Catalan grammar

Catalan grammar is the grammar of the Catalan language.

Noun phrases

In Catalan, all nouns (including those referring to inanimate objects or abstract concepts) have either masculine or feminine grammatical gender: e.g. el llibre ("the book", masculine), la taula ("the table", feminine).

Articles

The definite and indefinite articles (derived from Latin ille and unus, respectively) take the following forms:

definite article masculine feminine singular el, l' la, l' plural els les

indefinite article masculine feminine singular un una plural uns unes

The elided form l' is used before masculine nouns that begin with a vowel (or h followed by a vowel), and before feminine nouns that begin with vowels other than unstressed (h)i and (h)u:

• masculine: el llibre ("the book") vs. l'amic ("the friend"), l'imperi ("the empire")
• feminine: la taula ("the table") vs. l'amiga ("the friend"), l'illa ("the island", with stressed i) but la idea ("the idea", with unstressed i)

The forms given above are those used in standard and central Catalan. Dialectally and archaically, one may encounter other forms. For example, in Western Catalonia, the masculine definite articles lo and los are used instead of el and els.

Variants of the definite article

In some regions, especially in the Balearic islands, the definite article derives from a different source: the Latin determiner ipse, ipsa, meaning "that very" or "that same". These forms are referred to as "salted" articles (Template:Lang-ca).

Balearic definite article
	masculine	feminine
singular	es, s'	sa, s'
plural	es, (ets)	ses

Similar forms of the definite articles can be found in Sardinian and in some varieties of Occitan.

Articles with names

The definite article is used with forenames and surnames in Catalan. In addition to the ordinary singular forms of the article (masculine el and l', feminine la and l'), special forms derived from the Latin vocatives domine, domina can be found:

personal article
masculine	feminine
en (before a consonant) n' (before a vowel or h)	na (before a consonant or unstressed (h)i or (h)u) n' (before other vowels)

• El Joan, l'Andreu, la Mercè, la Isabel i l'Olga van venir a sopar.
• En Joan, n'Andreu, na Mercè, na Isabel i n'Olga van venir a sopar.

("Joan, Andreu, Mercè, Isabel, and Olga came to dinner.")

Gender and meaning

Some words that might seem to a non-Catalan-speaker to be the masculine and feminine form of the same word may have entirely different meanings. For example:

• el cap ("the head"), la capa ("the layer")
• el roc (an imaginary giant bird, or a small rock), la roca ("the rock")
• el full ("the paper sheet"), la fulla ("the leaf (of a plant)")

Sometimes there will exist two identical nouns, one masculine and one feminine:

• el pols ("the pulse"), la pols ("the powder/dust")
• el llum ("the lamp"), la llum ("the light (in abstract)")
• el clau ("the nail"), la clau ("the key")
• el Pau ("Paul", a male name), la pau ("the peace")
• el nou ("the nine"), la nou ("the nut")

Nouns for non-human animate beings can be divided into four classes:

• masculine nouns that can refer to either the male or female of the species:
  • un cocodril ("a crocodile")
  • un rossinyol ("a nightingale")
• feminine nouns that can refer to either the male or female of the species:
  • una guilla or una guineu ("a fox"),
  • una sargantana (a type of lizard found in the Balearic Islands)
• entirely different forms for male and female:
  • un cavall ("a stallion"), una euga ("a mare")
  • un brau ("a bull"), una vaca ("a cow")
• related forms with irregular endings reflecting biological gender:
  • un gos ("a [male] dog"), una gossa ("a bitch")
  • un lleó ("a lion"), una lleona ("a lioness")

Nouns referring to humans can be divided into the following groups:

• masculine nouns:
  • un fuster ("a carpenter/joiner")
  • un paleta ("a construction worker")
• feminine nouns:
  • una pentinadora ("a thread-braider")
• nouns where the same word serves as both male and female:
  • un modista ("a [male] fashion designer"), una modista ("a [female] fashion designer")
  • un dentista ("a [male] dentist"), una dentista ("a [female] dentist")
• forms with regular endings reflecting biological gender:
  • un cuiner ("a [male] cook"), una cuinera ("a [female] cook")
  • un mestre ("a [male] teacher"), una mestra ("a [female] teacher")
• two entirely different forms:
  • un home ("a man"), una dona ("a woman")
  • un amo ("a master" or "a male owner"), una mestressa ("a mistress" or "a female owner")
• forms with irregular endings reflecting biological gender:
  • un actor ("an actor"), una actriu ("an actress")
  • un poeta ("a [male] poet"), una poetessa ("a poetess")

Adjectives

A Catalan adjective must agree in gender and number with the noun it qualifies. Adjectives can be divided into three groups:

• Those with four forms: masculine singular: "blanc" ("white"), feminine singular: "blanca", masculine plural: "blancs", feminine plural: "blanques".
• Those with three forms: singular: "feliç" ("happy"), masculine plural: "feliços", feminine plural: "felices".
• Those with two forms: singular: "diferent" ("different"), plural: "diferents".

Rules for the formation of plurals

All plural nouns and adjectives end in s. In most cases, the plural can be formed by simply affixing an s to the singular.

