Catalan

by Max Wheeler

  I had worked/been working there for eight months when the new boss arrived.

  Feia estona que esperava?

  Had you been waiting long?

  The present perfect progressive (18.1.3v) is sometimes found, combining the senses of perfect aspect with progressive aspect. This pattern is regarded by some as a calque of the corresponding English construction ‘have’ + ‘been’ + ‘x-ing’.

  He estat calculant les despeses que això suposa.

  I have spent some time calculating the expense entailed, (or I have been calculating …)

  17.2.3 PLUPERFECT

  The pluperfect is used to indicate a state or event occurring before some other (more recent) past moment expressed by a different verb (or implied in the context):

  El dia que va morir havia dit a la seva dona que no tornaria gaire tard a casa.

  The day he died he had told his wife he would not be back home late.

  Abans de les eleccions ja havien dit que no abaixarien els imposts.

  Before the elections they had already said they wouldn’t bring taxes down.

  Encara que s’havia entrenat molt va jugar un partit molt dolent.

  Although he had done a lot of training he played a very bad game.

  Rules of sequence allow the pluperfect to refer, in the frame of conditional sentences with an imperfect, to events or states to be completed in the future:

  Va recordar-nos que si en el futur ell continuava essent el nostre cap seria perquè havia (or hauria) actuat amb dignitat.

  He reminded us that if in the future he continued to be in charge of us it would be because he had behaved with dignity.

  17.2.4 PAST ANTERIOR

  The past anterior is formed with the preterite of haver (either the simple preterite haguí, hagueres, etc., or the periphrastic vaig haver, vas haver, etc.) together with the participle. This tense refers to an event completed immediately before another one in the past.

  Després que hagué dit això alçà la copa i brindà.

  After he had said that he raised his glass and proposed a toast.

  Encara no hagueres partit que ell ja et dejectava.

  No sooner had you left than he was maligning you.

  Quan vaig haver pagat les multes em tornaren el cotxe.

  When I had paid the fines they gave me my car back

  However, if the immediately preceding event is a habitual one, the pluperfect is preferred. Notice that in this context there is a remnant of the aspectual distinction – perfective vaig haver versus imperfective havia – not otherwise found in the compound tenses:

  Sempre que havia plogut sortia a cercar caragols.

  Whenever it had rained he went out looking for snails.

  Quan ja havia sortit de la feina sempre es recordava que no havia desconnectat l’ordinador.

  When he had left work he would always remember that he hadn’t switched off the computer.

  The past anterior is used only in temporal adverbial clauses, after quan ‘when’, després que ‘after’, així que ‘as soon as’, de seguida que ‘immediately’, a penes ‘scarcely’, and so on. This tense is confined to rather formal written contexts, and its use appears to be diminishing, being replaced by either the pluperfect or (especially after després que) the preterite. There is virtually no distinction in meaning between Després que hagué entrat el president cantaren l’himne nacional ‘After the president had entered they sang the national anthem’ and Després que va entrar el president cantaren l’himne nacional ‘After the president entered they sang the national anthem’; see 33.2.2.6.

  17.2.5 FUTURE PERFECT

  The future perfect is the tense of future events or states completed before another future one:

  Abans de gaire ja ens haurem oblidat de tots aquests patiments.

  Before long we shall have forgotten all this suffering.

  L’any que ve haurem viscut vint anys en aquesta casa.

  Next year we shall have lived twenty years in his house.

  This compound future also appears in temporal and relative clauses, as an alternative to the construction with the subjunctive (see above 17.1.4.1). English tends to be less precise in this particular, not using the future perfect in cases like the following:

  Quan haureu (= Quan hàgiu) llegit el llibre sabreu més coses que abans.

  When you have read the book you will know more than you did before.

  Els qui m’hauran (= Els qui m’hagin) escoltat bé s’adonaran de la importància d’aquesta qüestió.

  Those who have listened to me properly will understand the importance of this matter.

  As with the simple future tense, expressions of inference (see 17.1.4) referred to past situations are preferably made with the periphrasis deure + infinitive:

  (non-standard) No l’hauràs insultat d’aquesta manera!

  No el deus haver insultat d’aquesta manera!

  You can’t have insulted him like that!

  (non-standard) Què haurà fet el Barça?

  Què deu haver fet el Barça?

  I wonder how Barcelona Football Club will have got on.

  17.2.6 CONDITIONAL PERFECT

  The conditional perfect occurs in the main clause of counterfactual conditional sentences where the ‘if’-clause may take the pluperfect indicative or subjunctive (see 34.4 and 34.5), as in:

  Si m’haguessis fet cas no t’hauries equivocat.

  If you had taken notice of me you wouldn’t have got it wrong.

  Avui hauríem anat d’excursió si no hagués plogut.

  Today we would have gone on an outing if it hadn’t rained.

  See 34.6 for the alternative conditional conjugation of haver (haguera = hauria) and for more detailed discussion of conditional constructions.

