by Max Wheeler
367 són tres centenes, sis desenes i set unitats.
367 contains three hundreds, six tens and seven units.
10.11 NUMERALS IN TIME EXPRESSIONS
The hours are expressed with the feminine definite article: la una ‘one o’clock’, les dues ‘two o’clock’, les tres ‘three o’clock’, etc., up to twelve. Quarter hours are expressed in one of two ways:
(i) By counting quarters to the next hour: un quart de tres lit. ‘one quarter of three’, i.e. ‘a quarter past two’, dos quarts de cinc lit. ‘two quarters of five’, i.e. ‘half past four’, tres quarts de dotze lit. ‘three quarters of twelve’, i.e. ‘a quarter to twelve’.
(ii) By means of x i quart ‘x and a quarter’, i.e. ‘a quarter past x’, x i mitja ‘x and a half’, i.e. ‘half past x’, and x menys quart ‘x less a quarter’, i.e. ‘a quarter to x’; note falta un quart per a les x ‘it is a quarter to x’.
The first method (i) is popular in Catalonia, but is less common in Valencia and the Balearic islands.
Fractions of quarter hours are usually expressed as x i y (minuts) ‘y (minutes) past x’, x menys y (minuts) ‘y (minutes) to x’: les sis i cinc (minuts) ‘five (minutes) past six’, la una menys divuit (minuts) ‘eighteen minutes to one’. A traditional system of counting in ‘half quarters’ is now not very commonly used. Approximate times are expressed with cap a or devers (Bal.) lit. ‘towards’, or sobre lit. ‘over’/’about’. A quarts de x refers to an approximate time ‘between a quarter past x and a quarter to x’. Times written in the 24-hour system may be read (la/les) x hora/es y minuts, or simply la/les x y; see the examples below. When the twelve-hour clock is used, as is normally the case in spontaneous speech, a.m. or p.m. is indicated by specifying the part of the day: matinada ‘early morning’, matí ‘morning’, migdia ‘midday’, ‘noon’, tarda (Bal. horabaixa, Val. vesprada) ‘afternoon’, vespre ‘evening’, nit ‘night’. The boundaries between these periods are not precisely fixed.
–Quina hora és? –És la una/Són la una. ‘What time is it?’ One o’clock.’
Són les dues en punt. It is two o’clock exactly.
–Quina hora té? –Les nou i vint (minuts). ‘What time do you make it?’ ‘9.20.’
El concert comença a 2/4 de 9 (read dos quarts de nou). The concert begins at 8.30.
Són tres quarts de deu. (Bal., Val. Falta un quart per a les deu.) It is a quarter to ten.
dos quarts i mig de set 6.37 or thereabouts/nearly twenty to seven
Arriba a les cinc menys cinc. It arrives at five to five.
Falten cinc minuts per a les onze. It is five to eleven.
Vindrà sobre les onze/cap a les onze. She will be coming at about 11.
Vam quedar que ens trobaríem a quarts de set. We agreed to meet at around half past six (any time between 6.15 and 6.45).
12.45h (read as les dotze quaranta cinc (minuts), or un quart d’una, or la una menys quart) a quarter to one
2.30h les dues trenta (minuts) = dos quarts de tres = les dues i mitja
14.50h (les) catorze hores cinquanta minuts = les tres menys deu (minuts) = falten deu (minuts) per a les tres
8.25h les vuit i vint-i-cinc
la una de la nit 1 a.m.
la una del migdia 1 p.m.
les tres de la matinada 3 a.m.
les tres de la tarda 3 p.m.
les sis del matí 6 a.m.
les set de la vesprada 7 p.m.
dos quarts de nou del vespre 8.30 p.m.
les dotze de la nit midnight
les dotze del migdia noon
Writing the date:
15 d’abril de(l) 1992 15 April, 1992/April 15th, 1992
dijous, 3 de maig de(l) 1870 Thursday, May 3rd, 1870
Referring to years:
Això va passar el 1955/en 1955/l’any 1955. That occurred in 1955.
