Catalan

by Max Wheeler

  With verbs, mig ‘half’ operates as an inseparable prefix: Només la mig obrí ‘He only half-opened it’; S’han mig adormit ‘They have nodded off’ (lit…. half gone to sleep).

  Degree adverbs which are not also adjectives

  absolutament absolutely, thoroughly

  excepcionalment exceptionally

  extremament extremely

  extremadament, extraordinàriament extraordinarily

  del tot, completament wholly, completely

   Ho trobo del tot inacceptable que … I find it wholly unacceptable that…

  qui-sap-lo greatly, a lot

   M’interessa qui-sap-lo. I’m greatly interested in it.

  així de (+ adjective or adverb) (popular) so

  exacte de (+ adjective or adverb) just as, exactly as

   El meu rellotge marxa exacte de bé que el teu. My watch works just as well as yours.

   Aquesta sala és exacte de gran que aquella altra. This room is exactly the same size/just as big as that other one.

  igual de (+ adjective or adverb) equally, just as (see 5.1)

   És igual de difícil trobar una plaça de pàrking. It’s just as difficult to find a garage space.

   Aquesta màquina funciona igual de bé que aquella. This machine works just as well as that one.

  a bastament (following an adjective or adverb) enough

  una mica, un poc, un xic, quelcom (literary, and only preceding qualified item) somewhat, a bit

   Haurem de caminar una mica. We’ll have to walk a bit.

   El trobàvem un poc millorat. We found him a bit better.

   Són quelcom distrets. They are somewhat absent-minded.

  (no) gens any, (not) at all (in interrogative and negative contexts); stronger form: gens ni mica

   Ha plogut gens? Has it rained at all?

   una gestió no gens fàcil not at all an easy step

  13.7 SENTENCE ADVERBS/ADVERBIALS

  Sentence adverbs/adverbials are those which do not qualify any particular constituent of the sentence they appear in. Their function rather is to indicate to the receiver how the current sentence is to be connected to the discourse, or how the speaker reacts to the content of what is expressed. Many such itemsmay occur at the beginning of a sentence, or, parenthetically, after the first phrase, or at the end.

  certament certainly

  per cert indeed, incidentally

  en efecte, efectivament La vostra teoria explica, en efecte, tots aquests fets. indeedYour theory does explain all these facts.

  de fet in fact

  ben segur assuredly

  de veres, de debò, de veritat, sí que … really, truly, seriously

   De veres que vindrem./Sí que vindrem. We will come, really.

   M’he fet mal de debò. I’ve really hurt myself.

  (Note that de debò, unlike the other expressions, favours final position.)

  en realitat in fact, actually

  (Remember that actualment means ‘at present, currently’.)

   En realitat, està bastant bé de preu. In fact, it is quite cheap.

  evidentment, és clar (que …) evidently, plainly, clearly, of course, definitely

   És clar que t’estima! Clearly/Of course she loves you!

   T’estima, és clar. She loves you, clearly.

  i tant que … of course, and how!

  I tant que pense dir-li el que opine d’això! Indeed I do plan to tell him what I think of it!

   òbviament obviously

  per descomptat, naturalment naturally

  sens dubte undoubtedly (i.e. certainly), no doubt (i.e. probably)

  no cal dir-ho, això sí Els vostres, no cal dir-ho/això sí, són preferibles. naturally, of courseYours are preferable, I agree.

  Possibility

  potser, a la millor, tal vegada, tal volta(esp. Val.) perhaps, maybe

  Ni tan sols la va esmentar; a la millorl’ha oblidada. She didn’t even mention her;perhaps she has forgotten her.

  si de eas, si per cas, si un cas (Bal.) perhaps, possibly (making a suggestion)

   Si de cas, per a avançar, el que podries fer és esperar-me a la cantonada. Possibly, so as not to waste time, what you could do is wait for me at the corner.

  per ventura perhaps (used ironically (= surely not?))

   Que ets ric, per ventura? Doncs per què li dónes tants diners? Are you rich, perhaps? (evidently not) Then why are you giving her so much money?

