by Max Wheeler
Potser els teus pares canviaran d’opinió.
Perhaps your parents may change their minds.
El govern per ventura l’indultarà.
The government may perhaps give him a reprieve.
Spoken Catalan also uses the future to express that something is inferred to be the case. This use is regarded by normative grammarians as a Spanish interference phenomenon. The ‘authentic’ inferential construction, which is also perfectly normal in speech, uses the periphrasis deure + infinitive (see 18.2.1):
(non-standard) No sé si els altres pensaran això (en aquest moment).
No sé si els altres deuen pensar això.
I don’t know if the others will think so.
(non-standard) En aquests moments m’estaran esperant a l’aeroport. En aquests moments em deuen estar esperant a l’aeroport.
At this very moment they’ll be (= they must be) waiting for me at the airport.
(ii) Future of surprise
No em diràs que el vares insultar d’aquesta manera!
Don’t tell me that you insulted him like that!
N’arribaràs a dir, de beneitures!
You really do come out with some stupid things!
The examples above can be said to refer figuratively to a future event, but the stress is placed here on the surprise effect, as the following equivalents show:
Vols dir que el vares insultar d’aquesta manera?
Did you really insult him like that?
Mira que n’arribes a dir, de beneitures!
Just look what stupid things you come out with!
(iii) Future of concession
Two clauses with verbs in the future and coordinated by an adversative conjunction can be the equivalent of a concessive construction. In such cases the future in the first clause has identical value to the verb in the present subjunctive governed by a concessive conjunction (see 33.3.3 and 19.4.2).
Anirà a cent classes de conducció, però no n’aprendrà mai. = Encara que vagi a cent classes de conducció no n’aprendrà mai.
He could take a hundred driving lessons but will still never learn to drive.
Direu el que voldreu, però aquest llibre és bo.
You can say what you like but this book is good.
17.1.4.1 The future tense in subordinate clauses
The future is an alternative to the present subjunctive in temporal clauses referring to a future event and in relative clauses with an indefinite antecedent (see 19.3 and 19.4.7).
(i) Future in temporal clauses
T’ho diré quan n’estaré segur del tot. = T’ho diré quan n’estigui segur del tot.
I’ll tell you when I’m quite certain about it.
Quan ton pare ho sabrà s’enfadarà molt. = Quan ton pare ho sàpiga s’enfadarà molt.
When your father finds out he’ll be really angry.
(ii) Future in relative clauses
Qui no entregarà el treball abans del trenta de juny suspendrà. = Qui no entregui el treball abans del trenta de juny suspendrà.
Anybody not handing in the work by June 30 will fail.
Els productes que passaran de les cinquanta mil pessetes s’abaixaran un deu per cent. = Els productes que passin de les cinquanta mil pessetes s’abaixaran un deu per cent.
Goods priced at over 50,000 pesetas will reduced by ten per cent.
In the modern language there is a strong tendency for the present subjunctive to be preferred to the future in both these types of clause. Use of the future, however, does have an advantage and is recommended for the first and second persons plural of regular verbs (where present indicative and present subjunctive are identical in form). The sentence Els qui us queixareu no anireu a la llista ‘Those of you who complain will not go on the list’ avoids ambiguity with Els qui us queixeu no anireu a la llista, which can refer either to those who are complaining at present or to those who may complain in the future.
17.1.5 CONDITIONAL
The conditional is used in the consequence clause of a conditional construction when the verb in the condition clause (‘if’ clause) is not in the present tense. (For discussion of conditional constructions, See Chapter 34.)
Si encara fes sol podríem continuar jugant.
If the sun stayed out we could keep on playing.
Si venies et mostraria la biblioteca.
If you came I’d show you our library.
(On the alternation of imperfect indicative/subjunctive in the ‘if’-clause see 34.4 and 34.5.)
The conditional also expresses implied conditions, as the corresponding ‘would’/‘should’ forms do in English:
Això seria fantàstic!
That would be fantastic!
Podríem ajornar la reunió fins demà.
We could postpone the meeting until tomorrow.
Com m’agadaria d’haver-ho vist!
How I would like to have seen it!
In addition, the conditional expresses ‘future in the past’, that is, future with respect to a past reference point. The conditional can likewise express probability from a past perspective, in the contexts in which the future can have this sense (17.1.4i). For the purpose of sequence of tenses the conditional counts as a past tense. So the subjunctive in a subordinate clause governed by a conditional will normally go in the past tense: compare Serà millor que no en sàpiguen res ‘It will be better that they know nothing about it’ with Seria millor que no en sabessin res ‘It would be better that they knew nothing about it’.
The function of the conditional in expressing a future event from a perspective placed in the past can be seen in the following adaptations of some examples used in section 17.1.4 above:
(i) Conditional as ‘future in the past’
Digueren que l’endemà es declararia el veredicte.