  Like its English counterpart, the conditional perfect in Catalan also expresses ‘future perfect in the past’, that is it says the event in question, A, occurred before another, B, which was subsequent to a third past event, C.

  Ajornar la decisió fins l’endemà hauria significat un risc considerable.

  Putting off the decision until the next day would have meant a considerable risk.

  Tothom creia que abans de fi d’any hauria caigut el govern.

  Everybody believed that the government would have fallen before the end of the year.

  In many such contexts, especially colloquially, the imperfect or conditional forms occur instead of the conditional perfect: so, for the examples above, we would have ajornar la decisió … significava/significaria … and … cauria el govern.

  Other functions of the simple conditional are matched in the compound form, including implied condition (No m’ho hauria cregut mai ‘I never would have believed it’) and polite toning down:

  Ja me n’hauríeu pogut informar abans.

  You might have informed me earlier.

  Hauria volgut parlar-ne amb tu.

  I would have liked to talk to you about it.

  Expressions of inference using the conditional perfect are deemed nonstandard, the construction with deure (here in the imperfect tense) being preferred:

  (non-standard) Algú hauria obert la porta la nit abans.

  Algú devia haver obert la porta la nit abans.

  Someone must have opened the door the night before.

  18 PROGRESSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS AND OTHER VERBAL PERIPHRASES

  18.1 PROGRESSIVE VERB FORMS: GENERAL

  A full range of progressive (or ‘continuous’) verb forms is constructed from the appropriate forms of estar as auxIIIary and the gerund of the verb in question (see Chapter 22): estic descansant, van estar xerrant, estarem treballant, etc. These resemble English ‘I’m resting’, ‘they were chatting’, ‘we shall be working’, etc., but some very specific distinctions and restrictions apply. We cover similar constructions involving anar, venir, or seguir as auxIIIary verb in 18.1.2.

  18.1.1 ESTAR + GERUND

  Estar + gerund is the principal progressive form; it is used in the following
contexts:

  (i) To express that an event or state is, was, or will be actually in progress at the time:

  Ara no l’hi puc passar, que està parlant per l’altra línia.

  I can’t put you through to him now, as he’s on the other line.

  Ens deuen estar observant de darrere les cortines.

  They must be watching us from behind the curtains.

  El pare Bauçà no vindrà perquè estarà dient missa.

  Father Bauçà won’t be coming as he’ll be saying Mass.

  One can contrast the Catalan non-progressive and progressive tenses in the last examples. In none of these instances (… està parlant…, … estar observant…,… estarà dient…) would the non-progressive form sound natural, unless possibly there were also an explicit time adverbial:

  … en aquest moment parla …,… ara ens deuen observar …

  Compare the examples above with the main-clause tenses in:

  L’any que ve ens envien a Eivissa.

  Next year they’re sending us to Ibiza. (future)

  Si ho tornes a fer, me’n vaig.

  If you do it again, I’m leaving, (future)

  Sempre fiquen el nas allà on no els demanen.

  They’re always interfering where they aren’t wanted, (habitual present)

  Ja sabíeu que ens n’anàvem l’endemà.

  You knew we were leaving the next day. (future in the past)

  The restriction concerning simultaneity is consistently adhered to. Ajudeu-me, que caic ‘Help me, I’m falling’ would be heard from someone slipping from a branch, say, but…, que estic caient would make sense only if the speaker were already in mid-air. Thus, similarly, Vine means ‘I’m coming’, when the speaker is probably not yet in motion. ‘I’m drowning’ really means ‘I’m about to drown’, so Catalan-speakers shout Ai, que m’ofego!, and Que et mareges? means ‘Are you feeling sick?’

  (ii) Always subject to the primary condition of simultaneity, to imply that an event is temporary or unexpected:

  Actualment estem vivint a Sabadell. At present we’re living in Sabadell.

  S’estaven posant molt nerviosos. They were getting very nervous.

  Mild protest or lively interest may also be conveyed:

  Però, què t’estàs empatollant ara? But what are you going on about now?

  (iii) To express duration of an event over a period of time:

  Van estar escodrinyant les proves durant un mes llarg.

  They were scrutinizing the evidence for a month or more.

  Vam haver d’estar esperant al carrer fins que va acabar el partit.

  We had to wait outside in the street until the match ended.

  Estaran marcant el pas mentre no els donin llum verda.

  They’ll be marking time until they get the go-ahead.

  This use of the progressive makes it possible to give ‘perfective’ demarcation to an extended event or state (see 17.1.2.1 and 17.1.3.1), and the very particular force of the preterite progressive, with this function, is to be observed. English has no equivalent.

  (iv) Occasionally to express accumulation or repetition:

  Últimament s’està queixant molt.

  She has been complaining a lot recently.

  M’estava bevent una ampolla diària de ginebra quan el metge m’ho va prohibir.

  I was drinking a bottle of gin a day when the doctor told me to stop.

  The Catalan progressive refines or expands, without substantially modifying, the meaning of the non-progressive form. Thus, in many contexts, the progressive and non-progressive forms are interchangeable:

  Mediten./Estan meditant.