Decades:
els anys vint the twenties
els anys quaranta or els anys quarantes the forties
Centuries:
el segle XV(Note Roman numeral normally in Catalan.) the 15th century
el quatre-cents the 1400s
un arc del segle XIV/un arc trescentista a 14th-century arch
Anniversaries:
There is a series of words derived from numerals for referring to anniversaries: cinquantenari ‘50th anniversary’, centenari ‘centenary’, (cinquè centenari, etc. ‘500th anniversary’), mil·lenari ‘1000th anniversary’.
10.12 MEASUREMENTS
The most frequent way of expressing measurement in space uses a noun referring to the dimension measured: alçària/alçada ‘height’, llargària/llargada, extensió ‘length’, amplària/amplada ‘width’, gruix/gruixa/gruixària ‘thickness’, profunditat/fondària ‘depth’, volum ‘volume’, velocitat ‘speed’:
Aquí el riu fa una amplada de trenta metres/fa trenta metres d’amplada.
Here the river is thirty metres wide.
Tots aquests cims tenen una alçada de més de mil metres/fan més de mil metres d’alçada.
All these peaks are higher than 1000 metres/are more than 1000 metres high.
L’autobús anava a una velocitat de 90 km per hora.
The bus was going at a speed of 90 kph.
Similarly with temperatura ‘temperature’:
La temperatura és de 31 graus. The temperature is 31 degrees.
For weight, the verb pesar ‘weigh’ is used:
Quant pesa el seu paquet? How much does your packet weigh?
Jo pesava 85 kilos. I used to weigh 85 kilos.
Similarly, for time, with the verb durar ‘last’:
La conversa va durar només quatre minuts.
The conversation was only four minutes long.
11 Personal Pronouns (Stressed)
GENERAL
In this Chapter we cover subject pronouns and strong pronouns used after prepositions. Object pronouns are covered in Chapter 12, and possessive pronouns in Chapter 7.
Catalan is characterized, like Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, but unlike French, by the way in which subject pronouns accompany verbs only for particular emphasis. Non-personal subjects (‘it’, ‘they’) have no corresponding stressed pronominal form. The form of the verb itself is usually sufficient to indicate the subject: canto ‘I sing’, cantem ‘we sing’. The personal subject pronoun is used to make emphasis or clarification where required:
Ο sigui, jo portaré les begudes i vosaltres preparareu el menjar.
So I’ll bring the drinks and you’ll prepare the food.
These points are expanded in 11.5.
Apart from first-person singular mi and reflexive si the stressed pronouns used after prepositions are the same as the ordinary subject pronouns (11.4).
11.1 MORPHOLOGY OF THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS: CLASSIFICATION
(i) By meaning:
person subject prep, object
singular 1st I jo/nós jo/mi/(nós)
2nd you tu/vostè/vós
3rd m. he ell ell/si
f. she ella ella/si
plural 1st we nosaltres
2nd you vosaltres/vostès
3rd they ells/elles ells/elles/si
(ii) By morphosyntax:
person subject prep, object
singular 1st jo mi/(jo)
2nd tu
3rd ell/ella/vostè ell/ella/vostè/si
plural 1st nosaltres/nós
2nd vosaltres/vós
3rd ells/elles/vostès ells/elles/vostès/si
11.2 MORPHOLOGY OF THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS: INFLECTION
Only the third-person pronouns show the normal number and gender agreement: ell ‘he’, ella ‘she’, ells ‘they (m.)’ elles ‘they (f.)’. Vostè ‘you (polite)’ displays alternation only in number: vostè/vostès. All the other forms are invariable for gender, and number alternations rely on lexical differences (e.g., singular tu → plural vosaltres, and not *tus).
11.3 PRAGMATICS OF THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS
The tables (i) and (
ii) shown in 11.1 above refer respectively to the semantics of the communicative situation and to formal classification based on agreement with verbal forms. Observe that there is not a one-to-one match between the two schemas:
(i) Nós is the majestic form (royal ‘we’) of the first person singular, although referring to one person (the speaker) it takes the first person plural form of the verb: Nós, bisbe de Vic, hem resolt de concedir l’autorització sol·licitada ‘We, bishop of Vic, have resolved to grant the permit requested’. Use of this form is confined to ceremonial contexts.
