Catalan grammar, the

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

and

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...

of the

Catalan language Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as ''Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spa ...

, is similar to the

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

of most other

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

. Catalan is a relatively synthetic,

fusional language Fusional languages or inflected languages are a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by their tendency to use a single inflectional morpheme to denote multiple grammatical, syntactic, or semantic features. Fo ...

. Features include: *Use of

definite In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...

and

indefinite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...

s. *

Noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...

adjective In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Tra ...

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...

s and

article Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...

s are

inflected In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defi ...

for

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

(masculine and feminine) and

number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...

(singular and plural). The

numerals A numeral is a figure, symbol, or group of figures or symbols denoting a number. It may refer to: * Numeral system used in mathematics * Numeral (linguistics), a part of speech denoting numbers (e.g. ''one'' and ''first'' in English) * Numerical d ...

'one', 'two' and the numeral 'hundred' from two-hundred onwards are also inflected for gender. *Highly inflected

verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...

s, for

person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...

, tense,

aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...

, and mood (including a

subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality ...

). *Word order is freer than in English. 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 Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language Occitan (; o ...

; 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

and indefinite. They are declined for gender and number, and must agree with the noun they qualify. As with other

, Catalan articles are subject to complex

elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...

and

contraction Contraction may refer to: Linguistics * Contraction (grammar), a shortened word * Poetic contraction, omission of letters for poetic reasons * Elision, omission of sounds ** Syncope (phonology), omission of sounds in a word * Synalepha, merged ...

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 Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, like ''dels'' ("of + the lural), but fewer than

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

(which has ''sul'', ''col'', ''nel'', etc.).

Definite

The tables below summarize the forms of the definite article, its elisions, and its contractions.

Masculine forms

* The masculine singular form is ''el''. The initial vowel is

elided In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...

before a vowel or ''h'', yielding to ''l'''. :: ''El pare. L'avi.'' :: "The father." "The grandfather." * ''El'' is not elided if the word begins with semivocallic ''(h)i-'' . :: ''El iode. El hiat.'' :: "The iodine." "The hiatus" * The masculine plural form is ''els''. Both ''el'' and ''els'' combine with the prepositions ''a'' "to", ''de'' "of", and ''per'' "for", yielding the contractions ''al'', ''als'', ''del'', ''dels'', ''pel'', ''pels''. :: ''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") * ''El'' does not contract with the aforementioned prepositions if the following word begins with vowel or ''h''. :: ''Porta-ho a l'avi.'' :: "Bring this to the grandfather." :: ''Baixa de l'arbre.'' :: "Get down from the tree."

Feminine forms

* The feminine singular form is ''la''. The final vowel is elided before a vowel or ''h'', yielding ''l'''. :: ''La mare. L'àvia'' :: "The mother." "The grandmother" * ''La'' is not contracted if the word begins with unstressed ''(h)i-'', or ''(h)u-''. :: ''La idea. La hipòtesi. La unitat. La humitat.'' :: "The idea." "The hypothesis." "The unit." "The humidity." * ''La'' is not elided with the words ''una'' "one (hour)", ''host'' " hueste", and ''ira'' "wrath"; as well as with words beginning with the Greek prefix ''a-'', like ''asimetria'' "asymmetry". * The feminine plural form is ''les''. *Feminine articles are not contracted with prepositions.

Articles for personal names

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''. :: ''El Joan. L'Andreu. La Mercè. La Isabel. L'Olga.'' :: ''En Joan. N'Andreu. Na Mercè. Na Isabel. N'Olga.''

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

Indefinite

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

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. Similar to French, but unlike

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, 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 In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is traditionally understood as the use of one word as the inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. For those learning a language, suppletive forms will be seen as "irregular" or even ...

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

and standard in French. Thus, alongside traditional two-form ''bullent''/''bullent'' ("boiling"), one can also find four-form ''bullent''/''bullenta''.