  (In the Balearics per ventura is used more generally as a synonym for potser.)

  també, així mateix, igualment also, as well, too

   A part les raons dites hi ha, així mateix, altres motius. Besides the reasons mentioned there are, as well, other causes.

   Hi han assistit, igualment, tots els altres membres. All the other members were present, too.

  a més, a més a més, de més, de més a més, endemés, ultra això in addition, moreover

  semblantment similarly

  per altra part, d’altra banda moreover

  altrament moreover, otherwise

   Segur que vindran; altrament, no m’ho haurien dit. I’m sure they’ll come; otherwise, they wouldn’t have said so.

  així, doncs, per tant therefore, thus, in that case, then

   No ens vols ajudar? Doncs no ho farem! Won’t you help us? We won’t do it, then!

   Què seria, doncs, de tu si no era que ella t’ha ajudat tant? Where would you be, in that case, if it weren’t that she had helped you?

  i doncs so (then)

   I doncs, que també veniu? (On doncs see 15.1.7.) So, are you coming too?

  per consegüent, en conseqüència consequently, therefore

   … però however, though

   Ell t’ho cedirà tot, amb la condició, però, que li resti alguna cosa per a viure. He will make it all over to you, on condition, however, that he has something left to live on.

  tanmateix yet, even so

   Tanmateix ha vingut; ja us ho deia que res li’n privaria. She’s come, even so; I told you nothing would stop her.

   Tens els diners que vols i tanmateix no te’n serveixes. You’ve got all the money you want, and yet you don’t use it.

  per això (colloquial, not in initial position) though (see 15.1.5.1)

   Ha vingut, per això. He came, though.

  malgrat això, a desgrat d’això, això no obstant, no obstant això, nogensmenys (literary) nevertheless, despite that

  amb tot, tot i així, així i tot Té molta feina; amb tot, tractant-se de tu, ho farà. even soHe is very busy; even so, seeing that it is you, he will do it.

  de tota manera, de totes maneres, sigui com vulgui anyway, be that as it may

  (al cap i) a la fi, al capdavall, comptat i debatut, fet i fet, en darrer terme Al capdavall ets un idiota. after all, all things considered, when all’s said and doneAfter all, you’re an idiot.

  Note the difference between a la fi ‘after all’, ‘in the end’, per fi ‘finally’ and en fi ‘well’, ‘then’:

   A la fi he vist que no tenia raó. In the end I saw I was wrong.

   Em referiré, per fi, al problema de la llibertat. I shall mention, finally, the question of freedom

   En fi, ja ho veurem. Well, then, we shall see.

  en certa manera up to a point, in a way

   En certa manera, tenen raó. In a way, they’re right.

  sobretot, principalment, majorment, per damunt de tot above all, principally

  generalment, en general, per regla general generally, mostly

  normalment, habitualment normally, usually

  excepcionalment, per excepció exceptionally

  Some adverbs/adverbials of speaker reaction or evaluation are: per sort, afortunadament ‘fortunately’, desgraciadament, dissortadament ‘unfortunately’, ‘regrettably’, senzillament ‘simply’, francament ‘frankly’, preferentment ‘preferably’, aparentment, en aparença ‘apparently’, fonamenta
lment ‘basically’, en teoria ‘theoretically’, seriosament ‘seriously’.

  Catalan does not always use a sentence adverb where English does; a complex sentence is often more idiomatic. So, for example, ‘allegedly’: segons diuen (lit. according to (what) they say)), es diu que … (lit. it is said that…); ‘understandably’: es comprèn que … (lit. it is understood that …), ‘undoubtedly’: no hi ha dubte que… (lit. there is no doubt that…); ‘apparently’: es veu que … (lit. it is seen that…), or pel que es veu (lit. from what can be seen).

  14 PREPOSITIONS

  Prepositions in Catalan have complements which may be noun phrases (the typical case), adverbials (see 13.2), prepositional phrases (see Compound prepositions below), non-finite verbs (see below), or clauses (see Chapter 33).

