Personal pronouns in Catalan

This article discusses the forms and functions of the personal pronouns in Catalan and Valencian.

Strong pronouns The "strong" pronouns () in Catalan have the following forms:

+Catalan stressed pronouns   singular plural 1st person jo, mi nosaltres majestic(nós) 2nd person informal tu vosaltres formal vostèvostès respectful(vós) 3rd person masculine ell ells feminine ella elles reflexivesi impersonalhom, un

These forms are used as subject pronouns (with the exception of si), and also as disjunctive pronouns, for example, after a preposition. Jo encara no en sé gaire. ("I still don't know much about it.") Ell, no crec que vingui. ("Him, I don't think he's coming.") Han preguntat per vosaltres. ("They asked about you.")

The first person singular pronoun has a special form mi after most prepositions. Queda't amb mi. ("Stay with me.") However, the form jo is used with some prepositions, for example, in segons jo ("according to me"), and in coordinated structures with another noun or pronoun: contra tu i jo ("against you and me").

The third person reflexive pronoun si (both singular and plural) cannot be used as a subject. It most commonly appears after a preposition, often reinforced by mateix: Ho va comprar per a si mateix. ("He bought it for himself.") Ho va comprar per a si mateixa. ("She bought it for herself.") Ho van comprar per a si mateixos. ("They bought it for themselves (masculine).") Ho van comprar per a si mateixes. ("They bought it for themselves (feminine).")

The 2nd person polite pronouns are vostè (singular) and vostès (plural). They combine with 3rd person verbs. Vostè em faria un favor? ("Would you do me a favor?") The older form vós (with 2nd person plural verb agreement) can be found in some varieties of Catalan, and in contexts like administrative texts.

The 1st person majestic plural is expressed with the pronoun Nós (in place of nosaltres).

There exists as well an impersonal subject pronoun hom (unmarked for either gender or number), always used with 3rd person singular verbs, nowadays archaic and only used in writing: Hom no es fa monja perquè sí ("One does not become a nun because of nothing.")

Weak pronouns

The weak pronouns () are proforms that, as the name indicates, do not carry stress. All are monosyllabic clitics, and all must always appear immediately before or after a verb: they cannot be used on their own or attached to a different element of the sentence. The combination of the verb plus the weak pronoun or pronouns always has a single stressed vowel, that of the verb.

Forms Weak pronouns in Catalan vary according to: the person, number, and gender of the antecedent its syntactic function (direct or indirect object or adverbial complement).

The form of a given pronoun is determined by its position with respect to the verb, and whether it is adjacent to a vowel or a consonant in the verb. There are four possible configurations: reinforced form (forma reforçada): used before a verb that begins with a consonant, separated from the verb by a space Em veieu. ("You see me.") elided form (forma elidida): used before a verb that begins with a vowel (or h-), and separated from it by an apostrophe Això m'agrada ("I like that."; lit. "That pleases me") full form (forma plena): used after a verb that ends in a consonant (or a diphthong ending in -u), connected to the verb with a hyphen En Joan no vol seguir-me. ("John doesn't want to follow me.") reduced form (forma reduïda): used after a verb that ends in a vowel, separated from it by an apostrophe (except in the case of -us) Dóna'm un llibre. ("Give me a book.")

Not all pronouns have four distinct forms. The following table shows the complete inventory.

number person syntactic function before the verb after the verb before a consonant before a vowel after a consonant after a vowel singular 1st direct/indirect object or reflexive (m. or f.) em m' -me 'm 2nd et t' -te 't 3rd direct object (m.) el l' -lo 'l direct object (f.) la l', la -la neuter object ho -ho indirect object (m. or f.) li -li plural 1st direct/indirect object or reflexive (m. or f.) ens -nos 'ns 2nd us -vos -us 3rd direct object (m.) els -los 'ls direct object (f.) les -les indirect object (m. or f.) els -los 'ls reflexive (m. or f., sg. or pl.) es s' -se 's adverbial ablative/genitive en n' -ne 'n locative hi -hi

Uses The weak pronouns primarily express complements of the verb.

Direct objects Ahir el vaig veure. ("Yesterday I saw him.") Ahir la vaig veure. ("Yesterday I saw her.")

Indirect objects Li donaràs el llibre? ("Will you give him/her the book?")

Reflexive pronouns Reflexive – La nena es renta. ("The girl is washing herself.") Pronominal – Tots es van penedir d'això. ("Everyone was sorry about that.")

The neuter proform ho replaces pronouns such as açò ("this"), això, allò ("that"), or tot ("everything"), or even an entire clause. No ho sé. ("I don't know [the thing you just asked about].") -T'agrada mirar la televisió? -No, ho trobo avorrit. ("Do you like to watch TV?" "No, I think it's boring.") Cal netejar-ho tot. ("We have to clean it all up.")

The proform hi replaces adverbial complements such as: Locative expressions, some of which can be replaced by a or en (aquí, allà...): Hi soc. ("I am [there]."); Hi visc. ("I live [there]."); Sempre he tingut ganes d'anar-hi. ("I've always wanted to go [there]."); No t'hi acostis! ("Stay away from there!") Prepositional phrases denoting manner or instrument, or starting with the prepositions a, amb, en (especially en allò), per, etc.: Hi estic d'acord. ("I agree [with that, with you, etc]."); Hi treballo. ("I work [on that, there, with you, etc]."); Pensa-hi bé però no t'hi capfiquis, és la millor resposta que hi trobo. ("Think [about it] carefully, but don’t obsess [over it]; it’s the best answer I can come up with [to it]."); No m'hi havia fixat, en aquest detall. ("I hadn’t noticed in that detail"); No hi hem comptat. ("We didn’t take it into account."); Els hi portem, aquells llibres a la biblioteca ("We take those books to the library."); Fixeu-vos-hi! ("Pay attention to it!"); No us hi gasteu el diners! ("Don’t waste your money [there, on it, etc]!"); No m'hi fiquis! ("Don’t get me involved in it!" or "Don’t put me there") Adverbs and adjectives used with verbs other than ser, ésser, estar, semblar, esdevenir: -Que t'has llevat alegre? -Sí, m'hi he llevat. (-"Did you get up in a good mood?" -"Yes, I did.") Intransitive verbs of perception: L'home no hi sent. ("The man can't hear.")

The adverbial proform en replaces Prepositional phrases starting with de (d'allò, d'aquí, d'allà...): Tothom en parla. ("Everyone is talking about it."); En vinc. ("I'm from there."); N'estic cansat, de caminar. ("I’m tired of walking."); No en saps prou. ("You don’t know enough about it."); Ningú no vol parlar-ne. ("Nobody wants to talk about it."); D'aquest tipus de pasta, en diem canelons. ("We call this type of pasta cannelloni."); En soc conscient. ("I am aware [of that]."); Us en sortiu? ("Are you all managing it?"); Vull descobrir-ne més, saber-ne més, veure'n més... ("I want to discover more [of it], know more [about it], see more [of it]..."); Què en penseu? Què n'espereu? ("What do you think [about it]? What do you expect [from it]?");Gaudiu-ne! ("Enjoy it!"); Anem-nos-en! ("Let’s get out of here!") Unmodified nouns or nouns preceded by numbers, quantifying adverbs or an indefinite article: Quantes cases teniu? — En tenim dues/moltes. ("How many houses do you have?" — "We have two/many [of them]."); Tens adreça de correu electrònic? — Sí, en tinc. ("Have you got an email address?" — "Yes, I do."); Ahir me'n vas donar tres i avui me n'has donat quatre. ("Yesterday you gave me three [of them], and today you gave me four [of them].")

Even when referring to a place, if the preposition de is used, the pronoun used is en and not hi: Ens anem allà → Ens hi anem ["We’re going there."] Ens anem d'aquí → Ens n'anem or Ens en anem ["We’re leaving here."] It is sometimes stated that hi is never used to replace a complement beginning with de. This is not completely accurate, as hi can replace adverbial phrases such as de pressa, de sobte, etc.

Position The weak pronouns are either proclitic (appearing immediately before the verb) or enclitic (immediately after).

Enclitic pronouns are used with infinitives, gerunds, and positive imperatives. Pots fer-nos mandonguilles? ("Can you make us meatballs?") Veient-ho des de fora, analitzant-ho objectivament ("Seeing it from an outsider's point of view, analyzing it objectively") Vés-hi i espera'm. ("Go there and wait for me.")

With all other forms of the verb, the weak pronouns are proclitic. This includes, in particular, conjugated (finite) verbs and negative imperatives: Ens faràs encara mandonguilles? ("Will you make us meatballs again?") No m'esperis. ("Don't wait for me.")

In complex verbal constructions consisting of a conjugated verb and an infinitive or gerund, the pronoun can appear either before the first verb or after the second verb. Els volien atacar. or Volien atacar-los. ("They wanted to attack them.") L'estem escoltant. or Estem escoltant-lo. ("We are listening to him.")

Dialectal variation Use of weak pronouns varies significantly across the Catalan linguistic area.

Northern Catalan (particularly as spoken in Northern Catalonia) and the Balearic dialect do not generally use the reinforced forms (e.g. te veig instead of et veig).

In the imperative mood in Northern Catalan, the reduced form of the pronoun is replaced by a tonic form (thus, not strictly being a weak pronoun anymore). For example, mira'm! (en: look at me!) in Northern Catalan is rendered as mira-mé!.

Combinations of weak pronouns When two weak pronouns appear with the same verb, they must appear in a fixed order, as illustrated in the following table:

3rd pers. reflexive 2nd pers. 1st pers. 3rd pers. adverbial indirect obj. direct obj. es et us em ens li els el la els les ho en hi

The two pronouns must be selected from different columns, and furthermore ho cannot combine with en or hi.

All of the combinations allowed in the standard language are given in the following table, which also shows the necessary morpho-phonological and orthographic adjustments. In each cell of the table, the forms are listed in the following order, with the same contextual conditions as explained above for the simple pronounshttps://oiec.iec.cat/textortografia/codi/4.3.3: Weak pronoun cluster formsbefore a word that starts with a consonantbefore a word that starts with a vowel (if any)after a non-finite verb that ends in a consonant or -uafter a non-finite verb that ends in a vowel other than -u (if any)