by Max Wheeler
2.1.5.3 Plural of masculine nouns ending in -ç, -s, or -x (stressed)
Masculine nouns whose stressed final syllable ends in -ç, -s, or -x add -os in the plural. (Written accents indicating stress will be suppressed.) Thus:
braç pl. braços arm
calaix pl. calaixos drawer
comerç pl. comerços trade
curs pl. cursos course
despatx pl. despatxos office
marquès pl. marquesos marquis
peix pl. peixos fish
reflex pl. reflexos reflection, reflex
Many nouns ending in -s double the s in the plural. This is true of the majority of those where the preceding vowel is a, i, ο or u. So we have: fas ‘palm branch’ pl. fassos, sedàs ‘sieve’ pl. sedassos, ris ‘curl’, ‘loop’ pl. rissos, passadís ‘corridor’ pl. passadissos, os ‘bone’ pl. ossos, ós ‘bear’ pl. óssos, arròs ‘rice’, ‘paella’pl., arrossos, esbós ‘sketch’ pl, esbossos, rus ‘Russian’ pl. russos, gaús ‘horned owl’ pl. gässos. However, a reasonable number of mostly common words with these stressed vowels retain single -s- (pronounced [z]) in the plural. These are:
-as (-às) pl. -asos
as ace
cas case
entrecàs chance
envàs container
gas gas
gimnàs gymnasium
hipocràs mulled wine
madràs madras (cloth)
mas farmhouse
ocàs setting (of sun)
ras open country
ucàs ukase, edict
vas tumbler
-is (-ís) pl. -isos
avis announcement
bis Pacific mackerel
comís confiscation, confiscated goods
decomís confiscation
divís discord
encís charm
desencís disenchantment
fideïcomís trust
fris frieze, wainscot
gris grey; cold wind
incís parenthetical phrase
llassís press
macís mace (herb)
maravedís (old Spanish coin)
matís shade, nuance
narcís daffodil
país country
paradís Paradise
permís permit
pis storey, fiat
quirguís Kirghiz
sis six
somrís smile
tamís sieve
vis screw, bolt
tornavís screwdriver
-os (-ós, -ós) pl. -osos
All masculine nouns which are nominalizations of adjectives ending in -ós have, like the adjectives, -osos in the plural, such as religiós ‘monk’ pl. religiosos, gomós ‘fop’, ‘toff’ pl. gomosos, etc. The other exceptions to the doubling of s after ο are:
aigua-ros rose-water
clos enclosure
dos two
entredós decorative panel
espòs husband, spouse
nualós comfrey
peresós sloth
peuterrós clodhopper
repòs rest, repose
respòs refrain
-us (-ús) pl. -usos
andalús Andalusian
autobús bus
fus spindle
nus knot
entrenús section between two knots
obús howitzer, shell
reclús recluse, prisoner
refús refusal
ús use
abús abuse
desús disuse
-es (-ès, -és)
In the case of masculine nouns ending in stressed -es (-ès, -és), the majority do not double the -s: mes ‘month’ pl. mesos, maltès ‘Maltese’ pl. maltesos (similarly hundreds of nouns with the suffix -ès denoting geographic origin, and so on), etc. The following are the exceptional nouns with this ending which do double the -s to give -essos:
abscés abscess
accés access
aiguavés slope, run-off
après milking parlour
bes strip of canvas in sail
bres cradle
calcés masthead
confés confessor
congrés congress
decés decease
excés excess
exprés special messenger; express (train)
fes fez
ges plaster
ingrés entrance, admission (plural also ‘income’)
reingrés re-entry
insuccés failure
interès interest
desinterès disinterest
procés process
progrés progress
recés retreat
regrés return
retrocés backward movement
revés reverse
sargués osier, willow
ses anus
succés event
través width
xerès sherry
