Catalan grammar is the grammar of the Catalan language.

Nouns, categories

Genders: 2, masculine, feminine
Numbers: 2, singular, plural
Definiteness: 2, indefinite, definite
Cases: no cases in nouns

Number

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:

Words that end in stressed vowels typically form the plural by adding -ns (this rule has exceptions):

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

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"

Nouns, declensions

Pronouns

Strong pronouns

The ordinary "strong" pronouns in Catalan are as follows:

These forms are used as subject pronouns, and also as disjunctive pronouns, for example, after a preposition. The first person singular pronoun has a special form mi after a preposition: amb mi "with me" (see prepositional pronoun).

Weak pronouns

The form of a weak pronoun depends on

1. its position with respect to the verb, and whether it's adjacent to a vowel or a consonant in the verb,
2. the person (first person / second person / third person)
3. the grammatical gender, and
4. its syntactic function.

The diagram below shows all of the different forms.

Examples:

• Em sentiu. ("You feel me." or "You hear me.")
• Això m'agrada ("I like that."; lit. "That pleases me")
• En Joan no vol seguir-me. ("John doesn't want to follow me.")
• Dóna'm un llibre. ("Give me a book.")

Weak pronouns: Diagram

(a) Reflexive form, and pronominal subject form

Reflexive: "La nena es renta." ("The girl is washing herself.")

Pronominal: "Tots es van penedir d'això." ("Everyone is sorry about that.")

(b) Direct object (masculine)

"Ahir el vaig veure." ("Yesterday I saw him.")

(c) Direct object (feminine)

"Ahir la vaig veure." ("Yesterday I saw her.")

(d) Neuter pronoun corresponding to "això" ("this") or "allò" ("that"), or to an entire proposition

"No ho sé." ("I don't know [the thing you just asked about].")

(e) Indirect object (masculine or feminine)

"Li donaràs el llibre?" ("Will you give him/her the book?")

(f) Prepositional object introduced by de

"Tothom en parla." ("Everyone is talking about it.")

(g) Prepositional object introduced by a preposition other than de

"Sempre he tingut ganes d'anar-hi." ("I've always wanted to go there.")

"L'home no hi sent" ("The man can't hear.")

Order when combining weak pronouns

The general formula for combination is: se + 2^nd person + 1^st person + 3^rd person (indirect + direct) + ho + ne + hi. Following the order of the formula, always heading to the right, any combination of two or more weak pronouns is grammatically possible, with the following two exceptions:

• It is impossible to combine "ho" with "ne" or "hi".
• It is impossible to combine either two "ne"s or two "hi"s.

The apostrophe in any combination of two pronouns is always positioned as far to the right as possible: "se't", "se'ns", "se'm", "se'n", "te'm", "te'ls", "te'l", "te'n", etc.

The combination of "el" with "en", or "la" with "en", are both written "l'en".

Determiners

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".

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.

Morphology

For general discussion of morphology (not specific to Catalan) see main article Morphology (linguistics).

Articles and nouns

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).

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

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 a vowel 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.

In the Balearic islands, the local dialect has a different origin for the definite article: the Latin determiner ipse, meaning "that very" or "that same". The definite articles of the Sardinian language are similar.

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 ("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")

External links

• A good English-language site about Catalan grammar

References

• originally translated from the Catalan-language Wikipedia article
• Yates, Alan (1993). Teach Yourself Catalan. NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company. ISBN  0-8442-3755-8.
• Freysselinard, Eric (2002). Grammaire et vocabulaire du catalan. Paris: Ophrys. ISBN  2-7080-1037-9. (in French)
• Badia i Margarit, Antoni M. (1995). Gramática de la llengua catalana: Descriptiva, normativa, diatópica, diastrática. Barcelona: Proa. (in Catalan)

Grammar, Catalan Category:Grammars of specific languages

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