  Phonologically and morphologically prepositions fall into three groups: atonic or unstressed prepositions like de, en (14.1), simple tonic prepositions (14.2), and compound tonic prepositions (14.3). Many of the tonic prepositions are closely related in sense and usage to adverbs.

  14.1 ATONIC PREPOSITIONS

  These are a, amb, de, en, per and the compound atonic preposition per a. They are very common, occurring in a wide range of grammatical (case-marking) and locational functions which only partially correspond to any particular English preposition. A, de, per and per a combine with following masculine definite articles el, els (and salat es), giving the following forms (see also 3.1.1):

  al (a + el), als (a + els), as (a + es)

  del (de + el), dels (de + els), des (de + es)

  pel (per + el), pels (per + els), pes (per + es)

  per al (per a + el), per als (per a + els), per as (per a + es, but per a is virtually unused in the varieties and styles where the article salat is found)

  The prevocalic forms l’, s’ of the masculine article do not combine. See 3.1 for more details on the use of variants of the definite articles.

  14.1.1 A AND EN

  These prepositions are taken together since, in some functions at least, their use overlaps. The area of meaning involved is broadly speaking that denoted in English by ‘at’, ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘to’.

  14.1.1.1 A with the direct object of transitive verbs

  In standard Catalan, the direct object of a transitive verb is not generally introduced by a preposition. (Colloquial speech does often use a, or its variants en/an, [ənə], before definite animate direct objects.) Stressed personal pronouns, however, are preceded by a:

  Jo el corregiré a ell, i ell em corregirà a mi.

  I’ll correct him and he’ll correct me.

  Α vostè, l’esperem demà.

  You, we are expecting tomorrow.

  Tothom ‘everyone’, tots ‘(them) all’, ningú ‘no one’, forms of the relative pronoun el qual ‘who’, and the relative/interrogative pronoun qui ‘who’ may also be preceded by a in direct object function, but need not be. An animate direct object which immediately follows a grammatical subject may also take a:

  Ens miràvem l’un a l’altre. We watched one another.

  More generally, the use of a before a definite animate direct object is tolerated when its absence might suggest that the noun phrase involved was a subject.

  T’estima com a la seva mare.

  She loves you like (she loves) her mother.

  Α Núria, no crec que la pugues convèncer.

  I don’t think you can persuade Núria.

  Als funcionaris no els satisfà la proposta de la jornada intensiva.

  Civil servants are not satisfied by the proposal for continuous working.

  In the last two examples, a makes clear that a noun phrase in initial position is not subject but direct object (see 25.3). A is, in fact, generally used with direct objects which are left-dislocated: see 25.3 and 36.4.

  14.1.1.2 A with indirect object

  The indirect object of a verb is marked by a:

  Han atorgat un premi al millor llibre de contes.

  They have awarded a prize to the best book of short stories.

  A mi, no m’ho ha dit.

  She hasn’t told me.

  Escriu a en Pere.

  Write to Pere.

  Colloquial speech often uses en, amb, or a variant of these, in such cases, but this is regarded as unacceptable in written language, and in formal styles.

  14.1.1.3 Expressions of place: a and en

  Depending on the context, both a and en may be found expressing place at which (location) and place to which (direction). In the standard language the distribution is as set out below. The tendency is for a to be used for both location and direction when physical location is at issue; a also tends to be preferred before the definite article in both location and direction functions, while, in contrast, en tends to be preferred, in both functions, before the indefinite article, and algun ‘some’, aquest/aqueix ‘this’ and aquell ‘that’.

  (i) Physical location/direction

  Firstly, for expressions of location and direction in physical, threedimensional space, a basic pattern uses en for location and a for direction (to), when the following word is (a) a noun, (b) an adjective, (c) a numeral, (d) a quantifier/indefinite (except un, algun) or a degree adverb, or (e) a relative pronoun:

  before location: en direction (to): a

  (a) noun No trobaren allotjament ni en hotels, ni en pensions, ni en cases particulars.They did not find accommodation in hotels, guest houses, or private houses. Anem a sales diferents.We are going to different rooms.