They said the verdict would be declared the next day.
Decidírem que aquell dia tancaríem a les dues.
We decided we would close at two o’clock that day.
Estava segur que vendríem tot el gènere.
I was sure we would sell all the stock.
No et vaig dir que, si no em deies res, et passaria a recollir sobre les vuit?
Didn’t I tell you that unless you let me know differently, I’d pick you up around eight o’clock?
Ens havia promès que no ho tornaria a fer.
He had promised us not to do it again.
(ii) Conditional of probability (compare 17.1.4i)
Pensaves que potser els teus pares canviarien d’opinió.
You thought that perhaps your parents would change their mind.
Tothom deia que el govern per ventura l’indultaria.
Everybody said that the government would perhaps give him a reprieve.
As with the future, the use of the conditional alone to express probability by inference is regarded as a CastIIIanism. The periphrasis deure (in a past tense) + infinitive is both current and authentic:
(non-standard) No sabia si els altres pensarien això.
No sabia si els altres devien pensar això.
I didn’t know if the others would think so/would have thought so.
(non-standard) En aquells moments m’estarien esperant a l’aeroport.
En aquells moments em devien estar esperant a l’aeroport.
At that very moment they would (= must) have been waiting for me at the airport.
The conditional can be used instead of the imperfect to make polite requests (17.1.3ii) and to tone down expressions of wishing or wanting:
Que em podries dir on és la farmàcia?
Could you tell me where the chemist’s is?
Voldria confessar-te una cosa molt delicada.
I’d like to confess something very delicate to you.
Podrien ser una mica més amables.
They could be a bit friendlier.
El que hauríeu de fer és …
What you ought to do is …
Rhetorical questions are often framed in the
conditional:
Qui gosaria contradir-me? Who would dare to contradict me?
On sentiries una música semblant? Where would you hear such music?
17.2 COMPOUND TENSES
17.2.1.1 Meanings of compound tenses
The compound tenses of Catalan are similar in many respects to the comparable English ones using ‘have’ and the past participle; they have two related functions. One, found largely in the present perfect, is to express perfect aspect, that is, roughly speaking ‘past with present relevance’; thus l’he vist ‘I have seen it’ contrasts with el vaig veure ‘I saw it’ much as the English translations do. See 17.1.2.1, and 17.2.2. The other value of the compound tenses (especially the past perfect or pluperfect, the future perfect and the non-finite forms) is to express anteriority in relative time: Ens va recomanar una pel·lícula que havíem vist vàries vegades ‘She recommended to us a film that we had seen several times’.
Li he regalat les joies de la meva àvia.
I have made her a present of my grandmother’s jewels.
Aquest matí no he tingut temps d’afaitar-me.
I didn’t have time for a shave this morning.
Em semblava que ja t’ho havia dit.
I thought I had already told you.
En tornar tu ja haurem acabat d’arreglar l’horari.
When you come back we will have finished arranging the timetable.
Ara ja hauríem enllestit aquesta feina, si tu ens hi haguessis ajudat més.
We would have had this job finished by now, if you had given us more help with it.
17.2.1.2 Compound tenses: auxIIIary verbs and complements
The compound tenses (present perfect, pluperfect, future perfect and conditional perfect) are formed in Catalan by the participle preceded by the present, imperfect, future or conditional form respectively of the auxIIIary verb haver (with 1pl hem and 2pl. heu more usual than havem, haveu, which appear especially in formal speech; see 16.5.12 for details of the forms). In certain regions it is also possible to use as auxIIIary the verb ésser ‘be’. This is the normal solution in North Catalonia and a possible one in the Balearic Islands, especially (but not only), in this second case, with pronominal and movement verbs: És partida (= Ha partit) fa poc ‘She left a short time ago’, No fa pas gaire que se n’és anat (= se n’ha anat) ‘It’s not very long since he went away’.
Catalan cannot omit the participle in the way that English does in responses: ‘Have you turned off the gas?’ ‘Yes, I have’, must be -Que has tancat el gas? -Sí or -Sí que l’he tancat.
Compound tenses act as a unit when taking weak pronouns, adverbs or other complements. As a general rule other words will not come between the auxIIIary and the past participle: object pronouns, where present, always precede the inflected finite forms of haver (but not the infinitive itself, or the gerund havent; see below):
Li ho he dit moltes vegades.
*He li ho dit moltes vegades.
*Li ho he moltes vegades dit.
I’ve told her many times.
However, a few adverbs of manner, especially mal and ben, can be placed between the auxIIIary and the participle for emphasis in cases like:
Ho hem fet i ho hem ben fet.
We have done it and we have done it well.
Que si ha cantat? Ha mal cantat tota l’ària.