  They are meditating.

  Jo parlava amb l’Enric./Jo estava parlant amb l’Enric.

  I was talking to Enric.

  Where the verb itself denotes a continuous event, estar + gerund serves to stress duration or continuity:

  -Què feien? -Preparaven el sopar./Estaven preparant el sopar.

  ‘What were they doing?’ ‘They were preparing dinner.’

  Some commentators detect an Anglicism here, imported via the influence of CastIIIan Spanish, and advise against overuse of the progressive. Nevertheless one observes marked consistency in the following conversational pattern: question non-progressive, followed by response in the progressive form: -Què fas? -Estic + gerund. Only occasionally, and in particular circumstances where continuity/duration is emphasized, will the stimulus question be in the progressive form:

  -Però, què m’estàs dient ara? –Estic intentant explicar-te que …/Intento explicar-te que …

  ‘But what are you telling me now?’ ‘I’m trying to explain …’

  18.1.2 OTHER PROGRESSIVE FORMS WITH THE GERUND

  anar+ gerund

  This construction is found, as a more expressive alternative to estar + gerund, where the idea of cumulative progression or actual motion is prominent:

  Cada dia noto que em vaig fent més vell.

  I’m aware of getting older by the day.

  El cel s’anava ennuvolant.

  The sky was clouding over.

  Anava saludant els convidats un per un.

  She went round greeting the guests one by one.

  The colloquialisms anar fent and anar tirant are in common use to express the idea of ‘be coping’, ‘be getting on reasonably well’, ‘be keeping at it’:

  No hem aconseguit progressos espectaculars, però anem fent.

  We haven’t made spectacular progress, but we’re still plugging away.

  Ha superat la crisi, i ara va tirant.

  He has got over the crisis and is now doing all right.

  venir + gerund

  Use of venir ‘come’ with the gerund is restricted firstly to contexts where the idea of coming towards the speaker is prominent:

  I ara han vingut queixant-se que res no funciona.

  And now they’ve come complaining that nothing works.

  En David sempre ve xiulant.

  David is always whistling (when he comes this way).

  Venir + gerund also has a temporal sense, approximately ‘have been doing’, as in:

  Fa anys que vénen reivindicant una línia de ferrocarril.

  For years now they have been demanding a railway line.

  continuar/seguir + gerund

  Continuar ‘continue’ combines with a gerund to convey ‘go on …-ing’. Very often English ‘still’ is an appropriate translation:

  Continuen insistint en això?

  Are they still insisting on this?

  Han mantingut i continuen mantenint bones relacions amb els seus rivals.

  They have maintained good relations with their competitors, and still do.

  Seguir with the gerund is also found with the same meaning of ‘go on …-ing’, although this construction is regarded as less genuine than the one with continuar:

  Segueixen treballant a l’ajuntament.

  They are still working at the town hall.

  18.1.3 RESTRICTIONS ON USE OF PROGRESSIVE FORMS

  Progressive forms are not normally used in the following contexts:

  (i) With verbs which express emotion (e.g., odiar/avorrir ‘hate’, enyorar ‘miss’, estimar ‘love’) nor with saber ‘know’ or conèixer ‘be acquainted with’. Here Catalan usage coincides with English in avoiding the progressive with ‘mental state’ verbs.

  With fer mal ‘hurt’ the progressive form would be most unusual:

  Ara em fa ma1 de debò. It’s really hurting now.

  (ii) With verbs that refer to states rather than activities (where English does allow the progressive):

  Aquell dia no portava corbata. That day he wasn’t wearing a tie.

  Sembla molt emocionada. She’s looking very excited.

  Els núvols tapaven la lluna. The clouds were hiding the moon.

  El que fa falta és … What’s lacking is …

  For verbs of physical posture or position, the Catalan progressive refers only to the event, not
to the state. English ‘he’s sitting (e.g., on a bench)’ will be està assegut or seu; the actual action of ‘sitting down’ is what is conveyed by està seient or està asseient-se. Likewise estaven estirats a la sorra describes people ‘lying on the sand’, while s’estaven estirant a la sorra denotes the action itself of ‘lying down’; and so too estava agenollada ‘she was kneeling’ i.e. ‘in a kneeling posture’, but s’estava agenollant ‘she was (in the act of) kneeling down’.

  (iii) With main verb estar or with verbs of motion (anar, venir, tornar, etc.):

  Estàs molt elegant avui.

  You’re looking very elegant today.

  A on vas?

  Where are you going?

  -D’on ve tota aquesta gent? – Tornen del concert.

  ‘Where are all these people coming from?’ ‘They’re coming back from the concert.’

  (iv) Generally with ser/ésser, although certain cases are encountered, often regarded as blatant anglicisms:

  El debat està sent controlat pels organismes del partit.

  Discussion is being controlled by the party organizations.

  Unless the passive with ser must be used for other reasons, it seems prudent to avoid sentences like La façana està sent restaurada ‘The facade is being restored’, in favour of S’està/Estan restaurant la façana.