Catalan grammar, the morphology and syntax of the Catalan language, is similar to the grammar of most other Romance languages. Catalan is a relatively synthetic, fusional language.Features include:
Some distinctive features of Catalan among Romance languages include the general lack of masculine markers (like Italian -o), a trait shared with French and Occitan; and the fact that the remote preterite tense of verbs is usually formed with a periphrasis consisting of the verb "to go" plus infinitive.
Catalan has two types of article, definite and indefinite. They are declined for gender and number, and must agree with the noun they qualify. As with other Romance languages, Catalan articles are subject to complex elision and contraction processes.
The inflection of articles is complex, especially because of frequent elision, but is similar to neighboring languages. Catalan has more preposition–article contractions than Spanish, like dels ("of + the [plural]"), but fewer than Italian (which has sul, col, nel, etc.).
The tables below summarize the forms of the definite article, its elisions, and its contractions.
| masculine | feminine | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | el (l') || la (l')|-! plural| els || les|-|}
Masculine forms
El pare. L'avi. "The father." "The grandfather."
El iode. El hiat. "The iodine." "The hiatus"
Ho dic al pare. "I say it to the father." ("I say it to my father") Això és del noi. "This is of the boy." ("This belongs to the boy") Corria pels camins. "I ran through the paths." ("I ran along the paths")
Porta-ho a l'avi. "Bring this to the grandfather." Baixa de l'arbre. "Get down from the tree." Feminine forms
La mare. L'àvia "The mother." "The grandmother"
La idea. La hipòtesi. La unitat. La humitat. "The idea." "The hypothesis." "The unit." "The humidity."
Articles for personal namesForenames and surnames must carry a definite article. In addition to the ordinary singular forms, alternative forms derived from the Latin vocative domine can be used. The elision rules are the same for el and la. | na (n')|} El Joan. L'Andreu. La Mercè. La Isabel. L'Olga. En Joan. N'Andreu. Na Mercè. Na Isabel. N'Olga. Dialectal variationIn Western Catalonia the dialectal versions lo and los are used instead of el and els. In some regions, especially in the Balearic islands, the definite article derives from the Latin determiner ipse. These forms are referred to as articles salats. Similar forms are found in Sardinian and some varieties of Occitan. | ||||||||||||||||
| plural | amb sos | amb ses | ||||||||||||||||
The table below summarize the forms of the indefinite article. Indefinite articles are not elided nor contracted.
| masculine | feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | un | una | |
| plural | uns | unes |
Most adjectives, and a fair number of nouns, inflect for gender. This usually follows a regular pattern of endings. The two main patterns are generally referred to as "four-form" and "two-form" adjectives. Four-form adjectives have distinct masculine and feminine forms, whereas two-form adjectives have the same form for both masculine and feminine. They are derived from the Latin first/second, and the third declension respectively. Many nouns follow the four-form inflection, but some may follow the two-form inflection. Some are irregular in some way.
| masculine | feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | verd | verda | |
| plural | verds | verdes |
| masculine | feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | indiferent | ||
| plural | indiferents | ||
Similar to French, but unlike Portuguese, Spanish or Italian, the Latin/Romance final -o and -e have disappeared. Thus, the alternance of -o/-a in the four-form words has been substituted by -/-a. There are only a few exceptions, like minso/minsa ("scarce").
Among nouns, Catalan has few suppletive couplets, like Italian and Spanish, and unlike French. Thus, Catalan has noi/noia ("boy"/"girl") and gall/gallina ("cock"/"chicken"), whereas French has garçon/fille and coq/poule.
There is a tendency to inflect adjectives as four-form instead of two-form, something that is prevalent in Occitan and standard in French. Thus, alongside traditional two-form bullent/bullent ("boiling"), one can also find four-form bullent/bullenta.
Many not completely predictable morphological alternations may occur between masculine and feminine, like:
In words that end in a sibilant sound, the masculine plural ending is -os instead of just -s. Feminines still have -es or, if they follow the two-form declension, no ending at all. Compare: el pols/els polsos ("the pulse"/"the pulses") vs. la pols/les pols ("the dust"/"the dusts").
