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.
Features include: Use of definite and indefinite articles. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and articles are inflected for gender (masculine and feminine) and number (singular and plural). The numerals 'one', 'two' and the numeral 'hundred' from two-hundred onwards are also inflected for gender. Highly inflected verbs, for person, number, tense, aspect, and mood (including a subjunctive). Word order is freer than in English.
Some distinctive features of Catalan among Romance languages include the general lack of masculine markers (like Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese -o), 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 ("of + the [plural]"), but fewer than Italian (which has sul, col, nel, etc.).
Definite The tables below summarize the forms of the definite article, its elisions, and its contractions. + Definite article (elided forms in brackets) masculine feminine singular () () plural + Contractions of the definite articlepreposition article () () ()
Masculine forms The masculine singular form is el. The initial vowel is elided 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 semivocalic (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.
+ Personal article(elided forms in brackets) masculine feminine () ()
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 Occitan.
+ Balearic definite article masculine feminine singular () () plural ,
+ Balearic definite article + (with) masculine feminine singular () plural
Indefinite The table below summarize the forms of the indefinite article. Indefinite articles are not elided nor contracted. + Indefinite article masculine feminine singular plural
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.
+ Four-form adjectiveverd ("green") masculine feminine singular verd verda plural verds verdes + Two-form adjectiveindiferent ("indifferent") masculine feminine singular indiferentplural indiferents
Similar to 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 ("scarce").
Among nouns, Catalan has few suppletive 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 Occitan 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: 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 -aç, -iç, or -oç follow the two-form declension in the singular, but four-form in the plural, so that they actually have three forms:
+ Adjective in -aç, -iç, or -oç feliç ("happy") masculine feminine singular feliç plural feliços felices
Nouns
Catalan nouns are inflected for gender (masculine or feminine), and number (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:
+ Example: declension of gat "cat" masculine feminine singular gat gata plural gats gates
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.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |+ |- ! !! colspan="3"| becomes voiced !! colspan="3"| remains unvoiced |- ! change !! masculine !! feminine !! gloss !! masculine !! feminine !! gloss |- | ⟨-t⟩ → ⟨-d-⟩/t/ → /ð/ || nebot || neboda || "nephew – niece" || nét || neta || "grandson – granddaughter" |- | ⟨-p⟩ → ⟨-b-⟩/p/ → /β/ || llop || lloba || "wolf" || || || |- | ⟨-f⟩ → ⟨-v-⟩/f/ → /v~β/ || serf || serva || "serf" || || || |- | ⟨-s⟩ → ⟨-s-⟩/s/ → /z/ || espòs || esposa || "husband – wife" || gos || gossa || "dog – bitch" |} 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.
sound transformation singular (stem underlined) plural (stem underlined) IPAtranscription gloss ⟨g⟩ → ⟨gu⟩ farga fargues , , "forge(s)" ⟨c⟩ → ⟨qu⟩ oca oques , , "goose – geese" ⟨gu⟩ → ⟨gü⟩ llengua llengües , , "tongue(s)" ⟨qu⟩ → ⟨qü⟩ pasqua pasqües , , "Easter(s)" ⟨ç⟩ → ⟨c⟩plaça places , , "square(s)" ⟨j⟩ → ⟨g⟩ pluja pluges , , "rain(s)" platja platges , , "beach(es)"
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).