WORD CLASS: PAST VERB TENSE

1. Real past tenses

1.1. Simple past (cantí / vaig cantar) in Catalan is expressed in two ways, which are absolutely alike. The first one corresponds to the synthetic form of the tense and the second one is a periphrastic construction with verb anar in present tense followed by infinitive, to express actions and events that took place punctually

La setmana passada vaig jugar futbol amb els meus amics	Last week I played football with my friends
La gent es va espantar amb l’explosió	People got scared because of the explosion

 

PAST                                                                                                         PRESENT

1.2. Present perfect (he cantat): like in English, it refers to actions and events begun in the past that still continue in the present, or whose consequences reach the present time, or when the past tense is very recent.

M’he comprat un pis nou	I’ve bought a new flat
No he pogut parlar amb ell	I haven’t been able to talk to him

Observe this difference between these two sentences:

Em van dir que eres ací	They told me you were here
M’han dit que ets ací	They’ve told me you are here

In the first example, the saying verb refers to an event no longer in force, while in the second case the event is still in force. Something similar occurs with these pair of examples, where the use of adverbials like time markers may turn up necessary:

Vaig viure a Barcelona deu anys	I lived in Barcelona for ten years
He viscut a Barcelona deu anys	I’ve lived in Barcelona for ten years

Time references tend to impose simple past or imperfect:

La setmana passada vaig veure / *veia una pel·lícula fantàstica	Last week I saw a great film
Durant la guerra, la gent no tenia /*va tenir ni pa	During the war, people didn’t even have bread
La meva àvia cantava / *va cantar com els àngels	My grandma used to sing like an angel
La meva àvia *cantava / va cantar un fado portuguès	My grandma sang a Portuguese fado.

1.3. Imperfect (cantava) refers to actions and events occurring in the past along a certain period, sometimes deemed as habits:

De jove practicava molt d’esport	As a young, I used to do a lot of sport
En Joan estudiava anglès, però ara ja no	John used to study English, but he doesn’t any longer

1.4. Pluperfect (havia cantat) refers to the past in the past, therefore it is necessary to reflect a closer past. Thus pluperfect must be used in compound and complex sentences, where another past tense is present, and which refers to closer past:

Encara jo no havia arribat quan tu vas trucar	I hadn’t arrived yet, when you called.
Vaig pensar que havien tingut una avaria amb el cotxe	I thought they had had a breakdown

2. Hypothetical Past Tense

This tense corresponds to what in traditional grammar is known as conditional tense. The uses of conditional in Catalan are not different from the neighbouring Romance languages, where in many cases the conditional tense is used with extralinguistic purposes to express politeness.

– To express advice, polite requests and invitations, like in English (would, could, might, etc.)

m’agradaria tenir una mascota	I’d like to have a pet
hauries de deixar de fumar	you should giving up smoking
vendries amb nosaltres d’excursió demà?	would you come sightseeing with us tomorrow?

– In conditional clauses, the main clause uses conditional tense

si tingués diners, em compraria un cotxe nou	If I had money, I’d buy a new car
t’ho hauria dit si ho hagués sabut	I had told you if I had known it

– In indirect speech, as the past reference of future tense (i.e. hypothetic present)

em va dir que m’esperaria a la sortida del metro	(s)he said (s)he’d wait for me at the tube exit
em pensava que seria més fàcil	I thought it’d be easier

WORD CLASS: PRESENT VERB TENSES

1. The use of verb tenses in Catalan follows basically the same patterns as in the neighbouring Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian), with a few exceptions. The tenses will be presented in their indicative use, making a difference between the different aspects involved, i.e., the presentation will include both tense and aspect as a whole.

2. Real present tenses

2.1. Simple present (canto) is basically a timeless tense, whose use in broad terms corresponds to its English counterpart:

– Actions and events with no time reference

us agrada passejar per la vora del riu?	do you like walking along the riverside?
els nous ordinadors són fantàstics	the new computers are really good

– Actions and events lasting for ever

els estius del meu país són tòrrids	summers in my country are really hot
la frontera s’estén cap a l’oest	the border runs westwards

– Actions and events that cannot be punctual

tinc vint anys	I am twenty years old
parlo tres llengües estrangeres	I speak three foreign languages

– Actions and events referred to next future (usually together with a time adverb)

demà arriben els meus cosins	my cousins are coming tomorrow
avui a la tarda em duen el nou frigorífic	this evening they are bringing me my new fridge

– Actions and events occurring once and again, for which they are usually accompanied by frequency adverbs (therefore a negative use is also possible)

sovint hi ha embussos quan plou	there are frequently traffic jams when it rains
en Joan mai no arriba abans de les dues	John never comes up before two o’clock

2.2. Present continuous (estic cantant) refers to punctual actions and events, like in English:

en Carles està mirant una pel·lícula	Charles is watching a film
està plovent	It’s raining

Unlike English, it does not express near future; instead, as it has been seen above, simple present is used.

3. Hypothetical Present Tense

This tense corresponds to what in traditional grammar is known as future tense. Catalan does not use periphrastic constructions to express future, unlike Spanish, Portuguese or French:

          > (FR): Je vais acheter des cadeaux pour mes neveux

          > (ES): Voy a comprar regalos para mis sobrinos

          > (PT): Vou comprar uns presentes para os meus sobrinhos

Catalan, like Italian, prefers future tense:

Aniré de vacances a Varsòvia	I’m travelling to Warsaw for holidays
Vindreu a visitar-nos a l’hivern?	Will you come to visit us next winter?

The use of anar a + infinitive expresses in Catalan movement, not future time, unlike most Romance languages:

vaig a comprar uns mitjons nous	I am going [to the shop] to buy a pair of new socks
aneu a veure roba?	are you going [somewhere] to see clothes?

