Catalan grammar is the grammar

Grammar

In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...

 of the Catalan language

Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

.

Noun phrases

In Catalan, all noun

Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...

s (including those referring to inanimate objects or abstract concepts) have either masculine or feminine grammatical gender

Grammatical gender

Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...

: e.g. el llibre ("the book", masculine), la taula ("the table", feminine).

Articles

The definite and indefinite article

Article (grammar)

An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...

s (derived from Latin ille and unus, respectively) take the following forms:

definite article masculine feminine singular el, l' la, l' plural els les

indefinite article masculine feminine singular un una plural uns unes

The elided

Elision

Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...

 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 vowels 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). There are some exceptions to this rule, like la una ("one o'clock", but l'una i l'altra "each other"), la ira ("the rage"), and la host ("the host") never takes the apostrophe. Furthermore, the apostrophe is not used when the following word begins with a consonantic (h)i [j] or (h)u [w]; e.g. el iode ("the iodine").

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.

Variants of the definite article

In some regions, especially in the Balearic islands, the definite article derives from a different source: the Latin determiner ipse, ipsa, meaning "that very" or "that same". These forms are referred to as "salted articles" (see :ca:Article salat).

Balearic definite article
	masculine	feminine
singular	es, s'	sa, s'
plural	es, (ets)	ses

Similar forms of the definite articles can be found in Sardinian

Sardinian language

Sardinian is a Romance language spoken and written on most of the island of Sardinia . It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum....

 and in some varieties of Occitan.

Articles with names

The definite article is used with forenames and surnames in Catalan. In addition to the ordinary singular forms of the article (masculine el and l', feminine la and l'), special forms derived from the Latin vocatives domine, domina can be found:

personal article
masculine	feminine
en (before a consonant) n' (before a vowel or h)	na (before a consonant or unstressed (h)i or (h)u) n' (before other vowels)

• El Joan, l'Andreu, la Mercè, la Isabel i l'Olga van venir a sopar.
• En Joan, n'Andreu, na Mercè, na Isabel i n'Olga van venir a sopar.

Gender and meaning

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 or una guineu ("a fox"),
  • una sargantana (a type of lizard)
• 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")

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".

Degrees of comparison are expressed with the adverb més "more": més ... que "more ... than"; el més ... de "the most ... of". Like many other Romance languages, Catalan also has an "absolute superlative" form of the adjective with the suffix -íssim, meaning "very".

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

Orthography

The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...

. The following examples show the orthographic issues that arise:

transformation	singular	plural	translation
ç becomes c	balança	balances	"scale"
	dolça	dolces	"sweet"
c becomes qu	cuca	cuques	"firefly"
	seca	seques	"dry"
c becomes qü	oblic	obliqües	"oblique"
qu (or cu) becomes qü	Pasqua	Pasqües	"Easter"
	inicu	iniqües	"iniquitous"
j usually becomes g	platja	platges	"beach"
	roja	roges	"red"
g becomes gu	vaga	vagues	"worker strike"
	amarg	amargues	"sour"
gu becomes gü	llengua	llengües	"language"
	ambigua	ambigües	"ambiguous"

Words that end in stressed vowel

Vowel

In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...

s typically form the plural by adding -ns:

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

This rule has a significant number of common exceptions, such as mamà, bebè, cafè, comitè, frenesí, menú, nu.

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 (or tjos in other cases):

• "faig" ("beech"), "fajos" or "faigs"
• "passeig" ("boulevard"), "pasejos" or "passeigs"
• "lleig" ("ugly"), "lletjos" or "lleigs"
• "desig" ("desire"), "desitjos" or "desigs"

Personal pronouns

Catalan has two series of personal pronouns: the "strong" pronouns and the "weak" pronouns . The strong forms are used as subject pronouns, after a preposition, or as emphatic forms.
The weak pronouns are typically used to express the objects of a verb. In the following examples, the strong pronouns are in bold, and the weak pronouns in italics:

• Jo encara no en sé gaire. ("I still don't know much about it.")
• Queda't amb mi. ("Stay with me.")

As in other Romance languages, the weak forms are clitic

Clitic

In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...

s that appear immediately before or after the verb. Combinations of weak pronouns obey special rules, and may give rise to unexpected results (with significant dialectal variation).

Verbs

See also Conjugation of regular Catalan verbs

Conjugation of regular Catalan verbs

Conjugation of regular Catalan verbs.This is a supplement to the main article on Catalan grammar.MODELS FOR THE CONJUGATION OF REGULAR CATALAN VERBSMODELS PER A LA CONJUGACIÓ DELSVERBS REGULARS EN CATALÀPRONOUNSPRONOMS...

, Conjugation of auxiliary Catalan verbs

Conjugation of auxiliary Catalan verbs

This table explains the conjugation of auxiliary Catalan verbs.MODELS FOR THE CONJUGATION OF AUXILIARY CATALAN VERBSMODELS PER A LA CONJUGACIÓ DELS VERBS AUXILIARS EN CATALÀSIMPLE TENSES - TEMPS SIMPLESINFINITIVE- INFINITIU...

.
See also Catalan conjugation

Catalan conjugation

This article discusses the conjugation of verbs in a number of varieties of the Catalan language, including Medieval Catalan. Each verbal form is accompanied by its phonetic transcription...

 article, which discusses conjugation paradigms with some considerations on current usage, dialectal differences, and historical changes.

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 expresses the attitude of the speaker toward what is said (although the usage of determinate forms are mandated as well by grammar constraints like phrase subordination or indirect speech). The four moods in Catalan are: indicative, subjunctive
    Subjunctive mood
    In grammar, the subjunctive mood is a verb mood typically used in subordinate clauses to express various states of irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred....
    
    , conditional
    Conditional mood
    In linguistics, the conditional mood is the inflectional form of the verb used in the independent clause of a conditional sentence to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event, that is contingent on another set of circumstances...
    
     and imperative
    Imperative mood
    The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
    
    .
  • 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, or a previous or finished action from an action still in process or correlative to a reference point).
• 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.

External links

• A good English-language site about Catalan grammar