Adjectives that end in -ç follow the two-form declension in the singular, but four-form in the plural, so that they actually have three forms:
| masculine | feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | feliç | ||
| plural | feliços | felices | |
See main article: Catalan nouns. Catalan nouns are inflected for gender (masculine or feminine), and number (singular or plural). There is no case inflection. Articles and adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to.
Usually, masculine nouns are unmarked, feminine nouns carry the suffix -a; and the plural is marked with the suffix -s, which makes the feminine ending turn into -e-. Thus, the most common declension paradigm for Catalan names is the one that follows:
| masculine | feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| singular | gat | gata |
| plural | gats | gates |
The grammatical gender of a Catalan noun does not necessarily correspond with the real-life object's biological sex (or lack thereof). Nouns denoting a person, such as home "man" or dona "woman", generally agree with the natural gender of what is described. However, Catalan assigns gender to nouns without natural gender in arbitrary fashion. For example, the word tamboret ("stool") is masculine, while the word cadira ("chair") is feminine.
Living beings of the same species usually are designed by two nouns: one of masculine grammatical gender for biologically male individuals, and one of feminine grammatical gender for biologically female individuals. Both names, masculine and feminine, are usually only differentiated by their ending; sometimes the second is derived from the first or vice versa. Rarely, both come from different roots.
Noi → noia. Avi → àvia.
"Boy – girl." "Grandfather – grandmother."
| becomes voiced | remains unvoiced | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| change | masculine | feminine | gloss | masculine | feminine | gloss | |
| ⟨-t⟩ → ⟨-d-⟩ /t/ → /ð/ | nebot | neboda | "nephew – niece" | nét | neta | "grandson – granddaughter" | |
| ⟨-p⟩ → ⟨-b-⟩ /p/ → /β/ | llop | lloba | "wolf" | ||||
| ⟨-f⟩ → ⟨-v-⟩ /f/ → /v~β/ | serf | serva | "serf" | ||||
| ⟨-s⟩ → ⟨-s-⟩ /s/ → /z/ | espòs | esposa | "husband – wife" | gos | gossa | "dog – bitch" | |
Germà → germana
"Brother – sister."
Sacerdot → sacerdotessa.
"Priest – priestess."
Bruixot ← bruixa.
"Sorcerer — witch."
El rossinyol. El rossinyol mascle. El rossinyol femella.
" The nightingale." "The male nightingale." "The female nightingale"
La virilitat (f).
"The manliness."
El televisor (m) – la televisió (f). L'argent (m) – la plata (f)
"The TV." "The silver."
El clau (m) – la clau (f)
"The nail – the key."
Like all the Western Romance languages, the formation of the plural involves the addition of the suffix -s to the singular. However, the stem may undergo some changes. The number inflection of adjectives follows the same rules.
Pare → pares. Avi → avis.
"Father – fathers." "Grandfather – grandfathers."
Casa → cases (f). Problema → problemes (m).
"House – houses." "Problem – problems"
| sound | transformation | singular (stem underlined) | plural (stem underlined) | IPA transcription | gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as //ɣ// | ⟨g⟩ → ⟨gu⟩ | farga | fargues | pronounced as //ˈfarɣə//, pronounced as //ˈfarɣəs// pronounced as //ˈfarɣa//, pronounced as //ˈfarɣes// | "forge(s)" |
| pronounced as //k// | ⟨c⟩ → ⟨qu⟩ | oca | oques | pronounced as //ˈɔkə//, pronounced as //ˈɔkəs// pronounced as //ˈɔka//, pronounced as //ˈɔkes// | "goose – geese" |
| pronounced as //ɣw// | ⟨gu⟩ → ⟨gü⟩ | llengua | llengües | pronounced as //ˈʎeŋɡwə//, pronounced as //ˈʎeŋɡwəs// pronounced as //ˈʎeŋɡwa//, pronounced as //ˈʎeŋɡwes// | "tongue(s)" |
| pronounced as //kw// | ⟨qu⟩ → ⟨qü⟩ | pasqua | pasqües | pronounced as //ˈpaskwə//, pronounced as //ˈpaskwəs// pronounced as //ˈpaskwa//, pronounced as //ˈpaskwes// | "Easter(s)" |
| pronounced as //s// | ⟨ç⟩ → ⟨c⟩ | plaça | places | pronounced as //ˈpɫasə//, pronounced as //ˈpɫasəs// pronounced as //ˈplasa//, pronounced as //ˈplases// | "square(s)" |
| pronounced as //ʒ// pronounced as //d͡ʒ// | ⟨j⟩ → ⟨g⟩ | pluja | pluges | pronounced as //ˈpɫuʒə//, pronounced as //ˈpɫuʒəs// pronounced as //ˈplud͡ʒa//, pronounced as //ˈplud͡ʒes// | "rain(s)" |
| pronounced as //d͡ʒ// pronounced as //d͡ʒː// | platja | platges | pronounced as //ˈpɫad͡ʒə//, pronounced as //ˈpɫad͡ʒəs// pronounced as //ˈpɫad͡ʒːa//, pronounced as //ˈpɫad͡ʒːes// | "beach(es)" |
Pa → pans (m). Capità → capitans (m). Acció → accions (f).
"Bread – breads." "Captain – captains." "Action – actions."
Sofà → sofàs. Bambú → bambús.
"Sofa – sofas." "Bamboo – bamboos."
Home → homes or hòmens. Orfe → orfes or òrfens
"Man – men." "Orphan – orphans."
Gas → gasos /ˈgas – ˈgazus ~ ˈgazos/. Braç → braços /ˈbɾas – ˈbɾasus ~ ˈbɾasos/.
"Gas – gases." "Arm – arms."
Fracàs → fracassos. Pastís → pastissos. Barnús → barnussos
"Failure – failures." "Cake – cakes." "Bathrobe – bathrobes"
Gos → gossos. Arròs → arrossos. Os → ossos.
"Dog – dogs." "Rice – rices." "Bear – bears". (also "Bone – bones").
Llapis → llapis. Òmnibus – òmnibus
"Pencil – pencils." "Omnibus – omnibuses."
Pols → pols.
"Dust – dusts."
Calç → calçs pronounced as //ˈkaɫs ~ ˈkals//.
"Lime – limes."
Reflex → reflexos pronounced as //rəˈflɛksus ~ reˈflɛksos//. Índex → índexs pronounced as //ˈindəks ~ ˈindeks//.
"Reflection – reflections." "Index – indexes."
Calaix → calaixos.
"Drawer – drawers."
Faig → faigs pronounced as //ˈfatʃ//. Passeig → passeigs pronounced as //pəˈsɛtʃ ~ paˈsɛtʃ//.
Faig → fajos /ˈfat͡ʃ – ˈfaʒus ~ ˈfad͡ʒos/. Mig → mitjos. /ˈmit͡ʃ – ˈmidʒus ~ mid͡ʒːos/.
"Beech – beeches." "Half – halves."
Bosc → boscs or boscos. Gust → gusts or gustos. Pretext → pretexts or pretextos
"Forest – forests." "Taste – tastes." "Pretext – pretexts."
Host → hosts.
"Army – armies."
A Catalan adjective must agree in gender and number with the noun it accompanies. Most adjectives are placed after the nouns. Adjectives can be divided into three declension paradigms. The number inflection rules are the same as the nouns.
Catalan adjectives can be divided in three groups according to the distinct forms it has.
| singular | verd | verda |
|---|---|---|
| plural | verds | verdes |
| masculine | feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| singular | feliç | |
| plural | feliços | felices |
| masculine | feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| singular | indiferent | |
| plural | indiferents | |
In adjectives with distinct feminine singular form, the masculine is usually unmarked for gender, and ends in a consonant. The feminine singular form of regular adjectives can be created from the masculine singular.
Sec – seca. Fred – freda. Continu – contínua.
"Dry." "Cold." "Continuous."
| becomes voiced | remains unvoiced | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| change | masculine | feminine | gloss | masculine | feminine | gloss | |
| ⟨-t⟩ → ⟨-d-⟩ /t/ → /ð/ | buit | buida | "empty" | lent | lenta | "slow" | |
| ⟨-c⟩ → ⟨-g-⟩ /k/ → /ɣ/ | groc | groga | "yellow" | ric | rica | "rich" | |
| ⟨-s⟩ → ⟨-s-⟩ /s/ → /z/ | obès | obesa | "obese" | gras | grassa | "fat" | |
Pla – plana. Rodó – rodona.
