Des de fa un any, la meva veïna cuida el jardí tan bé que també hi venen papallones i ocells.

Des de fa un any means for a year now / for the past year and emphasizes that the action started a year ago and is still continuing.

• Des de fa + time period = for in the sense of duration up to the present
• Fa + time period on its own often means ago

Compare:

• Fa un any = a year ago
• Des de fa un any, la meva veïna cuida el jardí... = My neighbor has been taking care of the garden for a year...

So in this sentence, des de helps show an ongoing situation, not a finished point in the past.

Because any meaning year is a masculine noun in Catalan.

So you get:

• un any = one year / a year
• dos anys = two years

This is similar to other masculine nouns that take un in the singular.

In Catalan, possessives are very often used with a definite article:

• la meva veïna = my neighbor
• el meu amic = my friend
• la nostra casa = our house

This is one of the main differences from English, where you normally do not use the before my.

There are some exceptions, especially with certain family members in some contexts, but in a normal phrase like this, la meva veïna is the expected form.

Veïna means female neighbor.

The masculine form is:

• veí = male neighbor

The two dots over the ï are a diaeresis. They show that the i is pronounced separately, not merged into a diphthong with the previous vowel.

So veïna is pronounced roughly like veh-EE-na with the vowels kept apart.

Without the diaeresis, the pronunciation rule would be different, so the mark is important.

Catalan often uses the present tense where English uses the present perfect continuous.

So:

• Des de fa un any, la meva veïna cuida el jardí
  literally: For a year now, my neighbor takes care of the garden
• natural English: My neighbor has been taking care of the garden for a year

This is completely normal in Catalan. The combination des de fa + time period plus the present tense often expresses an action that began in the past and still continues now.

In Catalan, cuidar usually takes a direct object:

• cuidar el jardí = to take care of the garden
• cuidar els nens = to take care of the children

English often uses take care of, but Catalan does not need a preposition here.

So cuida el jardí is the normal structure.

Tan bé que means so well that.

It is a very common structure in Catalan:

• tan + adverb/adjective + que

Here:

• bé = well
• tan bé = so well
• tan bé que... = so well that...

So the sentence is saying that the neighbor takes such good care of the garden that it has a visible result: butterflies and birds also come there.

Because bé is an adverb, while bo / bona is an adjective.

Here the word describes how she takes care of the garden, so you need an adverb:

• cuida el jardí bé = she takes care of the garden well

Compare:

• un jardí bo would be wrong for a good garden
• un bon jardí = a good garden
• cuida tan bé = takes care so well

So bé modifies the verb cuida.

Here hi means something like there or to it / in it, referring back to the garden.

So:

• també hi venen papallones i ocells
  = butterflies and birds also come there

Catalan often uses pronouns like hi to avoid repeating a place already mentioned.

Without hi, the sentence would feel incomplete or less natural if you want to express come to the garden / come there.

Because the subject is plural:

• papallones i ocells = butterflies and birds

So the verb must also be plural:

• ve una papallona = a butterfly comes
• venen papallones = butterflies come

Here, since there are two plural nouns joined by i (and), the plural verb venen is required.

Yes, here venen is from venir = to come.

But you are right that venen can also be from vendre = to sell, where it means they sell.

Context tells you which one it is:

• també hi venen papallones i ocells
  Here the subject is papallones i ocells, so it must mean butterflies and birds come there
• If it meant they sell, you would expect a different subject, such as people or a shop:
  • En aquesta botiga venen flors = They sell flowers in this shop

So this is a good example of a form that can look identical but mean different things depending on context.

També means also / too, and in Catalan it commonly appears before the element it affects or before the verb phrase.

So:

• també hi venen papallones i ocells = butterflies and birds also come there

This placement is very natural in Catalan. English can move also around more freely, but Catalan tends to place també before the verb phrase or the part being highlighted.

Yes. Grammatically, both are fine:

• papallones i ocells
• ocells i papallones

The original order may simply sound more natural to the speaker, or it may present the image in a certain way. There is no important grammar rule forcing that exact order here.

The comma separates the time expression from the main clause:

• Des de fa un any,
• la meva veïna cuida el jardí...

This kind of comma is common when a sentence begins with a longer introductory phrase such as a time expression. It helps readability.

You may sometimes see similar sentences without a comma in informal writing, but the comma here is perfectly normal and clear.

A few useful ones:

• veïna: the ï shows the i is pronounced separately
• jardí: stress falls on the last syllable because of the accent: jar-DÍ
• bé: also stressed because of the accent
• ocells: the ll is pronounced like the Catalan ll sound, not like English l
• papallones: again, notice the ll

Also, many final consonants in Catalan are softer than an English speaker may expect, and vowel quality matters a lot, especially in unstressed syllables depending on the dialect.

The structure is:

• Des de fa un any = time expression
• la meva veïna = subject
• cuida = verb
• el jardí = direct object
• tan bé que... = result clause, meaning so well that...
• també hi venen papallones i ocells = subordinate clause explaining the result

So the sentence is built like this:

For the past year, my neighbor takes care of the garden so well that butterflies and birds also come there.

That is a very useful Catalan pattern to learn:

• tan... que... = so... that...