Variants

Many not completely predictable morphological alternations may occur between masculine and feminine, like: * Affrication: ''boig''/''boja'' ("insane") vs. ''lleig''/''lletja'' ("ugly") * Loss of ''n'': ''pla''/''plana'' ("flat") vs. ''segon''/''segona'' ("second") *

Final obstruent devoicing Final-obstruent devoicing or terminal devoicing is a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as Catalan, German, Dutch, Breton, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Turkish, and Wolof. In such languages, voiced obstruents in fin ...

: ''sentit''/''sentida'' ("felt") vs. ''dit''/''dita'' ("said") vs. ''fred''/''freda'' ("cold") 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:

Nouns

Catalan nouns are inflected for

(masculine or feminine), and

(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:

Gender inflection

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 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

= *Most times the feminine form is created by appending the suffix ''-a'' to the unmarked masculine form. ::''Noi → noia. Avi → àvia.'' ::"Boy – girl." "Grandfather – grandmother." *If the masculine form ends in ''-t'', ''-p'', ''-f'', ''-s'', the addition of the feminine suffix ''-a'' may cause these consonants to become voiced to ''-d-'', ''-b-'', ''-v-'', ''-s-''; or not. There are no rules to deduce the change. : *If the masculine form ends in a stressed vowel, the feminine is created by appending the suffix ''-na''. ::''Germà → germana'' ::"Brother – sister." *Sometimes the feminine form is created by appending the suffix ''-essa'' to the unmarked masculine form. ::''Sacerdot → sacerdotessa.'' ::"Priest – priestess."

=Formation of the masculine form from the feminine

= *Sometimes the masculine form is created from the feminine by changing the suffix ''a'' for ''-ot''. ::''Bruixot ← bruixa.'' ::"Sorcerer — witch."

Living beings with indistinct masculine and feminine forms

*Sometimes a single noun is used to designate both masculine and feminine beings. To specify the biological gender of the being, the adjectives ''mascle'' "male", and ''femella'' "female" are used. ::''El rossinyol. El rossinyol mascle. El rossinyol femella.'' ::" The nightingale." "The male nightingale." "The female nightingale"

Objects, abstract concepts

*Since objects and abstract concepts have no biological gender, all of them only have one form. The gender of inanimate nouns is assigned arbitrarily. Sometimes the choice may seem contradictory. ::''La virilitat (f).'' ::"The manliness." *Sometimes synonymous words may have different genders. ::'' El televisor (m) – la televisió (f). L'argent (m) – la plata (f)'' ::"The TV." "The silver."

Homophonous words with different genders

*Some homonymous words may have different genders according to their meaning. ::''El clau (m) – la clau (f)'' ::"The nail – the key."