"Flat." "Round."
Blau – blava. Europeu – europea. Viu – viva. Nou – nova.
"Blue." "European." "Alive." "New."
If the masculine form ends in -e or -o, the final vowel is substituted with -a. Many of the adjectives ending in -o come from Spanish.
Ample – ampla. Maco – maca (Cf. Sp. "majo").
"Wide." "Nice."
Some adjectives may have the same form in the masculine singular and feminine singular.
Capaç – capaç. Feliç – feliç. Precoç – precoç.
"Capable." "Happy." "Precocious."
Central -central. Rebel – rebel. Hostil – hostil. Mòbil – mòbil.
"Central." "Rebel." "Hostile." "Mobile."
Vulgar – Vulgar
"Vulgar"
Some feminine adjectives are formed irregularly and do not adhere to the aforementioned formation rules.
| masculine | feminine | gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| oblic | obliqua | "oblique" | |
| boig | boja | "insane" | |
| roig | roja | " red" | |
| lleig | lletja | "ugly" | |
| mig | mitja | "half" | |
| nul | nul·la | "null" | |
| tranquil | tranquil·la | "quiet" | |
| cru | crua | "raw" | |
| nu | nua | "nude" | |
| jueu | jueva/jueua | "Jewish" | |
| sueu | sueva/sueua | "Suebian" | |
| mal | mala | "bad" | |
| paral·lel | paral·lela | "parallel" | |
| car | cara | "expensive" | |
| clar | clara | "clear" | |
| avar | avara | "avaricious" | |
| rar | rara | "rare" |
Degrees of comparison are expressed with a construction implying the adverb més "more" or menys "less":
Sóc més alt que tu.
"I am taller than you."
Sóc el més alt de tots
"I am the tallest of all".
Sóc menys alt que tu.
"I am less tall than you."
Like many other Romance languages, Catalan adjectives have an absolute superlative form, expressed with the suffix -íssim, placed between the stem and the gender / number suffix.
Aquest home és altíssim.
"This man is very very tall."
Aquestes dones són altíssimes.
"These women are very very tall."
Catalan adverbs, like their English counterparts, are used to modify adjectives, other adverbs, and verbs or clauses. They do not display any inflection; that is, their form does not change to reflect their precise role, nor any characteristics of what they modify.
In Catalan, as in English, most adverbs are derived from adjectives. In most cases, this is done by adding the suffix -ment ("-ly") to the adjective's feminine singular form. For example, the feminine singular form of lent ("slow") is lenta, so the corresponding adverb is lentament ("slowly").
As in English, however, the adjective stem is sometimes modified to accommodate the suffix:
And, as in English, many common adverbs are not derived from adjectives at all:
així ("thus", "so").
ahir ("yesterday").
The placement of Catalan adverbs is almost the same as the placement of English adverbs.
An adverb that modifies an adjective or adverb comes before that adjective or adverb:
completament cert ("completely true").
massa ben fet ("too well done").
An adverb that modifies an infinitive (verbal noun) generally comes after the infinitive:
caminar lentament ("to walk slowly").
An adverb that modifies a main verb or clause comes either after the verb, or before the clause:
Lentament ell comença a caminar or Ell comença lentament a caminar ("Slowly, he begins to walk" or "He begins slowly to walk").Note that, unlike in English, this is true even of negative adverbs:
Mai jo no he fet això or Jo no he fet mai això ("Never have I done that" or "I have never done that").
Possessive pronouns are inflected for person and number of the possessor, and for gender and number of the possession.The table below summarizes all the possible forms.
| singular | plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | feminine | masculine | feminine | ||
| singular | first | meu | meva meua | meus | meves meues |
| second | teu | teva teua | teus | teves teues | |
| third | seu | seva seua | seus | seves seues | |
| plural | first | nostre | nostra | nostres | |
| second | vostre | vostra | vostres | ||
| third | llur | llurs | |||
El cotxe és meu.
"The car is mine."
