L'any passat vam anar a la platja al juliol.

Because l' is the article el shortened before a vowel sound.

• el any → l'any
• This is like saying the year
• In the expression l'any passat, it means last year

Catalan often shortens articles this way before vowels:

• l'amic = the friend
• l'escola = the school

Passat means past or last in this expression.

So:

• l'any passat = last year

Catalan often puts this kind of word after the noun, unlike English:

• l'any passat = the year past literally
• natural English: last year

This is a very common fixed expression.

Yes, anar does mean to go, but here vam anar is the normal Catalan way to say we went.

This is the periphrastic past, a very common past tense in Catalan:

• vaig + infinitive = I did / I went
• vas + infinitive = you did / you went
• va + infinitive = he/she did / went
• vam + infinitive = we did / went
• vau + infinitive = you all did / went
• van + infinitive = they did / went

So:

• vam anar = we went

Even though anar itself means to go, the whole form vam anar functions as a past tense.

Yes. Catalan also has a simple past form:

• anàrem = we went

But in most modern spoken Catalan, especially in everyday language, vam anar is much more common.

So for a learner, vam anar is the form you will hear and use most often.

Because Catalan usually does not need subject pronouns when the verb already shows who is doing the action.

• vam anar already means we went
• So nosaltres (we) is optional

You could say:

• L'any passat nosaltres vam anar a la platja al juliol

But that sounds more emphatic, like we went (not someone else). Normally, the shorter version is preferred.

Because a means to or at, and la platja means the beach.

So:

• anar a la platja = to go to the beach

Catalan usually uses the article here:

• a la platja = to the beach

This is more natural than leaving the article out.

In Catalan, months are often used with the article.

• el juliol = July
• a + el = al
• so al juliol = in July

That means:

• vam anar a la platja al juliol = we went to the beach in July

This use of the article with months is very normal in Catalan.

Al is a contraction of:

• a + el = al

So:

• al juliol literally = to the July
• but naturally it means in July

This kind of contraction is very common in Catalan:

• del = de + el
• als = a + els

Because Catalan uses a in several situations where English uses different prepositions.

Here:

• anar a la platja = go to the beach
• al juliol = in July

So the same Catalan preposition can correspond to different English prepositions depending on context.

This is very common when learning languages: prepositions do not match word-for-word.

Yes, it is very normal.

• L'any passat = time expression
• vam anar = verb
• a la platja = place/destination
• al juliol = more specific time

Catalan often places a time expression at the beginning of the sentence, just like English:

• Last year we went to the beach in July

So the order is completely natural.

Because they give different kinds of time information:

• L'any passat = the year when it happened
• al juliol = the month when it happened

So together they mean something like:

• Last year, we went to the beach in July

This is not repetitive; it is adding more detail.

No. In Catalan, months are normally written in lowercase.

So:

• juliol = correct
• Juliol = usually not correct unless it starts a sentence or is part of a title

This is different from English, where July is capitalized.

A very literal version would be:

• The year past we-went to the beach in-the July

That is not natural English, but it helps show the structure:

• L'any passat = the year past
• vam anar = we went
• a la platja = to the beach
• al juliol = in July

A natural translation is still:

• Last year we went to the beach in July.