Number inflection

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. * Most times the plural form is created by appending the suffix -s to the singular form. *: ''Pare → pares. Avi → avis.'' *: "Father – fathers." "Grandfather – grandfathers." * If the singular ends in ''-a'', the plural is usually formed with ''-es''. Most of these nouns are feminine, but some are masculine. *: ''Casa → cases (f). Problema → problemes (m).'' *: "House – houses." "Problem – problems" ** However, if the singular ends in ''-ga'', ''-ca'', ''-gua'', ''-qua'', ''-ça'', ''-ja'', the plural is formed by ''-gues'', ''-ques'', ''-gües'', ''-qües'', ''-ces'', ''-ges''. This is done for orthographical reasons, and stem pronunciation remains identical in the singular and plural. * If the singular form ends in a stressed vowel, the plural is usually created by appending the suffix ''-ns''. *: ''Pa → pans (m). Capità → capitans (m). Acció → accions (f).'' *: "Bread – breads." "Captain – captains." "Action – actions." ** However, some words ending in a stressed vowel form their plural in -''s''. Many of them are relatively recent loanwords not directly inherited from late Latin. **: ''Sofà → sofàs. Bambú → bambús.'' **: "Sofa – sofas." "Bamboo – bamboos." ** A few nouns ending in unstressed ''-e'' can also form their plural alternatively in ''-ns''. It is considered archaic or dialectal. **: ''Home → homes'' or ''hòmens. Orfe → orfes'' or ''òrfens'' **: "Man – men." "Orphan – orphans." * Many masculine nouns ending in ''-s'', ''ç'' form their plural with ''-os''. ''-s-'' becomes voiced in the plural, but ''-ç-'' remains unvoiced. *: ''Gas → gas''os'' ''/ˈgas – ˈgazus ~ ˈgazos/''. Braç → braç''os'' ''/ˈbɾas – ˈbɾasus ~ ˈbɾasos/. *: "Gas – gases." "Arm – arms." ** In some masculine nouns ending in ''-s'', this remains unvoiced when adding ''-os'', and thus becomes ''-ss-'': *** Most polysyllabic masculine words ending in ''-às'', ''-ís'', ''ús''. ***: ''Fracàs → fracassos. Pastís → pastissos. Barnús → barnu''ss''os'' ***: "Failure – failures." "Cake – cakes." "Bathrobe – bathrobes" *** Most masculine words ending in ''-os'', ''-ós'', ''òs''. ***: ''Gos → go''ss''os. Arròs → arro''ss''os. Os → o''ss''os.'' ***: "Dog – dogs." "Rice – rices." "Bear – bears". (also "Bone – bones"). * Masculine paroxytone and proparoxytone nouns ending in ''-s'' are invariable. *: ''Llapis → llapis. Òmnibus – òmnibus'' *: "Pencil – pencils." "Omnibus – omnibuses." * Feminine nouns ending in an s-like sound (''-s'', ''-ç'', ''-x'', ''-z'') have a plural that is pronounced the same as the singular. If the noun ends in ''-s'', no ending is added. Otherwise, an unpronounced ''-s'' is added. *: ''Pols → pols.'' *: "Dust – dusts." *: ''Calç → calçs'' . *: "Lime – limes." * Nouns ending in ''-x'' pronounced form plurals according to word stress. If the noun is stressed on the last syllable, the plural suffix is ''-os''. Otherwise, the ending is ''-s'' and the plural form is homophonous with the singular. *: ''Reflex → reflexos ''. ''Índex → índexs ''. *: "Reflection – reflections." "Index – indexes." * Nouns ending in ''-x'' pronounced form their plural with ''-os''. *: ''Calaix → calaixos.'' *: "Drawer – drawers." * Nouns ending in ''-ig'' () can form their plural in two ways, both acceptable: ** Adding ''-s''. Both forms will be homophonous. This is the preferred form in normative grammars, not so in general spoken use. **: ''Faig → faigs ''. P''asseig → Passeigs'' . ** Replacing ''-ig'' with ''jos'' or ''tjos''. There are no rules to deduce which is to be used. **: ''Faig → fajos ''/ˈfat͡ʃ – ˈfaʒus ~ ˈfad͡ʒos/''. Mig → mitjos. ''/ˈmit͡ʃ – ˈmidʒus ~ mid͡ʒːos/. **: "Beech – beeches." "Promenade – promenades. Half – halves." * Nouns ending in ''-sc'', ''-st'', ''-xt'' can form their plural in two ways, both acceptable: Adding ''-s'' (preferred), or adding ''-os''. *: ''Bosc → boscs'' or ''boscos. Gust → gusts'' or ''gustos. Pretext → pretexts'' or ''pretextos'' *: "Forest – forests." "Taste – tastes." "Pretext – pretexts." * Feminine nouns ending in ''-st'' always form the plural by adding ''-s''. *: ''Host → host''s''.'' *: "Hueste – huestes."

Adjectives

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 In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ar ...

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.

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

= *Most times the feminine form is created by appending the suffix ''-a'' to the unmarked masculine form. ::''Sec – seca. Fred – freda. Continu – contínua.'' ::"Dry." "Cold." "Continuous." *If the masculine form ends in ''-t'', ''-c'', ''-s'', the addition of the feminine suffix ''-a'' may cause these consonants to become voiced to ''-d-'', ''-g-'', ''-s-''; or not. There are no rules governing this change. *If the masculine form ends in a stressed vowel, the feminine is created by appending the suffix ''-na''.; except ''nu'' "nude" and ''cru'' "raw". ::''Pla – plana. Rodó – rodona.'' ::"Flat." "Round." *If the masculine form ends in ''-au'', ''-eu'', ''-iu'', and ''-ou''; the feminine is formed with ''-ava'', ''-ea'', ''-iva'', and ''-ova''. ::''Blau – blava. Europeu – europea. Viu – viva. Nou – nova.'' ::"Blue." "European." "Alive." "New."

