Catalan grammar


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.
The grammar of Catalan is similar to other Romance languages. Features include:
Some distinctive features of Catalan among Romance languages include the general lack of masculine markers, 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.

Articles

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, but fewer than Italian.

Definite

The tables below summarize the forms of the definite article, its elisions, and its contractions.
masculinefeminine
singularel la
pluralelsles

Masculine forms

Forenames 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.
masculinefeminine
en na

Dialectal variation

In 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.
masculinefeminine
singulares sa
plurales, etsses

masculinefeminine
singularamb soamb sa
pluralamb sosamb ses

Indefinite

The table below summarize the forms of the indefinite article. Indefinite articles are not elided nor contracted.
masculinefeminine
singularununa
pluralunsunes

Overview of gender and number inflection

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.
masculinefeminine
singularverdverda
pluralverdsverdes

Like in 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.
Among nouns, Catalan has few suppletive couplets, like Italian and Spanish, and unlike French. Thus, Catalan has noi/noia and gall/gallina, 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, one can also find four-form bullent/bullenta.

Variants

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 vs. la pols/les pols.
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:

Nouns

Catalan nouns are inflected for gender, and number. 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:
masculinefeminine
singulargatgata
pluralgatsgates

Gender inflection

The grammatical gender of a Catalan noun does not necessarily correspond with the real-life object's biological sex. 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 is masculine, while the word cadira is feminine.

Living beings with distinct masculine and feminine forms

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.
Formation of the feminine form from the masculine
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.
soundtransformationsingular
plural
IPA
transcription		gloss
⟨g⟩ → ⟨gu⟩fargafargues,
, 		"forge"
⟨c⟩ → ⟨qu⟩ocaoques,
, 		"goose – geese"
⟨gu⟩ → ⟨gü⟩llenguallengües,
, 		"tongue"
⟨qu⟩ → ⟨qü⟩pasquapasqües,
, 		"Easter"
⟨ç⟩ → ⟨c⟩plaçaplaces,
, 		"square"

⟨j⟩ → ⟨g⟩plujapluges,
, 		"rain"

⟨j⟩ → ⟨g⟩platjaplatges,
, 		"beach"

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.

Declension

Catalan adjectives can be divided in three groups according to the distinct forms it has.
masculinefeminine
singularverdverda
pluralverdsverdes

Formation of the feminine singular from the masculine singular

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.
Unmarked masculine forms
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.

Adjectives with indistinct masculine and feminine forms

Some adjectives may have the same form in the masculine singular and feminine singular.
Some feminine adjectives are formed irregularly and do not adhere to the aforementioned formation rules.
masculinefemininegloss
oblicobliqua"oblique"
boigboja"insane"
roigroja" red"
lleiglletja"ugly"
migmitja"half"
nulnul·la"null"
tranquiltranquil·la"quiet"
crucrua"raw"
nunua"nude"
jueujueva"Jewish"
malmala"bad"
paral·lelparal·lela"parallel"
carcara"expensive"
clarclara"clear"
avaravara"avaricious"
rarrara"rare"

Degrees of comparison

Degrees of comparison are expressed with a construction implying the adverb més "more" or menys "less":
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.

Adverbs

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.

Formation

In Catalan, as in English, most adverbs are derived from adjectives. In most cases, this is done by adding the suffix -ment to the adjective's feminine singular form. For example, the feminine singular form of lent is lenta, so the corresponding adverb is lentament.
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:

Placement

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:
An adverb that modifies an infinitive generally comes after the infinitive:
An adverb that modifies a main verb or clause comes either after the verb, or before the clause:
Note that, unlike in English, this is true even of negative adverbs:

Possessives

Possessive pronouns

Possessive adjectives 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.
The feminine forms meva, teva, and seva may appear dialectally with instead of : meua, teua, and seua. Their plural forms follow the same variation.

Possessive adjectives

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.
Central Catalan has abandoned almost completely unstressed possessives in favour of constructions of article + stressed forms, a feature shared with Italian and Portuguese.

Personal pronouns

The morphology of Catalan personal pronouns is complex, specially in unstressed forms, which are numerous. Features include the neuter gender and the great degree of freedom when combining different unstressed pronouns.
This flexibility allows Catalan to use extraposition extensively, much more than French or Spanish. Thus, Catalan can have m'hi recomanaren, 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, or identifying the direct object with a preposition.

Verbs

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:
simpleperfect
infinitivecantarhaver cantat
gerundcantanthavent cantat
participlecantat-

Like all the Romance languages, Catalan verbal inflection is more complex than the nominal. Suffixation is omnipresent, while morphological alternations play a secondary role. Vowel alternances are active, as well as infixation and suppletion. However, these are not as productive as in Spanish, and are mostly restricted to irregular verbs.
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 anar 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, while the third is semiproductive. The verbs of the second conjugation are fewer than 100, and it is not possible to create new ones, except by compounding.