You want to know if he sang? He sang the entire aria and ruined it!
The compound infinitive is formed by the infinitive haver with the appropriate past participle:
Ara no em sap gens de greu d’haver vingut.
Now I’m not at all sorry to have come.
Where object pronouns are associated with the perfect infinitive they are attached enclitically to haver:
Aviat et penediràs d’haver-li-ho dit.
You’ll soon regret having told him.
17.2.1.3 Agreement of participle in compound tenses
The past participle in a compound tense is invariable except when a direct object is one of these weak pronouns: els, la, les or en; here agreement is optional, though recommended by normative grammars. The point is discussed in detail at 21.1.2.
17.2.1.4 Coordination of compound tenses
If there is no change of subject, it is not necessary to repeat the auxIIIary in coordinations of two or more equivalent compound tenses. However, it is preferable to repeat the auxIIIary when complements or parenthetical elements separate the different verbs:
Hem menjat un entrepà i begut una cervesa.
We have eaten a sandwich and drunk a beer.
Hem menjat un entrepà de tonyina i lletuga i hem begut una cervesa.
We have eaten a tuna and lettuce sandwich and drunk a beer.
Havíem dit i repetit que aquell era un lloc perillós.
We had said and repeated that that was a dangerous place.
Havíem dit ben clarament a tothom i havíem repetit que aquell era un lloc perillós.
We had said quite clearly to everybody and had repeated that that was a dangerous place.
When a pronominal verb is followed by a non-pronominal one it is safest to repeat the auxIIIary: otherwise S’han assegut a taula i menjat could perhaps be taken for S’han assegut a taula i s’han menjat, not ‘They sat down and ate’ but ‘They sat down and ate one another’. For this reason S’han assegut a taula i han menjat is preferable. Repetition of the auxIIIary is obligatory when the pronominal verb comes second: He entrat i m’he assegut a la primera cadira que he trobat ‘I went in and sat down in the first chair I found’.
17.2.2 PRESENT PERFECT
The present perfect is used for an event or state located in the past when there is a time adverbial whose sense includes the present moment: ‘today’, ‘this morning’, ‘this week’, ‘this year’, ‘this century’, ‘this millennium’, and so on:
Avui hem vist el teu germà.
We have seen/We saw your brother today.
Enguany he anat dues vegades al futbol.
I have been to two football matches this year.
El nostre segle ha vist dues guerres mundials.
Our century has seen two world wars.
and also for an event or state located by a time adverbial which does not include the present moment but is part of ‘today’:
Avui de matí he anat a comprar el pa. (even if we are in the afternoon)
This morning I went to buy the bread.
Aquesta tarda ha plogut molt, (even if we are in the evening)
This afternoon it rained a lot.
The actual or implied presence of deictic aquest (= this; avui = aquest dia) can be considered to determine use of the present perfect in Catalan, as illustrated in:
Aquesta nit no he dormit gens bé.
I didn’t sleep at all well last night. (‘last night’ felt to be continuous with ‘today’)
Anit passada no vaig dormir gens bé.
I didn’t sleep at all well last night, (‘last night’ felt as belonging to ‘yesterday’)
The present perfect is also used to refer to a situation started (or even completed) in the past but which is still connected to the present in some way or whose consequences are still felt. If the situation is not felt any more as connected to the present time, the preterite will be preferred:
Jo he nascut en aquesta terra i hi vull morir.
I was born in this land and here I wish to die. (but Jo vaig néixer en aquesta terra if we refer to the fact of being born and do not want to stress its consequences)
Ha estat sempre molt bona persona amb mi.
She has always been good to me. (but Va ser sempre molt bona persona amb mi if she is already dead or is not a bona persona any more)
La guerra civil ha deixat molt mals records als Països Catalans.
The Civil War has left very bad memories in the Països Catalans. (but La guerra civil va deixar molt mals records als Països Catalans if we consider that those ‘bad memories’ are now over)
Jesucrist ha vingut al
món a salvar els pecadors.
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. (likely to be uttered by a Christian who feels personally affected by the remote event)
Jesucrist va venir al món a salvar els pecadors.
(the same statement made more objectively, expressing less personal involvement)
Catalan does not use the present perfect to refer to an event or state which started in the past and is still valid at the present time, where English does use its corresponding perfect (or perfect progressive), along with a temporal expression like ‘for x (amount of time)’, or ‘since …’. Thus:
Treballo aquí (des de fa) vuit mesos.
I have worked here for eight months./I have been working here for eight months.
Se celebra a Londres des del 1895.
It has been held in London since 1895.
Quant temps fa que estàs jubilat?
How long have you been retired?
Fa estona que espera?
Have you been waiting long?
The same point applies to past tense forms:
Treballava allà (des de feia) vuit mesos quan va arribar el nou director.