For example:

• "roure" ("oak"), "roures"
• "fort" ("strong"), "forts"

Singular words ending in an unstressed a change that a to an e before adding the final -s. Some of these words have a more complicated way of pluralizing because of the necessary changes to the orthography. The following examples show the orthographic issues that arise:

transformation	singular	plural	translation
ç becomes c	balança	balances	"scale"
	dolça	dolces	"sweet"
c becomes qu	cuca	cuques	"firefly"
	seca	seques	"dry"
cu or qu becomes qü	Pasqua	Pasqües	"Easter"
	iniqua	iniqües	"iniquitous"
j usually becomes g	platja	platges	"beach"
	roja	roges	"red"
g becomes gu	vaga	vagues	"worker strike"
	amarg	amargues	"sour"
gu becomes gü	llengua	llengües	"language"
	ambigua	ambigües	"ambiguous"

Words that end in stressed vowels typically form the plural by adding -ns:

• "cantó" ("corner"), "cantons"
• "ple" ("full"), "plens"

This rule has a significant number of common exceptions, such as mamá, bebé, cafè, comitè, frenesí, menú, nu.

Masculine words ending in s, ç, or x, with the accent on the last syllable typically add os to form the plural. Some (but not all) words ending in s double the final s when forming the plural (this rule has exceptions):

• "gas" ("gas"), "gasos"
• "gos" ("dog"), "gossos"
• "braç" ("arm"), "braços"
• "reflex" ("reflex"), "reflexos"
• "gris" ("gray"), "grisos"
• "espès" ("thick"), "espessos"

Masculine words ending in sc, st, or xt with the accent on the last syllable can add either os or s to form the plural; both forms are considered correct:

• "bosc" ("forest"), "boscos" or "boscs"
• "impost" ("tax"), "imposts" or "impostos"
• "text" ("text"), "texts" or "textos"

The words "post" ("board") and "host" ("host" in the sense of a large group of people or in the technical sense as a shortened version of "host machine", but not in the sense of a person who has visitors) are feminine and simply add "s" to form the plural.

Some masculine words ending in ig have two acceptable plural forms, either adding s or replacing the ig with jos:

• "faig" ("beech"), "fajos" or "faigs"
• "passeig" ("passage"), "pasejos" or "passeigs"
• "desig" ("desire"), "desitjos" or "desigs"

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Main article: Catalan personal pronouns

Catalan has two series of personal pronouns: the "strong" pronouns (Template:Lang-ca) and the "weak" pronouns (Template:Lang-ca. The strong forms are used as subject pronouns, after a preposition, or as emphatic forms. The weak pronouns are typically used to express the objects of a verb. In the following examples, the strong pronouns are in bold, and the weak pronouns in italics:

• Jo encara no en sé gaire. ("I still don't know much about it.")
• Queda't amb mi. ("Stay with me.")

As in other Romance languages, the weak forms are clitics that appear immediately before or after the verb. Combinations of weak pronouns obey special rules, and may give rise to unexpected results (with significant dialectal variation).

Verbs

See also Conjugation of regular Catalan verbs, Conjugation of auxiliary Catalan verbs.

A verb expresses the process or action performed by the subject, or which expresses the existence or state of the subject, or describes the relationship between the predicate noun and the subject.

Considering the verb in itself, we can distinguish:

• Tense, which is a combination of three properties:
  • Mood: Basically, this is expresses the attitude of the speaker toward what is said. The four moods in Catalan are: indicative, subjunctive, conditional and imperative.
  • Time: the grammatical category that situates the verb's action chronologically in relation to the moment when it is spoken. The times modes in Catalan are: past, present, and future.
  • Aspect: the grammatical category that relates to duration of the action (i.e. distinguishing a transient action from a continuous action).
• Conjugation: The conjugation of a verb in a particular tense is the set of forms it takes through the various combinations of persons and number (e.g. "first person singular", "third person plural"). Catalan verbs are classified into three conjugations according to the ending of the infinitive: the first conjugation applies to verbs ending in "ar" (e.g. "cantar", "to sing"); the second conjugation applies to verbs ending in "re" or "er" (e.g. "voler", "to want"; "batre", "to beat"); and the third conjugation applies to verbs ending in "ir" (e.g. "sentir", "to feel"). As in most Indo-European languages, there are some irregular verbs, but they still tend to conform in a reasonable degree to these paradigmatic conjugations.

External links

• A good English-language site about Catalan grammar

References

• originally translated from the Catalan-language Wikipedia article
• Badia i Margarit, Antoni M. (1995). Gramática de la llengua catalana: Descriptiva, normativa, diatópica, diastrática. Barcelona: Proa. Template:Ca icon
• Freysselinard, Eric (2002). Grammaire et vocabulaire du catalan. Paris: Ophrys. ISBN 2-7080-1037-9. Template:Fr icon
• Pellicer, Joan E. (1998). Gramática de uso de la lengua catalana. Barcelona: MIL999. ISBN 84-930236-0-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) Template:Es icon
• Yates, Alan (1993). Teach Yourself Catalan. NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8442-3755-8.