=Marked masculine forms ending in ''-e'' or ''-o''

= 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."

Adjectives with indistinct masculine and feminine forms

Some adjectives may have the same form in the masculine singular and feminine singular. *Adjectives ending in ''-aç'', ''-iç'', and ''-oç''. ::''Capaç – capaç. Feliç – feliç. Precoç – precoç.'' ::"Capable." "Happy." "Precocious." *Adjectives ending in stressed ''-al'', stressed ''-el'', and stressed or unstressed ''-il''. ::''Central -central. Rebel – rebel. Hostil – hostil. Mòbil – mòbil''. ::"Central." "Rebel." "Hostile." "Mobile." *Adjectives ending in ''-ar''. ::''Vulgar – Vulgar'' ::"Vulgar"

Irregular feminine forms

Some feminine adjectives are formed irregularly and do not adhere to the aforementioned formation rules.

Degrees of comparison

Degrees of comparison are expressed with a construction implying the adverb ''més'' "more" or ''menys'' "less": *''Més ... que'' ("more ... than") ::''Sóc més alt que tu.'' ::"I am taller than you." *''El més ... de'' ("the most ... of") ::''Sóc el més alt de tots'' ::"I am the tallest of all". *''Menys ... que'' ("less ... than") ::''Sóc menys alt que tu.'' ::"I am less tall than you."

Absolute superlative

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."

Adverbs

Catalan

adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...

s, like their

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

counterparts, are used to modify

adjectives In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the mai ...

, other

adverbs An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering que ...

, and

verbs A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descrip ...

clauses In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with ...

. They do not display any

inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...

; 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

are derived from

. 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 In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...

: And, as in English, many common adverbs are not derived from adjectives at all: : ''així'' ("thus", "so"). : ''ahir'' ("yesterday").

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: : ''completament cert'' ("completely true"). : ''massa ben fet'' ("too well done"). An adverb that modifies an

infinitive Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...

(verbal

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...

) 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").

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. ::''El cotxe és meu.'' ::"The car is mine." The feminine forms ''meva'', ''teva'', and ''seva'' may appear dialectally with instead of : ''meua'', ''teua'', and ''seua''. Their plural forms follow the same variation (''meues'', ''teues'', and ''seues'').

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 (''mon'', etc.) in favour of constructions of article + stressed forms (''el meu'', etc.), a feature shared with Italian and Portuguese. *Unstressed forms are rarely used in the spoken language, and are only retained for family relatives and set phrases. ::''Ton pare. Son avi.'' ::"Your father." "His / her grandfather." ::''En ma vida.'' ::"In my whole life." *Instead of this, a construction of ''definite article + possessive pronoun + noun'' is preferred. ::''Mon cotxe.'' (literary, archaic) ::''El meu cotxe.'' (more common) ::"My car."

Pronouns

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 Extraposition is a mechanism of syntax that alters word order in such a manner that a relatively "heavy" constituent appears to the right of its canonical position. Extraposing a constituent results in a discontinuity and in this regard, it is ...

extensively, much more than French or Spanish. Thus, Catalan can have ''m'hi recomanaren'' ("they recommendedd 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 Topic, topics, TOPIC, topical, or topicality may refer to: Topic / Topics * Topić, a Slavic surname * ''Topics'' (Aristotle), a work by Aristotle * Topic (chocolate bar), a brand of confectionery bar * Topic (DJ), German musician * Topic (g ...

, without having to use so often the

passive voice A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or ''patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing t ...

(as in French or

), or identifying the

direct object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...

with a

preposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

(as in Spanish).