A few masculine nouns ending in -s or -x do not add -os in the plural, but follow the rule for feminines given in 2.1.5.1. A significant group consists of compound nouns whose final element already contains a plural -s; they are invariable in the plural, for example: enganyapastors ‘nightjar(s)’ (lit. deceives shepherds), parallamps ‘lightning conductor(s)’, centpeus ‘centipede(s)’ (lit. 100 feet), vuit-cents ‘800’, els vuit-cents ‘the 1800s’. The remainder of the masculine nouns in -s or -x that do not add -os in the plural are these:
bis encore(s)
blocaus blockhouse(s)
calamars squid(s): a singular calamar and a plural calamarsos are also used
dijous Thursday(s)
dilluns Monday(s)
dimarts Tuesday(s)
edelweiss edelweiss(es)
ens entity/-ies, body/-ies
fons bottom(s), funds
gneis gneiss(es)
plus bonus(es)
pus pus(ses)
reps rep (cloth)
socors assistance: pl. also socorsos
temps time(s), weather (and compounds such as passatemps ‘pastime(s)’)
tris-tras bee-line(s)
zas whizz(es)
dux pl. duxs doge
esfinx pl. esfinxs sphinx
linx pl. linxs lynx
matx pl. matxs match
ponx pl. ponxs punch (drink)
2.1.5.4 Plural of masculine nouns ending in -sc, -st, -xt, or -ig
Masculine nouns ending in -sc, -st, -xt, or -ig form their plurals either in -s or in -os: disc ‘disk’pl. discs or discos, gust ‘taste’pl. gusts or gustos, text ‘text’pl. texts or textos. The addition of -os after -ig entails some orthographic changes: -ig becomes -j- in some words (basically those with -j- in related forms) but becomes -tj- in others (basically those with -tj- in related forms): passeig ‘walk’ pl. passeigs or passejos (cf. passejar ‘to walk’), desig ‘desire’ pl. desigs or desitjós (cf. desitjar ‘to desire’), etc. The tendency in the standard language has been to prefer -os in the first three types (discos, gustos, textos), but -s in the last type (passeigs). More recently, in line with pronunciation, forms such as assajos ‘rehearsals’, marejos ‘nauseas’, bojos ‘madmen’ are increasingly found in print. In Valencia and the Balearic Islands forms like discs, gusts, texts are current both in speech and in writing. Against the general trend, test ‘test’, raig ‘ray’, and puig ‘hill’ nearly always have -s plurals: tests, raigs, puigs.
2.1.6 THE PLURAL OF COMPOUND WORDS
Most compounds form their plurals according to the rules already given, bearing in mind that an additional plural suffix is not added to a compound that already ends with one: so altaveu ‘loudspeaker’ pl. altaveus, capicua ‘palindrome number’ pl. capicues, celobert ‘courtyard’, ‘light well’ pl. celoberts, escanyapobres ‘miser(s)’, passaport ‘passport’ pl. passaports, poca-solta ‘fool’ pl. poca-soltes, rentamans ‘washbasin(s)’, tornavís ‘screwdriver’pl. tornavisos. All compounds written joined together (without hyphen) follow this pattern.
Compounds consisting of tw
o nouns (written with hyphen or space) generally pluralize only the head element, which is the part which also determines the gender of the compound (see 1.1.3.3). So el camió cisterna ‘the tanker lorry’ pl. els camions cisterna, la ciutat dormitori ‘the dormitory town’ pl. les ciutats dormitori, el decret llei ‘the order in council’ (approx.) pl. els decrets llei, la deessa mare ‘the mother goddess’ pl. les deesses mare, l’hora punta ‘the rush-hour’ pl. les hores punta.
2.1.7 PLURALS WITHOUT SINGULARS (PLURALIA TANTUM)
Catalan (like English) has a considerable number of nouns used only in the plural. This is more or less the rule for the names of articles with two matched parts like alicates ‘pliers’, bragues or calces ‘knickers’, calçotets ‘underpants’, molls ‘tongs’, pinces ‘tweezers’, ‘tongs’, pantalons ‘trousers’, prismàtics ‘binoculars’, setrilleres ‘set of oil and vinegar bottles’, sostenidors ‘bra’, tenalles or estenalles ‘pincers’, texans ‘jeans’, tisores ‘scissors’, ulleres ‘spectacles’. To speak of ‘a pair of’ such things one uses the plural of the number ‘one’: unes bragues ‘a pair of knickers’, unes tisores ‘a pair of scissors’ (see 3.2.4iii). There are also many pluralia tantum associated with the concept ‘left-overs’, ‘leavings’, such as acaballes ‘last stages (of an event)’, ‘tail end’, deixalles ‘left-overs’, ‘rubbish’, endergues ‘junk’, escombraries ‘rubbish’, serradures ‘sawdust’. A few other common ones are afores ‘outskirts’, comicis ‘hustings’, ‘election campaign’, diners ‘money’, escacs ‘chess’, (es)tovalles ‘tablecloth’, ganes ‘desire’, ‘fancy’, pessigolles ‘tickle’, postres ‘dessert’, ‘sweet course’, queviures ‘food’, ‘groceries’, vacances ‘holiday(s)’.
2.1.8 PLURAL OF PROPER NAMES
When referring to several members of the same family, the usual practice is to leave the surname invariable: els Solà ‘the Solà family’, els Riquer ‘the Riquers’. Plural forms of surnames are found, though they are not obligatory, when referring to famous historical dynasties, such as els Àustries ‘the house of Austria’, els Borbons ‘the Bourbons’, els Borges ‘the Borgias’ (see 3.3.2).
2.2 USES OF THE PLURAL
2.2.1 NUMBER AGREEMENT WITH COLLECTIVE NOUNS
Collective nouns, grammatically singular, such as gent ‘people’, colla ‘group’, nombre ‘number’, sèrie ‘series’, parell ‘couple’, majoria ‘majority’, resta ‘remainder’ may take either singular or plural verb agreement, as in British English, according to whether the activity of the collective or of its individual members is predominant. Thus La resta anava amb un tren especial ‘The remainder went (sg.) by a special train’; but a plural verb is more likely in La resta dels viatgers anaven … ‘The remainder of the passengers went (pl.)…’ That is, Catalans have no hang-ups about formal number agreement rules in cases like these, though singular verb agreement is likely to be preferred if the collective noun is adjacent to the verb: Va entrar un grup de taxistes ‘A group of taxi-drivers came (sg.) in’.
2.2.2 DISTRIBUTIVES (ONE EACH)
Whereas in English we normally say e.g. ‘They all put their hands on their heads’ (several people, thus several hands and several heads) Catalans will say Tots es van posar les mans al cap ‘They all put their hands (two each) on their head (one each)’. Thus also tres turcs amb passaport alemany ‘three Turks with German passports’ (lit. with German passport, i.e. one each).
2.2.3 COUNT NOUNS AND MASS NOUNS
Count nouns refer to countable items like ‘fingers’, ‘eggs’, ‘journeys’; mass nouns refer to non-countable items like ‘bread’, ‘justice’. Though we can in English use mass nouns (especially in the plural) to mean ‘types of …’ or ‘instances of …’, e.g. ‘French wines’, ‘her fears’, this is rather more common in Catalan. More generally, mass and count terms in the two languages may not match:
amistat friendship les amistats friends, acquaintances
atenció attention les atencions courtesies, acts of kindness
carn meat, flesh les carns fleshy parts
informació information les informacions news items
un negoci a deal, a business negocis business, trade
pa bread, loaf pans loaves of bread
progrés progress els progressos advances
torrada piece of toast torrades pieces of toast
tro thunder els trons thunderclaps
etc.
2.3 DIMINUTIVE, AUGMENTATIVE, AND EVALUATIVE SUFFIXES
There are a number of suffixes which, as well as carrying connotations of size, can give an affective note to the basic meaning of the root word. The principal ones are -et/-eta (diminutive), -às/-assa (augmentative), -ot/-ota (pejorative). The use of such suffixes in adjectives is dealt with in 4.1.5. Addition of a suffix may entail some morphological change in the root word, of the kind described above at 2.1.3 and elsewhere (5.3.2, etc.): home ‘man’, homenet ‘little man’; mà ‘hand’, manassa ‘big hand’.
