La veritat és important.

In Catalan, abstract nouns often take the definite article when you are talking about them in a general sense. So la veritat means truth or the truth.

That is why La veritat és important is the natural way to say Truth is important / The truth is important.

Using veritat without the article is possible in some contexts, but in a simple general statement like this, la veritat sounds much more natural.

És is the he/she/it form of the verb ser, meaning to be. Here it means is.

So:

• la veritat = the truth
• és = is
• important = important

The accent in és is important because it distinguishes it from es, which is a different word, often a reflexive or pronoun form, like himself/herself/itself or part of passive constructions.

So:

• és = is
• es = a pronoun, not the verb is

Catalan has many words that look similar to English, especially in formal or abstract vocabulary, because both languages have borrowed a lot from Latin and French-related sources.

So important in Catalan means the same thing as important in English. This is a helpful cognate.

However, even when a word looks the same, pronunciation may be different.

In this sentence, important does not change. Many Catalan adjectives do agree in gender and number, but some adjectives have the same form for both masculine and feminine singular.

Here:

• veritat is feminine singular
• important is singular and has the same form for masculine and feminine

If it were plural, it would change:

• La veritat és important. = The truth is important.
• Les veritats són importants. = The truths are important.

So the singular form is important, and the plural is importants.

This sentence follows the normal Catalan word order:

subject + verb + adjective/complement

So:

• La veritat = subject
• és = verb
• important = complement

This is very similar to English: The truth is important.

Catalan can sometimes vary word order for emphasis, but this basic order is the standard and most neutral one.

A rough pronunciation guide for an English speaker is:

lah veh-ree-TAT ess eem-por-TANT

A few helpful points:

• veritat has stress on the last syllable: veriTAT
• és sounds like ess
• important has stress on the last syllable in Catalan: imporTANT

The exact pronunciation can vary a bit depending on the Catalan variety, but that stress pattern is important.

Yes. Veritat is a feminine noun, which is why it takes la:

• la veritat = the truth

You should learn nouns together with their article when possible, because that helps you remember gender naturally.

Not literally, but it can feel close in meaning depending on context.

The direct meaning is:

La veritat és important. = The truth is important.

In natural English, that can sometimes overlap with The truth matters, but Catalan is still using the adjective important, not a verb meaning to matter.

So the safest translation is The truth is important.

Yes. Although in this sentence la veritat clearly means the truth, the expression la veritat can also be used more loosely in conversation, like:

• La veritat, no ho sé. = Honestly / The truth is, I don’t know.

So sometimes it refers to truth as a noun, and sometimes it works more like a discourse phrase such as honestly or to tell the truth.

But in La veritat és important, it is simply the noun truth.

The plural would be:

Les veritats són importants.

Changes:

• la → les
• veritat → veritats
• és → són
• important → importants

So Catalan marks plurality on the article, noun, verb, and adjective here.

It is neutral and works in both formal and informal contexts.

La veritat és important is a simple, standard statement. Nothing in it is especially formal, casual, or slangy. It would sound natural in everyday conversation, writing, or a more serious discussion.