User:Physchim62/Catalan verbs

Catalan verb grammar is broadly similar to that of other Romance languages, with tense and mood being indicated by the use of both inflection and auxiliary verbs. Subject pronouns are normally omitted, as the person and number of the verb form are evident from the ending.

Impersonal forms

Infinitive

The infinitive (infinitiu) is the basic form of the verb, that which is usually listed in dictionaries, wordlists etc.

Simple tenses

Catalan has eight simple tenses:

Indicative/Indicatiu
Present	Present
Imperfect	Pretèrit imperfet
Preterite	Pretèrit perfet simple
Future	Futur simple
Conditional	Condicional simple
Subjuctive/Subjuntiu
Present	Present
Imperfect	Pretèrit imperfet
Imperative	Imperatiu

The preterite is virtually obsolete in modern Catalan, having been replaced by the periphrastic perfect.

Fabra originally termed the future tense as the "future imperfect" ("futur imperfet"), although this term seems to have fallen into disuse. The simple future tense is equivalent to the English future with "shall" or "will", whereas the conditional tense is used to express actions which occured after some point of time in the past:

• Assegura que tu cantaràs; assegurava que tu cantaries.
• He makes sure that you will sing; he was making sure that you would sing.

The future pefect can also be used in this sense:

• Vaig assegurar que ja haurà cantat.
• I've made sure that he will have already sung.

Compound tenses

haver (as auxiliary)
he	hem
has	heu
ha	han
anar (as auxiliary)
vaig	vam
vas	vau
va	van

Note that Catalan grammars often distinguish between "compound" tenses (with haver as the auxiliary) and "periphrastic" tenses (with anar as the auxiliary). The present tense conjugations of haver and anar when used as auxiliaries are slightly different from the normal conjugations (see table).

The periphrastic perfect is the most common past tense in Catalan. It is used for actions or events which occured in a timeframe which is already finished, eg yesterday, last week, 300 years ago, etc.

• Piqué va dimitir per la "decepció" que li va causar Rajoy.
• Piqué resigned because of the "disappointment" that Rajoy caused him.

(El Periódico de Catalunya, 20 January 2008)

The past indefinite is used for actions or events which occured in a timeframe which is not yet complete (eg, today), and for actions which commenced in the past but which continue into the present.

• Avui ha plogut molt.
• It's rained a lot today.

• No hem aconseguit tot el que volíem…
• We haven't obtained everything we wanted…

(El Periódico de Catalunya, 20 January 2008)

In modern Catalan, haver is the only auxiliary verb used for the past indefinite and related tenses. In medieval Catalan, ésser was used as the auxilliary in these tenses for intransitive verbs of movement and for the vebs ésser, estar and romandre.

Other tenses are used roughly as in English: the past anterior tenses are virtually obsolete in modern Catalan. An example of the use of the pluperfect is given below:

• Mai abans … una cèl·lula de terroristes islàmics havia estat tan a prop de preparar un atemptat a Espanya.
• Never before … had a group of Islamic terrorists been so close to preparing an attack in Spain.

(El Periódico de Catalunya, 20 January 2008)

Periphrastic perfect	Pretèrit perfet perifràstic	present tense of anar	+ infinitive
Past indefinite	Pretèrit indefinit	present tense of haver	+ past participle
Pluperfect	Pretèrit plusquamperfet	imperfect tense of haver	+ past participle
Past anterior	Pretèrit anterior simple	preterite tense of haver	+ past participle
Periphrastic past anterior	Pretèrit anterior perifràstic	periphrastic perfect tense of haver	+ past participle
Future perfect	Futur compost	future tense of haver	+ past participle
Conditional perfect	Condicional compost	conditional tense of haver	+ past participle
Preterite subjuctive	Pretèrit perfet subjuntiu	present subjunctive tense of haver	+ past participle
Periphrastic perfect subjuctive	Pretèrit perfet perifràstic subjuntiu	present subjunctive tense of anar	+ infinitive
Pluperfect subjuctive	Pretèrit plusquamperfet subjuntiu	imperfect subjunctive tense of haver	+ past participle

Other constructions

Passive voice

The passive voice is formed using either ésser or estar (depending on the sense) with the past participle. Catalan grammars usually consider this construction to be equivalent to the use of the past participle as a qualificative adjective. Accordingly, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject of the sentence.

This construction is relatively rare: in many cases where English would use the passive voice, Catalan uses a reflexive verb.

• Aquí es parla francès.
• French is spoken here.