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 The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

, Catalan verbs undergo

according to the following categories: * Tense:

past The past is the set of all events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience t ...

present The present (or here'' and ''now) is the time that is associated with the events perception, perceived directly and in the first time, not as a recollection (perceived more than once) or a speculation (predicted, hypothesis, uncertain). It is ...

future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...

. *

Number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...

: singular or

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

. *

Person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...

: first, second or third. * Mood:

indicative A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Mos ...

, or imperative. *

Aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...

Perfective aspect The perfective aspect (abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the imp ...

imperfective aspect The imperfective (abbreviated or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a gen ...

(distinguished only in the past tense as remote

preterite The preterite or preterit (; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple pas ...

imperfect The imperfect (abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was walking" or "used to w ...

). *

Voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...

active Active may refer to: Music * ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea * Active Records, a record label Ships * ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name * HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...

passive Passive may refer to: * Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive * Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works * Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of o ...

. Like all the Romance languages, Catalan verbal inflection is more complex than the nominal.

Suffixation In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry g ...

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 ''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

Verbal periphrases of obligation: * ''Caldre'' + ''que'' + infinitive (personal) * ''Caldre'' + infinitive (impersonal) * ''Haver'' + ''de'' + infinitive (personal) * ''Haver-se'' + ''de'' + infinitive (impersonal) * ''Fer falta'' (impersonal) * ''Ser menester'' + ''que'' + verb in subjunctive (personal) * ''Ser menester'' + infinitive (impersonal) * ''Ser necessari'' + ''que'' + verb in subjunctive (personal) * ''Ser necessari'' + infinitive (impersonal) (*) 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: * ''Deure'' + infinitive * ''Potser'' / ''Segurament'' / ''Probablement'' + verb in indicative * ''Poder'' + ''ser'' + verb in subjunctive * ''Ser probable'' + ''que'' + verb in subjunctive * ''Ser possible'' + ''que'' + verb in subjunctive * ''Poder'' + infinitive (it is also a periphrasis of capability) Verbal periphrases of imminence, intention or future: * ''Ara'' + verb in present or future (immediate action) * ''De seguida'' + verb in present or future (immediate action) * ''Tot seguit'' + verb in present or future (immediate action) * Verb in present or future (not necessarily immediate action) * ''Pensar'' + infinitive (periphrasis of intention) * ''Anar'' + ''a'' + infinitive * ''Estar a punt de'' + infinitive (immediate action) Other modal and aspectual verbal periphrases: * ''Vindre a'' + infinitive (modal verbal periphrasis of approximation value, with the verb ''dir'', to say, it has a justification aspect) * ''Gosar'' + infinitive (modal verbal periphrasis of audacity) * ''Saber'' + infinitive (modal verbal periphrasis of ingressive value) * ''Acabar de'' + infinitive (modal verbal periphrasis of culminative value) * ''Arribar a'' + infinitive (aspectual periphrasis of culminative and ponderative value) * ''Començar a'' + infinitive (aspectual periphrasis of ingressive value) * ''Posar-se a'' + infinitive (aspectual periphrasis of ingressive value) * ''Arrencar'' (or ''Arrancar'') ''a'' + infinitive (aspectual periphrasis of ingressive value) * ''Rompre a'' + infinitive (aspectual periphrasis of ingressive value) * ''Voler'' + infinitive (aspectual periphrasis of ingressive value) * ''Soler'' + infinitive (aspectual periphrasis of habitual value) * ''Tornar a'' + infinitive (aspectual periphrasis of repetitive value) * ''Estar'' + gerund (aspectual periphrasis of progressive value) * ''Anar'' + gerund (aspectual periphrasis of progressive value) * ''Continuar'' + gerund (aspectual periphrasis of durative value) * ''Seguir'' + gerund (aspectual periphrasis of durative value) * ''Tindre'' + past participle (aspectual periphrasis of resultative value) * ''Quedar'' + past participle (aspectual periphrasis of resultative value) * ''Deixar'' + past participle (aspectual periphrasis of resultative value) * ''Tindre'' + past participle (aspectual periphrasis of resultative value)

References

Bibliography

* acsimile published in 1995* * * * * * *

External links

A good English-language site about Catalan grammar
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