(ii) Vostè(s) is a polite form referring to the person that the speaker is addressing. This pronoun is used to express respect, or deference; traditionally it was used when addressing professional people (doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc.). It goes with verbs and other elements (weak pronouns, possessives) in the third person:
Vostè ha dit que la seva (= de vostè) dona no li (= a vostè) explicava aquestes coses.
You said that your wife didn’t explain these things to you.
(iii) Vós is also a polite form of address (cf. French vous). It reflects respect, but not as distant as vostè. It is normally used: with elderly or senior persons (e.g. Com esteu, avi? ‘How are you, grandfather?’), with strangers (Que em podríeu dir quina hora és? ‘Could you tell me the time (please)?’), on notices (Empenyeu ‘Push’), in business and administrative correspondence, (Benvolgut senyor, en resposta a la vostra del mes passat, us recordem que … ‘Dear Sir, In reply to yours of last month, we beg to remind you that …’), and when answering the phone (Digueu? ‘Hello’). Systematic use of vós was encouraged in education before the Civil war of 1936–39 and it is encountered regularly in literary texts from that period; nowadays it is confined to the contexts mentioned. Vós goes with the second-person plural verbal forms (and other adjuncts), even though it refers to only one person:
Vós cobreu la jubilació cada mes.
You are paid your pension every month.
Escriviu en aquest full, si us plau, la vostra adreça i firmeu tots els altres documents que us hem lliurat.
Write your address on this page, please, and sign all the other documents we have given you.
The plural of vós is vosaltres, which is to say that the distinction in style of address in the second-person singular, between tu and vós, is not maintained in the plural.
Within the last thirty years there have been major changes in conventions of address in common spoken usage. Currently the tendency is to revert more or less to the etymological pattern, using tu for all singular addressees and vosaltres for all groups of addressees. (Vós is the common polite form in North (French) Catalonia, probably due to French influence.)
Other than in North Catalonia, for vós to be used in speech nowadays, certain conditions are required: the addressee must be older, or a stranger of equal status to the speaker, and participants must be either Balearic, or elderly rural people in Catalonia, or members of the ‘intelligentsia’. The spontaneous spoken use of vós is declining rapidly.
For vostè to be used, the conditions are: a non-intimate or formal context (such as an occasional commercial or bureaucratic transaction), and usually, in addition, some perceived difference of age or status.
Vós and vostè are virtually always used reciprocally, that is, by both parties in the interchange, except that children are always addressed as tu, even when they address an adult as vostè. When a child becomes an adult, in this respect, is a moot point.
11.4 SYNTAX – PERSONAL PRONOUNS AS PREPOSITIONAL OBJECTS
Most of the subject pronoun forms can also appear after a preposition:
Ho han fet per tu, per vostè(s), per vosaltres, per ell, per ella, per nosaltres, per ells, per elles.
They have done it for you, for him, for her, for us, for them.
The exceptions to this are the special form mi for the first-person singular, and optional si for the third-person (singular or plural) when this is reflexive.
11.4.1 FIRST-PERSON SINGULAR OBJECT
Mi is used after all simple and compound prepositions except segons ‘according to’:
Pots venir amb mi si vols.
You can come with me if you want.
No sé si ho han portat per a mi ο per a tu.
I don’t know if they’ve bought it for me or for you.
Segons jo, no pot funcionar.
According to me, it cannot work.
(When a compound preposition ends with de, the sequence de mi, interpreted as though it were a genitive, can become meu; the corresponding applies to all personal pronouns after compound prepositions which include de (see 7.5 and 14.2.3): No gosarien dir això davant de mi/davant meu ‘They wouldn’t dare say that in front of me’.)
When a preposition introduces conjoined elements, jo appears instead of mi:
entre tu i jo between you and me
contra jo i vosaltres against me and you
Es mofava de jo i tot el que defenso. She mocked me and everything I support.