WORD CLASS: VERB, GENERALITIES

1. Like in all Romance languages, Catalan has a very rich verbal paradigm. The use of its different forms depends on many factors that will be analysed all over this section.

In any Catalan verb one can easily distinguish different parts, being the main one the lexeme which furnishes the lexical ground and the rest (always after the lexeme-stem) morphemes that indicate a great deal of elements, such as tense, aspect, person, etc.

While English verbs may show a certain part of the information in outer elements, as in:

                    > You might arrive

Catalan verbs, instead, tend to show it by means of morphemes. Anyway one should not think that Catalan verbs are utterly analytic, because outer elements (mainly auxiliary and modal verbs) are to be found. The former English example could be translated into Catalan as:

> Arribaries > You would arrive

where the information is structured:

arrib	a	ri	es
	Thematic vowel: 1st conj.	Tense, mood and aspect	Person
Lexeme		Morphemes
Moneme

So in order to study the Catalan verb one must analyse all the elements that belong to the verb and that are expressed in different ways: person, time, mood and aspect.

2. As for persons, there are six persons in Catalan as in the rest of Ibero-Romance languages (they correspond to the personal pronouns). The grammatical subject needs not be shown in most of the cases, because the verb endings show it.

2.1. The English forms I sing, you sing, we sing are distinguished thanks to the personal pronouns. This is not necessary in Catalan, where the subject is present in the verb morphemes: canto, cantes, cantem. Thanks to this procedure, most Catalan sentences don't show the subject if it's easily understood by means of the verb ending. In most cases, the presence of an outer subject serves to express different things:

1) emphasis:

jo no ho he fet, ho has fet tu	I didn’t do it, it was you
tu no tens la darrera paraula	you yourself don’t have the last word

2) change of subject in complex sentences:

nosaltres no vam veure al partit, però ells sí que el van veure per la tele	we didn’t see the match, but they did on TV.
mentre ells facin l’examen, vosaltres vigileu-los	while they do their exam, you will watch them

It would not be correct in the former examples to drop the outer subjects (especially the first one). Moreover, we must distinguish between marked and unmarked persons.

2.2. The third person is supposed to be unmarked, therefore it is the one used to express impersonality (see also verbal voice):

cada any fan obres noves	new works are performed every year
cada mes canvien les instruccions	instructions are changed every month

3. Catalan possesses three verbal moods: indicative, subjunctive and imperative.

3.1. Let’s start with the last one. Imperative is only used when expressing commands, which makes it incompatible with indicative.

compra’t uns pantalons nous	Buy a couple of new trousers
digueu-me la veritat	Tell me the truth

3.2. Indicative is the unmarked mood. That means it is used in simple clauses and in main clauses (in the case of complex sentences).

3.3. Subjunctive is a marked mood in certain cases. Traditional grammar handbooks say that subjunctive is the mood of hypothesis. This is not completely true, since subjunctive is the only option in most depending clauses.

3.3.1. Subjunctive is mandatory after volition, command, wish, suggestion, liking, hope or expectation verbs.

vull que siguis sincer	I want you to be sincere
m’agrada que vingueu tots plegats	I like your coming together
espero que no sigui res greu	I hope it won’t be anything serious
em van demanar que tinguéssim paciència	they asked us to be patient

3.3.2. Instead, thought and diction verbs rule out indicative in affirmative sentences:

diuen que és mentida	they say it’s false
pensava que eres a casa	I thought you were home

However, they rule out subjunctive when they main clause is negative:

no diuen que sigui mentida	they don’t say it’s false
no pensava que fossis a casa	I didn’t think you were home

3.3.3. Many conjunctions rule out subjunctive:

encara que no vinguis, vota	although you don’t come, vote
quan vinguis, truca’m	when you come, make me a call
llevat que plogui, enguany no hi haurà collita	unless it rains, there’ll be no harvest this year
fes-ho com vulguis	do it as you like

3.3.4. Only relative clauses accept the difference between indicative and subjunctive according to the criterion of [±real]:

la gent que sap anglès troba feina fàcilment	people who know English find a job easily
la gent que sàpiga anglès trobarà feina fàcilment	people who may know English will find a job easily

4. Regarding tense and time, both categories do not always have a mutual correspondence in Catalan. An overview of Catalan tenses is presented in this table, including aspect variation of tenses.

4.1. The hypothetical tenses are to be identified with: hypothetical present is the traditional future and the hypothetical past is the traditional conditional. They are called hypothetical because they are related to events or actions to come, not occurred or being occurring.

4.2. Aspect variation is introduced in most cases by means of modal verbs. The distinction related to [±perfect] is carried out by means of haver (=have), while the distinction related to [±continuous] is carried out by means of estar (=be), like in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

		Real			Hypothetical
Indicat.		Present	Past	Imperfect	Present	Past
	Simple	parlo	parlí / vaig parlar	parlava	parlaré	parlaria
	Perfect	he parlat		havia parlat	hauré parlat	hauria parlat
	Contin.	estic parlant	vaig estar parlant	havia estat parlant	hauré estat parlant	hauria estat parlant
Subjunct.		Present	Past
	Simple	parli	parlés
	Perfect	hagi parlat	hagués parlat
	Contin.	hagi estat parlant	hagués estat parlant
Imperat.		parla

4.3. The distinction [± perfective] is expressed in Catalan only in the past tense, as in the rest of Romance languages:

m’agradava la pasta	I used to like pastry
em va agradar la pasta	I liked the pastry [I ate before]

See present verb tenses and past verb tenses.