Continuous tenses

The present tense of estar can be used with the present participle to form a construction which is analogous to the English present continuous tense. Catalan grammars usually consider this construction to be equivalent to the use of the present participle as a qualificative adjective.

This construction is used far less frequently than the English present continuous tense (which is usually translated by the Catalan present simple tense): however it may be used to particularly emphasise the ongoing nature of an action.

A past continuous tense may also be formed by the imperfect tense of estar and the present participle. This construction is also rare, as the imperfect tense is usually preferred.

Future tense with anar

Catalan forms a construction with the prsent tense of anar + a + the infinitive, which is analogous to the English future tense with "going".

• Vaig a tancar el meu compte.
• I'm going to close my account.

This construction is only used in Catalan in situations where there is physical movement involved in the action: as such, it is not considered a separate tense but merely a verbal construction with anar in its normal sense (and with its normal conjugation). It should not be confused with the periphrastic perfect tense, which it superficially resembles.

Reflexive verbs

Reflexive pronouns
em (m')	ens
et (t')	us
es (s')	es (s')

Reflexive verbs (verbs pronominals) are indicated by the ending -se or 's on the infinitive, depending on whether the infinitive ends in a consonant or a vowel: eg, endur-se, creure's. The declension of the pronouns in Catalan is complex: for a full treament, see Appendix:Catalan pronouns. The most common forms of the reflexive pronouns are given in the table: forms in parentheses are used before a vowel or an h. The reflexive pronoun comes before the verb (or the auxilliary in compound tenses) in all forms except the infinitive, the present participle and imperative.

Polite forms

In formal language, the second person pronouns tu and vosaltres (or vós) are replaced by the forms vostè and vostès. These are contractions of the forms vostra mercè and vostres mercès (lit. "Your Grace", "Your Graces"), and so take third person forms of the verb (singular and plural respectively).

• Vostè m'ho ha dit.
• You told me it.
• Vostès no hi eren.
• You weren't there.

Unlike other subject pronouns, vostè and vostès are not usually omitted.

Conjugations

Fabra's conjugation	Infinitive ending	Type verb
I	-ar	cantar
II	-re	perdre
	-er	témer
	-ur	dur
	-ir	dir*
III		sentir
*Dir, and verbs derived from it, are the only exceptions to the general rule that verbs whose infinitive ends in -ir belong to the third conjugation.

As with other Romance languages, Catalan shows an extensive and varied range of conjugations. One common desk-top guide lists 120 conjugation types, a number which is similar to languages such as French, Italian or Spanish. The description is made more complicated by the existence of alternative verb forms in many of the dialectical regions of Catalan, and occasionally within standard written Catalan itself.

The classical description of Catalan verb grammar (due to Pompeu Fabra) recognises three main conjugations, with cantar, perdre and sentir as the type verbs. More recent authorities have tended to increase the number of type verbs to five or six:

• splitting the second conjugation between verbs whose infinitive ends in -re and those ending in -er;
• splitting the third conjugation into verbs such as sentir which add -eix- to the stem in many cases, and the minority of verbs such as dormir which don't;
• further splitting the third conjugation into verbs whose stem ends in a consonant (eg patir) and those whose stem ends in a vowel (eg trair).

The present description is based purely on the ending of the infinitive form. Fabra's classical conjugations can be found in the table opposite.

First conjugation: -ar

Type verb	Other verbs	Notes
cantar
canviar	evacuar, lloar, menysprear	as for cantar except pr.subj. and imperative
esglaiar		as for cantar except pr.subj. and imperative
matar		as for cantar except p.p. (matat or mort)
donar		as for cantar except pr.ind.2,3 (dónes, dóna)
trencar	all verbs in -car	stem -c- changes to -qu- before e and i
començar	all verbs in -çar	stem -ç- changes to -c- before e and i
pregar	all verbs in -gar	stem -g- changes to -gu- before e and i
enaiguar	all verbs in -guar except aguar	stem -gu- changes to -gü- before e and i
envejar	all verbs in -jar	stem -j- changes to -g- before e and i
obliquar	all verbs in -quar	stem -qu- changes to -qü- before e and i
aguar
anar
dar		defective verb
estar