The feminine forms meva, teva, and seva may appear dialectally with pronounced as //w// instead of pronounced as //β ~ v//: meua, teua, and seua. Their plural forms follow the same variation (meues, teues, and seues).
Possessive adjectives are, like the possessive pronouns, inflected for person and number of the possessor, and for gender and number of the possession. The table below summarizes all the possible forms. Notice how the plural possessor forms are identical to the possessive pronoun forms.
| singular | plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | feminine | masculine | feminine | ||
| singular | first | mon | ma | mons | mes |
| second | ton | ta | tons | tes | |
| third | son | sa | sons | ses | |
| plural | first | nostre | nostra | nostres | |
| second | vostre | vostra | vostres | ||
| third | llur | llurs | |||
Central Catalan has abandoned almost completely unstressed possessives (mon, etc.) in favour of constructions of article + stressed forms (el meu, etc.), a feature shared with Italian and Portuguese.
Ton pare. Son avi.
"Your father." "His / her grandfather."
En ma vida.
"In my whole life."
Mon cotxe. (literary, archaic)
El meu cotxe. (more common)
"My car."
See main article: Catalan personal pronouns. The morphology of Catalan personal pronouns is complex, specially in unstressed forms, which are numerous (13 distinct forms, compared to 11 in Spanish or 9 in Italian; French has such a different system that comparisons are not feasible). Features include the neuter gender (ho) and the great degree of freedom when combining different unstressed pronouns (65 combinations).
This flexibility allows Catalan to use extraposition extensively, much more than French or Spanish. Thus, Catalan can have m'hi recomanaren ("they recommended me to him"), whereas in French one must say ils m'ont recommendé à lui, and in Spanish me recomendaron a él. This allows the placement of almost any nominal term as a sentence topic, without having to use so often the passive voice (as in French or English), or identifying the direct object with a preposition (as in Spanish).
| first person | jo, mi | nosaltres | |
|---|---|---|---|
| second person | informal | tu | vosaltres |
| respectful | vósArchaic in most dialects. | ||
| formal | vostè vosté | vostès vostés | |
| third person | masculine | ell | ells |
| feminine | ella | elles | |
| first person | accusative, dative, reflexive | em | ens | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| second person | et | us | ||
| third person | accusative | masculine | el | els |
| feminine | la | les | ||
| objective neuter | ho | — | ||
| dative | li | els | ||
| reflexive | es | |||
| adverbial | ablative, genitive | en | ||
| locative | hi | |||
See main article: Catalan verbs and Catalan conjugation.
Catalan verbs express an action or a state of being of a given subject, and like verbs in most of the Indo-European languages, Catalan verbs undergo inflection according to the following categories:
| indicative | present | cantes | has cantat | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| past | imperfect | cantaves | havies cantat | ||
| remote preterite | cantares | hagueres cantat | |||
| future | cantaràs | hauràs cantat | |||
| subjunctive | present | cantis | hagis cantat | ||
| past | cantéssis | haguéssis cantat | |||
| conditional | cantaries | hauries cantat | |||
| imperative | canta | — | |||
| infinitive | cantar | haver cantat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| gerund | cantant | havent cantat | |
| participle | cantat | – |
The Catalan verbal system is basically common to all Western Romance, except that most dialects replace the analytic perfect indicative with a periphrastic tense composed of vaig, vas (vares), va, vam (vàrem), vau (vàreu), van (varen) and the infinitive.
Catalan verbs are traditionally divided into three conjugations, with vowel themes -a-, -e-, -i-, the last two being split into two subtypes. However, this division is mostly theoretical. Only the first conjugation is nowadays productive (with about 3500 common verbs), while the third (the subtype of servir, with about 700 common verbs) is semiproductive. The verbs of the second conjugation are fewer than 100, and it is not possible to create new ones, except by compounding.
Verbal periphrases of obligation:
(*) Although it is not correct the usage of the verbal periphrasis *tenir + que + infinitive (obligation) in the Standard (instead of haver + de, which is roughly equivalent to English "have to"), it is widely used in colloquial Catalan and Valencian. The same occurs with *haver-hi + que + infinitive.
Verbal periphrases of probability:
Verbal periphrases of imminence, intention or future:
Other modal and aspectual verbal periphrases: