by Max Wheeler
Se te’l quedarà. He’ll keep it.
(b) El/lo and ’l become l’ before hi or en:
Feu-lo venir. Make him come.
Feu-l’hi venir. Make him come there.
Hem d’endur-nos-el d’aquest lloc. We must take it/him from this place.
Hem d’endur-nos-l’en. We must take it/him from here.
(c) En and ’n become n’ before hi or ho:
Ens en portaran al despatx. They’ll bring us some to the office.
Ens n’hi portaran. They’ll bring us some there.
Has d’emportar-te’n tot això. You must take all this away from there.
Has d’emportar-te-n’ho. You must take it all away from there.
(ii) Forms of the last pronoun in a group:
(a) Em, ens, et, el, els, en or ’m, ’ns, ’t, ’I, ’Is, ’n occur according to whether the second pronoun ends, respectively, in a consonant or a vowel:
Se’ns en van servir unes racions enormes.
We were served enormous portions of it.
No se me’n podia deixar en aquell moment.
I couldn’t be lent any at that time.
Se me’n reia.
He was making fun of me over it.
Se’ns en reia.
He was making fun of us over it.
(b) Μ’, t’, l’, n’ occur if they precede a verb beginning in a vowel or h + vowel:
Se te l’ha quedat. He’s kept it (and it belonged to you).
(cf. Se te’l quedarà. He’ll keep it.)
Te’ns en menjaràs el tros més bo. You’ll eat the tastiest bit of it.
(cf. Te’ns n’has menjat el tros més bo. You’ve eaten the tastiest bit of it.)
(In speech the pronoun group in both of the last two examples would sound like te’ns en because the second one would be affected by the phonetic feature described in 12.9.3.8, with the intercalated support vowel producing *te’ns e n’has …)
Se me l’ha empassada. He’s gone and swallowed it.
(cf. Se me la va empassar. He went and swallowed it.)
(c) The se’n group (characteristic of verbs of motion) can admit a third intercalated pronoun or can precede adverbial hi, according to the consecutive order shown in the diagram at 12.9.2, and as already illustrated by the last example given in 12.9.5 above. Further examples:
El gos aquest, si em distrec ni que sigui un segon, se me’n va al carrer.
If I turn my back for even a second, this dog (of mine) runs off into the street.
Em distrec un segon, i se me n’hi va.
I turn my back for a second and he’s off out there.
Another common pattern of three-pronoun grouping is reflexive es (in the full form se) preceding the combinations l’hi, la hi, els hi, les hi (and adapted variants):
Tots els del grup es van enfurismar quan ell se’ls hi va ficar.
Everybody in the group got mad when he interfered (in what they were doing).
The incompatible pairs mentioned in 12.9.3.9 (*en en, *hi hi, *ho en, *ho hi) obviously cannot figure in any larger combination.
(d) Els n’hi (pronounced els e n’hi) often occurs as a colloquial variant of els en. Functional analysis discloses that hi is redundant in (nonstandard) Els n’hi va distribuir ← El conferenciant va distribuir resums als assistents ‘The lecturer distributed summaries to those present’, and that the correct combination is els en ‘some to them’. There are instances, however, where els n’hi is a valid standard combination where each of the three components has its own grammatical function. Ha posat paranys per als intrusos al bosc ‘He has set traps for intruders in the wood’ could genuinely be reduced to Els n’hi ha posat.
The intricately exacting nature of the Catalan pronoun system endows the language with great agility and expressiveness, and careful attention to this important area of grammar can be highly rewarding. The linguist Joan Solà presents a progression that culminates in a combination of six weak pronouns (Se te me li n’hi posarà tres) as a reduction of the sentence Aquell amic nostre (→ te me) és capaç de posar-se a casa (→ hi) tres parents (→ ’n) del senyor Pere (→ li) ‘That friend of ours is able to give lodging in his house to three relatives of Senyor Pere’. Naturally, pronoun combinations such as this are far from common, but they are certainly not ruled out in principle. Combinations of two or three pronouns occur regularly in everyday speech.
PART II ADVERBS, PREPOSITIONS, AND CONJUNCTIONS
13 ADVERBS AND ADVERBIALS
In Catalan the distinction between prepositions (which take complements) and adverbs (which do not) is not a fundamental one; as will become apparent, many common items appear in both syntactic roles. Traditionally, adverbs and adverbials qualify verbs, adjectives, predicates and whole clauses or sentences. (The name adverbials is given to phrases, often prepositional phrases or noun phrases in terms of their internal structure, which function in a similar manner to adverbs.) Adverbs which are themselves followed by prepositional phrase complements will be treated in 14.3, as compound prepositions; those which are followed by que + a finite clause will be discussed in Chapter 33, as adverbial clauses. The regular comparatives, etc., of adverbs are formed in the same way as those of adjectives (see Chapter 5).
Many common adverbs are simple, underived words: ara ‘now’, fora ‘out’, força ‘quite’, bé ‘well’. Some adjectives, particularly in fixed expressions, do duty as adverbs without change, for example, aguantar ferm ‘hold tight’, jugar brut ‘play dirty’; see section 13.1.2.
Some adverbs and adverbials can receive the diminutive suffix -et, for example, llunyet ‘a bit far’, de presseta ‘in a bit of a hurry’, poc a poquet ‘rather slowly’/‘gradually’; likewise the superlative affix issim, as in llunyíssim ‘extremely far’, tardíssim ‘extremely late’.
A number of adverbs are formed by compounding, such as enlaire ‘aloft’ (from en l’aire ‘in the air’), només ‘only’ (from no ‘not’ + més ‘more’), tothora ‘always’ (from tot ‘all’ + hora ‘hour’). Adverbs which are regularly derived from adjectives with the suffix -ment (see 13.1) are, strictly speaking, compound words. Some adverbials are derived from adjectives or verbs using the suffix -ons, as in de genollons ‘on one’s knees’ (from genoll ‘knee’), a reculons ‘backwards’ (from recular ‘retreat’). The structure of adverbials is in general quite varied; many of them superficially resemble prepositional phrases, but the noun they appear to contain may have no independent existence: thus a dojo ‘abundantly’, de gairell ‘obliquely’, d’esquitllentes ‘stealthily’. Even when the noun involved occurs elsewhere, the adverbial may have an unpredictable sense, as in amb prou feines ‘hardly’ (lit. with enough tasks), de puntetes ‘on tiptoe’ (lit. on little tips). Only a selection of adverbials is included in the following sections.
The sentence position of adverbs and adverbials is discussed in 36.8.
13.1 MORPHOLOGY OF ADVERBS
13.1.1 ADVERBS IN -MENT
Adverbs are productively derived from adjectives by adding -ment to the feminine form. (If the adjective is invariable for gender, the feminine form is the same as the masculine, of course.) A written accent on the feminine adjective is retained, since adverbs in -ment are pronounced with two stresses, like compounds.
m. adj. f. adj. adverb
viu viva vivament in a lively way
exprés expressa expressament expressly, on purpose
lliure lliure lliurement freely
fàcil fàcil fàcilment easily
automàtic automàtica automàticament automatically
Consecutive adverbs in -ment
When two or more adverbs are conjoined, -ment may be omitted from all but the first, though it need not be: humilment i devota or humilment i devotament ‘humbly and devoutly’.
13.1.2 ADJECTIVES UNCHANGED AS ADVERBS
A few adjectives are quite widely used adverbially without suffixation, especially clar ‘clear(ly)’, ràpid ‘quick(ly)’, lent ‘slow(ly)’, though the der
ived adverbs in -ment are equally current:
Ho va explicar bastant clar/clarament. She explained it fairly clearly.
No ho van fer gaire ràpid/ràpidament. They didn’t do it very quickly.
Parlaven molt lent/lentament. They spoke very slowly.
Just ‘precisely’/‘exactly’/‘just’ is probably more frequent than justament in this sense (justament also means ‘justly’, ‘duly’):
S’ha presentat just quan tu te n’anaves.
She turned up just as you were leaving.
Hem calculat just el que gastarem.
We’ve calculated precisely what we shall spend.
Tenien el taulell just al mig de la botiga.
They had the counter right in the middle of the shop.
Otherwise, adjectives used adverbially tend to be confined to certain set expressions, where, often, the corresponding English expression also uses an adjective adverbially:
$$$$$ Table missing
13.2 ADVERBS/ADVERBIALS OF PLACE (INCLUDING DIRECTION)
on where (interrogative and relative)
onsevol (onsevulla/onsevulga) wherever
pertot, arreu, pertot arreu, a tot arreu everywhere
enlloc nowhere, anywhere (in negative, interrogative or conditional contexts)
Si els veus enlloc, m’ho dius, oi? If you see them anywhere, you’ll tell me, won’t you?
en algun lloc, per alguna banda, etc. somewhere
Note that there is no ready-made expression in Catalan for ‘somewhere’, though in the Balearics a part ο a banda may have this sense (No trob el paraigua; el dec haver deixat a part o a banda ‘I can’t find my umbrella; I must have left it somewhere’). While onsevol is current in Valencian and onsevulla in Balearic, the terms for ‘wherever’ are elsewhere exclusively literary (and not very common). One is more likely to say en qualsevol lloc ‘in whatever place’, or to use some other expression, as in on vulguis ‘where you wish’, a tot arreu on vagi ‘wherever she goes’ (lit. to everywhere where she may go), Els trobaré, on siguin ‘I’ll find them wherever they are’.
Demonstrative adverbs of place
ací (Val.) here
aquí here, (there)
allí, allà there
d’ací d’allà from side to side
ençà d’aquell temps ençà/d’ençà d’aquell temps this side, nearersince that time
enllàFes-te enllà. that side, beyondGo further off.
Allí and allà are synonymous; both are widely used. In Valencian, where a three-term demonstrative system is in use (6.2), ací ‘here (near me)’ corresponds to este ‘this’, allí/allà ‘there’; ‘yonder’ corresponds to aquell ‘that’; and, theoretically, aquí ‘there (near you)’ corresponds to eixe ‘that (near you)’. Spontaneous Valencian uses ahi for ‘there (near you)’, but this form is avoided in writing.
Horizontal directions
dins, dintre in, inside, within
endins in (motion)
Poseu-lo més endins; que així caurà. Put it further in; it’ll fall off there.
mar endins out to sea
terra endins inland
fora, al defora out, outside
enfora out, outwards
Caminava pit enfora. He walked with his chest out.
La casa d’ells és més enfora. Their house is further away.
davant, al davant in front
endavant, avant forward(s), ahead
Endavant! Come in! (said in response to a knock at the door)
darrere, al darrere, rere; detràs (non-standard) behind
endarrere, enrere, arrere backwards
Fes-te enrere! Get back!
molts anys endarrere many years ago, many years previously
(a la) dreta (on the) right
Tombeu a la dreta. Turn right.
(a l’)esquerra (on the) left
L’àrab s’escriu de dreta a esquerra. Arabic is written from right to left.
Note that the locative adverb forms beginning with en- often (though not always) imply motion or direction and have a deictic sense, relating the movement (perhaps vaguely) to the location of the speaker or hearer.
The spellings darrera, enrera, etc., are still widely found, but the forms in -e are now regarded as correct by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
Vertical directions
sobre, dessobre (literary), damunt, al damunt on top, above
Deixa-ho allà sobre. Leave it on top there.
com damunt hem dit as we have said above
sota, dessota, al dessota, davall below, underneath
(davall is preferred in Valencia and the Balearics, the other forms elsewhere)
L’un era sobre, l’altre sota. One was on top, the other underneath.
amunt up(wards)
Avui pujarem molt amunt. Today we’ll go quite far up.
avall down(wards)
Es passejaven amunt i avall. They were walking up and down.
alt high
volar alt fly high
baix low
L’arquer ha tirat massa baix. The archer aimed too low.
dalt up above, upstairs, at the top
S’han reunit (a) dalt al despatx. They are meeting upstairs in the office.
baix down below, downstairs, at the bottom
tenir el cotxe a baix keep the car downstairs (in the basement)
(a) dalt de tot at/to the very top
de dalt a baix from top to toe
daltabaix down (from top to bottom)
Es va enfilar i va caure daltabaix de la teulada. She climbed up and fell (all the way) down from the roof.
al capdamunt at/to the top
al capdavall at/to the bottom, (fig.) finally, after all
enlaire aloft, up in the air
Mans enlaire! Hands up!
Amunt and avall usually express movement, whereas (a) dalt and (a) baix denote locations, but note com hem dit més amunt ‘as we said above’, com llegirem més avall ‘as we shall see below’; dalt and baix usually refer to the top and bottom of something continuous, whereas sobre and sota express the relative location of separate objects. Note expressions like Rambla amunt ‘up the Rambla’, escales amunt ‘up the steps’, muntanya avall ‘down the mountain’, Les llàgrimes li queien galtes avall ‘Tears rolled down his cheeks’.
Proximity
prop near(by)
lluny far (away)
a la vora, a tocar close
Ara ja hi som molt a la vora. Now we are very close to it.
al costat beside, alongside
devora (Bal.) alongside
als afores on the outskirts
en mig, al mig in the middle, in the midst
entremig in between, in the midst
Ell va sortir d’entremig. He came out from among (them).
a l’entorn, al voltant around, in the vicinity
L’hort té arbres tot al voltant. The plot has trees all round.
a part, a banda aside, on one side
Aquest el posarem a part. We’ll put this one on one side.
Notice that the simple adverbs, at least, can readily be preceded by a preposition, to indicate direction more precisely.
On és? Where is he/she/it?
D’on és? Where is he/she/it from?
On anem? or A on anem? Where shall we go?
cap allà in that direction (lit. towards there)
No les vèiem per enlloc. We didn’t see them anywhere about.
des d’aquí from here
Ja són a fora. They are (lit. at) outside now. = Ja són fora.
When a = ‘at’, the expressions with a are synonymous with those without a; the forms with a are less formal: a on, a dins/a dintre, a davant, a darrere, a damunt, a sobre, a sota, a dalt, a baix, a prop. Similarly a lluny is current in Valencian and Balearic, but is regarded as non-standard.
13.3 ADVERBS/ADVERBIALS OF TIME
As with the ad
verbs/adverbials of place, those of time which denote a point can be preceded by a preposition; so, for example, des de quan ‘since when’, des d’aleshores ‘since then’, des de sempre literally ‘since always’, des d’abans ‘since before’, d’ara endavant ‘from now on’, a partir de llavors/de llavors ençà/ des de llavors ‘since then’.
quan note A quina hora? whenAt what time (of day)? When?
ara now
ara com ara, ara per ara, de moment for the moment, at present
Ara com ara, no sabria dir-t’ho. I couldn’t tell you at present.
a hores d’ara by now, by this time
Α hores d’ara ja deu haver arribat By now he must have arrived in
a Nova York. New York.
actualment currently, at present
llavors, aleshores (literary) then
ja already
Ja érem lluny de Tortosa. We were already a long way from Tortosa.
The basic meaning of ja is ‘already’; but its use in Catalan is somewhat different from the corresponding word in English. Ja corresponds to ‘now’, ‘by now’, when it emphasizes that any earlier stage is over and done with:
Tot això ja és molt diferent. All this is very different now.
In negative and interrogative contexts ja may correspond to ‘(no) longer’, ‘yet’:
Ja no tens dret a fer això. You no longer have the right to do that.
Ja són aquí? Are they here yet?
(different from: Encara són aquí? Are they still here?)
Often it serves to reinforce a present-tense verb and may not be translated in English:
–Cambrer! –Ja vinc. ‘Waiter!’ ‘I’m coming.’
Ja veig que era molt fàcil. I can see that it was very easy.
With a future tense, ja indicates certainty on the part of the speaker, or relates the future time closely to the present:
