular

So la reunió means the noun is feminine.

Also, many nouns ending in -ió are feminine in Catalan, such as:

• la reunió
• la situació
• la tradició

That pattern is common, though as always there are exceptions in the language.

Catalan usually uses the definite article before possessives with family members and many other nouns.

So Catalan prefers:

• la meva mare = my mother
• el meu pare = my father
• la meva germana = my sister

This is different from English, which does not use the here.

So although the literal word-for-word structure looks like the my mother, that is normal and correct in Catalan.

Because the possessive adjective has to agree with the noun possessed, not with the speaker.

The noun here is mare, which is feminine singular, so the possessive is meva.

Compare:

• el meu pare = my father
• la meva mare = my mother
• els meus amics = my friends
• les meves germanes = my sisters

So:

• meu = masculine singular
• meva = feminine singular
• meus = masculine plural
• meves = feminine plural

Here perquè means because.

So:

• La reunió serà curta perquè la meva mare està cansada.
• The meeting will be short because my mother is tired.

Yes, it is different from per què.

A simple distinction:

• perquè = because
• per què = why / for what reason

Examples:

• No vinc perquè estic ocupat. = I’m not coming because I’m busy.
• Per què no vens? = Why aren’t you coming?

This is a very common point of confusion for learners.

Because cansada describes la meva mare, which is feminine singular.

Just like curta agrees with reunió, cansada agrees with mare.

Compare:

• El meu pare està cansat. = My father is tired.
• La meva mare està cansada. = My mother is tired.

So:

• cansat = masculine singular
• cansada = feminine singular

The sentence follows a very normal Catalan word order:

• La reunió = subject
• serà = verb
• curta = adjective/complement
• perquè = because
• la meva mare = subject of the second clause
• està = verb
• cansada = adjective/complement

So the structure is:

Subject + verb + adjective + perquè + subject + verb + adjective

This is quite similar to English: The meeting + will be + short + because + my mother + is + tired

Reunió is pronounced roughly like ray-oo-nee-OH.

A few helpful points:

• The stress falls on the last syllable because of the accent: -ó
• The ending -ió is very common in Catalan and often sounds like ee-OH
• The u in reu is pronounced, so it is not like a silent letter

You do not need to pronounce it exactly like English spelling suggests. The main thing is to stress the last syllable:

• re-u-ni-Ó

The accent marks mainly show stress.

• serà → stress on the last syllable: se-RÀ
• reunió → stress on the last syllable: re-u-ni-Ó
• perquè → stress on the last syllable: per-QUÈ

In Catalan, written accents are very important because they help you pronounce words correctly and can sometimes distinguish different words.

For a learner, it is a good habit to pay attention to them from the beginning.

Normally, no. That would sound unnatural in standard Catalan.

For duration or inherent description, Catalan uses ser:

• La reunió serà curta.

Using estar with curt/a is generally not the normal choice here.

So the natural version is:

• ser curta for a meeting being short
• estar cansat/cansada for a person being tired

Yes, perquè can sometimes mean so that, depending on context, but in this sentence it clearly means because.

For example:

• T’ho dic perquè ho entenguis. = I’m telling you so that you understand it.

But here:

• La reunió serà curta perquè la meva mare està cansada.

This gives the reason for the short meeting, so because is the correct interpretation.

Context usually makes the meaning clear.