WORD CLASS: INFINITIVE, GERUND AND PARTICIPLE

1. Infinitive, gerund and (past) participle are the so-called non-finite forms of Catalan verbs. Their forms depend on which conjugation they belong to.

In Catalan there are three conjugations, being the first and the third easily recognisable, since their infinitives end with –ar and –ir respectively.

The forms of infinitive vary according to its conjugation.

2. The three Catalan conjugations are divided as follows:

1st conj.	2nd conjugation				3rd conjugation
	stressed ending	unstressed ending	–re	mute –r	without suffix	with suffix
parlar	saber	conèixer	vendre	dur	dormir	gaudir
arribar	poder	nàixer	veure	dir	tenir	patir
volar	voler	créixer	entendre	fer	venir	eixir

3. This table needs some extra explanation.

(I)   The second conjugation is the most complex one.

a.    The stressed ending refers to the fall of the stress upon the ending: sa’ber. In this case, final <r> is mute, like in the first conjugation.

b.    The unstressed ending refers to the fall of the stressed on the stem-syllable, not on the ending: ’créixer

c.    The –re also has the stress on the stem-syllable. All verbs belonging to this group are irregular.

d.    The mute –r group refers to a small bunch of verbs belonging to this conjugation, mainly for historical reasons, whose final <r> is no longer pronounced.

(II)    The third conjugation is split into verbs with or without an infix. This is based on historical reasons.

a.    The group without a infix collects a lot of irregular verbs. Dormir is regular, but tenir and venir are not.

b.    The group with an infix collects most verbs belonging to this conjugation. Such infix is to be found in just a few persons, as it will be shown below. It must be noticed that this is a feature that Catalan shares with other Romance languages, such as French and Italian, yet things in French work out differently.

	Catalan	Italian	French
Present Indicative	pateixo pateixes pateix patim patiu pateixen	patisco patisci patisce patiamo patite patiscono	je pâtis tu pâtis il pâtit nous pâtissons vous pâtissez ils pâtissent
Present Subjunctive	pateixi pateixis pateixi patim patiu pateixin	patisca patisca patisca patiamo patiate patiscano	que je pâtisse que tu pâtisses qu'il pâtisse que nous pâtissions que vous pâtissiez qu'ils pâtissent
Imperative	pateix patiu	patesci patite	pâtis pâtissez

4. The infinitive is mainly used:

(1)  Together with another verb making up a verbal cluster

no puc parlar amb tu avui	I can’t talk to you today
has de fer els dibuixos a poc a poc	you must do the drawings slowly

(2)  Introducing a completive clause when the subject of both predicates are the same:

no vull parlar amb tu avui	I don’t want to talk to you today
m’agradaria tenir un cotxe ara	I’d like to have a car just now
cal anar més de pressa	it’s necessary to hurry up
saps cuinar?	can you cook?

      (3) Introducing a finality clause when the subject of both predicates are the same

compra’t una TV nova per veure els programes	buy a new TV set to watch the shows
per no tenir problemes, truca abans d’anar-hi	in order not to have problems, call before going

      (4) In Subject and Attribute clauses with verb ser (=to be)

és possible comprar aquest producte al mercat	it’s possible to buy this product at the market
parlar llengües estrangeres és molt bo	speaking foreign languages is a great chance

5. The gerund is used in these cases:

        (1) With certain verbal clusters, such as estar + GERUND (present continuous)

m’estan trucant	somebody’s making me a call
estava mirant la tele	I was watching TV

        (2) With sense verbs, like in English

l’he vista obrint la porta	I saw her opening the door
ens han sentit arribant amb el cotxe	they heard us arriving with our car

    (3) The gerund is also the only predicate of certain clauses indicating condition, time, consequence and so on; in most cases it expresses simultaneity (in many cases, these constructions can alternate with en + INFINITIVE).

cridant així, mai no em convenceràs	you’ll never convince me shouting like that
venint /en venir cap ací he vist en Pere	while coming here, I’ve seen Peter

6. The participle is used in compound tenses (he parlat = I’ve spoken); passive constructions (és comprès = it’s understood), and it also used as an adjective, thus it is used together with certain verbs, such as estar (> està acabat = it’s over)