  (b) adjective Viuen en grans edificis.They live in large buildings. Viatgem a llunyanes terres.We are travelling to distant lands.

  (c) numeral He estudiat en tres universitats.I have been a student at three universities. Els enviem a tres universitats.We are sending them to three universities.

  (d) quantifier/ indefinite (except un/algunj Això passa en molts llocs.That happens in many places. Pujarem a quasi tots els pisos.We’ll go up to nearly all the apartments.

  (e) relative pronoun el pis en el qual (or en què) viviathe flat in which I lived la terrassa a la qual (or a què) hem pujatthe balcony to which we went up

  The use of a instead of en to express location in all of these contexts is quite widespread in both speech and written sources, and is regarded as acceptable in case (d) particularly with everyday expressions; thus Això passa a cada casa ‘That happens in every house’, Plou a tot Catalunya ‘It’s raining in the whole of Catalonia’. The use of en for direction before altres is also acceptable: Anirem aquí i en altres llocs ‘We’ll go there and to other places’.

  In addition to a certain degree of merger of the distinction between location and direction in cases (a) to (e) in the table, there is more firmly established neutralization in the following cases.

  A for location = direction: place names

  With place names, location as well as direction is expressed by means of a:

  fabricat a Suïssa made in Switzerland

  La vam enviar a Suïssa. We sent it to Switzerland.

  una acampada al Pirineu a camping holiday in the Pyrenees

  (For location, Valencian prefers en with place names: Ací en València ha plogut ‘Here in Valencia it has been raining’.) Place names with modifying adjectives are treated as cultural concepts rather than physical locations, hence retain en for location: en la Catalunya actual ‘in present-day Catalonia’, en la Roma antiga ‘in ancient Rome’. (However, a may be found here too, probably due to the combined pressure of the adjacent definite article and the geographical name.) Names of periodicals or television/radio stations are often treated as proper names, so he llegit a «Serra d’Or» ‘I read in Serra d’Or’, Publiquem l’article a «Caplletra» ‘We are publishing the article in Caplletra’, Ho he vist a TV3 ‘I saw it on TV3’.

  A for location = direction: idioms with a ‘at’

  A expresses location or direction in certain fixed phrases containing an unmodified noun without a determiner: a casa ‘at home’/‘home’, a palau ‘in/to the
palace’, a taula ‘at/to (the) table’, a fira ‘at/to the fair’, a mercat ‘at/to market’, a missa ‘at/to Mass’, a classe/a escola ‘at/to school’, a muntanya ‘in/to the mountains’, etc. A terra means ‘on the ground’/‘to the ground’; en terra means ‘on land’ (location or direction).

  Què has fet a classe? What did you do in/at school? (location)

  Que no has anat a missa? Have you not been to Mass? (direction)

  A taula! Lunch/Dinner/Supper is ready! (direction)

  A for location = direction: definite article and quin

  The use of a (= ‘place where’) instead of en is generally preferred before the definite article and before quin ‘which?’:

  Els hem trobat al carrer.

  We found them in the street, (location)

  Els hem llençat al carrer.

  We threw them into the street, (direction)

  Α quina cadira seies?

  Which chair were you sitting in? (location)

  Tinc mal a la cama.

  I have a pain in my leg.

  La inflamació es va estendre a la cama.

  The inflammation spread to the leg. (direction)

  Polèmica per la venda de llibres als centres docents.

  Controversy concerning the sale of books in educational establishments.

  (Note ambiguity: the phrase can also mean ‘ …the sale of books to educational establishments’)

  Although, as under (ii) below, a distinction between en (location) and a (direction) is usually maintained for abstract places, the concept of physical places easily extends to situations and events which have physical extent: al ball ‘at/to the dance’, a la festa ‘at/to the party’, a l’enterrament ‘at/to the funeral’, a la batalla de l’Ebre ‘in/to the Ebro battle’. But en is often found for location when the prepositional phrase precedes the verb, especially before el, els (which in the Eastern dialect group sound the same as al, als):