In some cases these suffixes convey no affective colouring, creating derived forms which are independent lexical items. Such derived forms may occasionally be of different gender from the base: avió (m.) ‘aircraft’, avioneta (f.) ‘light aircraft’; camió (m.) ‘lorry’, camioneta (f.) ‘van’, ‘light truck’; vagó (m.) ‘wagon’, ‘coach’, ‘(railway) carriage’, vagoneta (f.) ‘small wagon’, ‘open railway truck’; maleta (f.) ‘suitcase’, maletí (m.) ‘attaché case’. The ending -ot (see below) is used for the masculine of certain species nouns that are feminine: abella ‘bee’, abellot ‘drone’.
Otherwise these suffixes occur frequently in speech and in informal written registers, and they are (especially the diminutives) very productive. They can communicate a wide range of nuances – affection, condescension, contempt, admiration, irony, repugnance, and so on – and they are observed to be instinctively deployed by native speakers with considerable subtlety. Sensitivity and resourcefulness are required in their interpretation and translation: Posi’m dos enciams, si us plau is the straightforward way of asking politely for two lettuces, whereas Posi’m dos enciamets could imply a certain friendliness between speaker and hearer as well as a mild appreciation of the (required or observed) quality of the lettuces (understood as well to be smaller rather than larger). As another example, llibrot (from llibre ‘book’) could, according to context, be either an unwieldy and unattractive book, or a relatively large one whose size is subjectively emphasized. There is a degree of regional variation in the kinds of derived words that are produced, and in their usage. Moreover, while most nouns could in theory take any suffix, many theoretically possible derivations are blocked in practice. An account like that provided by Anthony Gooch, in Diminutive, Augmentative and Pejorative Suffixes in Modern Spanish (Oxford 1970), is much needed for Catalan.
2.3.1 DIMINUTIVE SUFFIXES
The most productive diminutive suffix is -et, -eta:
peu foot peuet
bastó stick bastonet
estona short time estoneta
moment moment momentet
cadira chair cadireta
gos/gossa dog/bitch gosset/gosseta
capsa box capseta
etc.
As indicated above, the diminutive may give an intimate or friendly note to the use of a particular word as well as implying (relative) smallness of size or importance:
Ha pronunciat un discurset que ha vingut molt a tomb.
He made a (nice) little speech which was very appropriate.
Haurà d’esperar una estoneta.
You will have to wait just a short while.
The diminutive may have a differentiated or specialized meaning:
pit chest pitet bib
ull eye fer l’ullet to wink
cara face careta mask
vara rod/staff vareta wand
finestra window finestreta small window (in vehicle, box office)
llengua tongue llengüeta tongue (of shoe)/tab
mentida lie mentideta white lie
Gender change (as in avió ‘aircraft’, avioneta ‘light aircraft’; camió ‘lorry’, camioneta ‘light truck’, ‘van’; furgó ‘truck’, ‘trailer’, furgoneta ‘van’) is seen in specialized llibreta (f.) ‘notebook’, ‘bank book’, ‘rent book’ from llibre (m.) with llibret (m.) available for ‘small book’. Both cigarret (m.) and cigarreta (f.) ‘cigarette’, the former much more common, are derived from cigar(ro) ‘cigar’.
Almost all personal names admit the diminutive -et/-eta: Estevet ‘little/young Esteve’, Ramonet/Ramoneta, Quimet (from abbreviation of Joaquim). Una marieta (from Maria ‘Our Lady’) is ‘a ladybird’.
Other diminutives
These include -ó/-ona, -ol/-ola, -eu/-eva, -etxo/-etxa and -oi/-oia, all more limited in application than -et/-eta.
Diminutive -ó/-ona (often with gender change) is quite productive: un cafetó would be used when ordering ‘a nice (little) cup of coffee’; pessetones is an affectionate diminutive of pessetes; note also un paretó ‘a low wall’, un cadiró ‘a small chair’, el cordó ‘string’, ‘shoe-lace’ (from corda ‘rope’). Many common derivations with -ó/-ona are specialized in meaning:
carrer street carreró (urban) lane/narrow street
caixa box caixó small box/casket
carro waggon/car carretó trolley
carbassa pumpkin carbassó courgette
pinya pineapple pinyó pine nut