Second conjugation: -re

Type verb	Other verbs	Notes
perdre
admetre		as for perdre except p.p. (admès)
rebre	apercebre, concebre, decebre, percebre	as for perdre except pr.ind.2,3 (reps, rep)
cabre		as for perdre except for pr.ind., pr.subj., imperative
cerndre		as for perdre but with "cern" as the stem in all tenses except fut. and cond.
prendre	fendre
absoldre	dissoldre, remoldre, resoldre, toldre	as for prendre except p.p. (absolt)
aprendre	defendre, dependre, despendre, ofendre, suspendre	as for prendre except pr.ind.3 (aprèn), p.p. (après)
atendre	distendre, entendre, estendre, pretendre	as for prendre except pr.ind.3 (atén), p.p. (atès)
compondre	correspondre, descompondre, despondre's, pondre, recompondre, respondre	as for prendre except p.p. (compost)
doldre	condoldre's	as for prendre except p.p. (dolgut)
fondre		as for prendre except p.p. (fos)
confondre	difondre, infondre, refondre, transfondre	as for prendre except p.p. (confós)
enfondre		as for prendre except p.p. (enfús)
moldre		as for prendre except p.p. (mòlt)
romandre		as for prendre except p.p. (romàs)
vendre		as for prendre except p.p. (venut)
malvendre		as for vendre except pr.ind.3 (malvèn)
complaure	displaure, plaure
cloure		as for complaure except p.p. (clos)
descloure	encloure, incloure	as for complaure except p.p. (desclòs)
coure		as for complaure except p.p. (cuit)
noure		as for complaure except p.p. (nogut)
jeure	ajeure
creure	asseure, descreure, lleure, seure, sobraseure	as for jeure but without the stem vowel change
treure	bestreure, distreure, retreure	as for jeure except p.p. (tret)
traure		as for treure except pr.ind., pr.sub., imper.
jaure		as for traure except p.p. (jagut)
beure	deure, moure, ploure
caure	decaure, escaure, recaure
escriure	all verbs in -scriure
heure
riure
veure	entreveure, preveure, reveure
viure	conviure, malviure
caldre		defective verb

Second conjugation: -er

Type verb	Other verbs	Notes
témer
atènyer		as témer except p.p. (atès)
constrènyer		as témer except p.p. (constret)
aparèixer	comparèixer, parèixer
conèixer	desconèixer, reconèixer	as aparèixer except pr.ind.1 (conec)
córrer	acórrer, concórrer, encórrer, escórrer
créixer	merèixer
ésser
fer
desfer	estrafer, refer	as fer except impr.2, impf.subj.1,3
haver
nàixer
néixer	péixer
pertànyer
poder
saber
valer	equivaler, prevaler, soler
vèncer
voler

Second conjugation: others

Type verb	Other verbs	Notes
dir	desdir, predir
contradir	as for dir except imperative
dur
endur

Third conjugation: -ir

Type verb	Other verbs	Notes
servir	argüir
complir	suplir	as for servir except p.p. (complert)
cobrir	sofrir	as for servir except p.p. (cobert)
imprimir		as for servir except p.p. (imprès)
reduir	agrair, posseir	as for servir except unaccented -i- in endings takes diaresis after stem a-, e- or u-
oir
dormir	adormir, ajupir, arrupir-se, brumir, bullir, consentir, consumir, munyir, pressentir, punyir, sentir	Arrupir-se, brumir and consumir can also be conjugated as servir
mentir		as for dormir or as for servir
morir		as for dormir except p.p. (mort)
cruixir		as for dormir except pr.ind.2 (cruixes)
fugir		as for dormir except pr.ind., imperative
pudir		as for dormir except pr.ind., imperative
obrir		as for dormir except pr.ind., imperative, p.p.
omplir		as for obrir except p.p. (omplert)
collir	escopir, recollir, ressortir, sortir	as for dormir except pr.ind., pr.subj., imperative
cosir		as for dormir except pr.ind., pr.subj., imperative
descosir		as for cosir except pr.ind.3 (descús)
pruir		as for dormir except unaccented -i- in endings takes diaresis after stem u-
lluir		as for pruir or as for reduir, depending on the meaning
eixir
reeixir		as for eixir except pr.ind., pr.subj.
tenir
obtenir	derivatives of tenir	as for tenir except imperative
venir
intervenir		as for venir except pr.ind.2,3 and impr.2
prevenir		as for venir except pr.ind.2,3 and impr.2
revenir		as for venir except pr.ind., imperative

References

• Xuriguera, Joan Baptista (2004). Els verbs conjugats (4ta. edició). Barcelona: Claret. →ISBN.
• Fabra, Pompeu (1968). Introducció a la gramàtica catalana (5ena. edició, 1987). Barcelona: Edicions 62. →ISBN.
• Enciclopèdia Catalana (2007). Diccionari de la llengua catalana (10 volums). →ISBN.
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