In Balearic dialects it is very common to hear jo after any preposition. This usage is regarded as acceptable in informal speech:
A jo no m’agrada sa carn molt poc feta. I don’t like meat that is very rare.
Aquest jove ha vengut amb jo. This young fellow has come with me.
11.4.2 THIRD-PERSON REFLEXIVE OBJECT SI
For the third person, singular and plural, after a preposition, si can be used reflexively, that is, when the noun governed by the preposition refers to the same person as the subject of the verb in that clause (see 23.2). In this function si is followed more often than not by mateix (agreeing in number and gender with the subject):
(Ella) només pensa en si mateixa.
She thinks only about herself.
No ho feien per als altres, sinó per a si mateixos.
They weren’t doing it for others but for themselves.
As well as reflexivity, reciprocity (see 23.3) can also be expressed by si:
Parlaven entre si. They were talking among themselves.
In all these cases reflexive si can be substituted by the non-reflexive thirdperson stressed pronouns (ell/ella/ells/elles), again, usually reinforced with mateix. The latter option is, in fact, generally preferred in everyday language:
Aquests dos treballen per a ells (mateixos). = Aquests dos treballen per a si (mateixos).
Those two work for themselves.
(Both reflexive: cf. non-reflexive Ja no treballo per a ells ‘I don’t work for them any more’.)
The expression fora de si ‘beside himself/herself/oneself/themselves’, however, appears not to allow ell, etc.
11.5 STYLE – USE AND OMISSION OF PRONOUNS
11.5.1 SUBJECT PRONOUNS
As mentioned above, subject pronouns are not used in Catalan as often as in English or French. The form of the verb normally suffices to identify the subject. There are some cases, however, in which the verbal forms for first-and third-person singular coincide, namely in imperfect and conditional tenses (jo cantava – ell/ella/vostè cantava; jo dormia – ell/ella/vostè dormia; jo dormiria – ell/ella/vostè dormiria) and the context may require the pronouns to be used to avoid confusion.
More generally third-person forms may relate to ‘real’ third-person subjects ‘he/she/it, they’ or they may correspond to ‘you (polite)’, that is, vostè/ vostès. It is probably only vostè and vostès that are used significantly more often than other subject pronouns: Com te dius? ‘What is your name?’ (familiar address pronoun), Com se diu vostè? ‘What is your name?’ (polite address pronoun); Com se diu? could mean ‘What is your name?’, but can also mean, e.g., ‘What is it called?’, as well as ‘What is his/her/its name?’
If subject pronouns are used in other cases it will be to convey an emphasis or contrast:
Jo canto bé; tu desentones.
I am singing fine; you are out of tune.
The presence of the pronoun becomes necessary when the verb is elided, of course.
Some people will perhaps approve of it, but we never will.
Despite Catalan’s natural tendency to avoid subject pronouns except in the instances discussed above, there are cases where the subject is reinforced by the use of a demonstrative (see 6.4) as subject pronoun, where English might just use the normal subject pronoun:
Aquesta era especialitzada en física nuclear.
She/This woman was a specialist in nuclear physics.
Ho vam anunciar públicament però aquells no en van fer cas.
We announced it publicly but they took no notice.
11.5.2 PRONOUNS AND INANIMATE NOUNS
Use of ell/ella/ells/elles as subject pronouns almost invariably implies human referents; these third-person stressed pronouns cannot generally refer to things or abstract nouns. The general principle explained in 11.5.1, concerning elision of subject pronouns, applies exclusively here, i.e. an inanimate subject is never expressed by a personal pronoun.
He vist molts cotxes. Eren blancs. I saw a lot of cars. They were white.
The sentence Ells eren blancs, in any context, would be taken to refer to a human subject. The use of the third-person pronouns for inanimate prepositional objects is scarcely more common, though not absolutely ruled out. Catalan has several strategies which reinforce this aversion.
(i) In writing, demonstratives may stand for inanimates (subjects or objects), often when a contrast is made:
Ha hagut de triar entre les seves conviccions i els seus sentiments: aquelles eren republicanes, i aquests, llibertaris.
He has had to choose between his convictions and his feelings: the former were republican and the latter libertarian.