Appendix:Catalan irregular verbs

Main appendix: Catalan verbs

There is a rather large number of irregular verbs in Catalan. This page lists those verbs, along with a description of the points where their inflection differs from the usual/regular form.

Many irregular verbs have only an irregular past participle, but are otherwise completely regular. To avoid cluttering up the list with these verbs, they are listed separately.

First conjugation edit

With irregular past participle edit

Only one first conjugation verb has an irregular past participle, matar, and it is only optionally irregular. The regular form matat may be used, but alternatively the past participle of morir is borrowed for this verb as well.

donar edit

The verb donar is completely regular, at least in speech. Its second and third person singular present forms can be confused with the noun dona, plural dones. For that reason, an extra (redundant) accent is placed on those forms: dónes, dóna.

dar edit

The obsolescent verb dar is regular, but its conjugation is defective - it does not have a full set of forms. All forms that would have an unstressed ending in a normal -ar verb are missing from this verb.

anar edit

anar is suppletive. All forms that would have an unstressed ending in a normal -ar verb, instead use a different root altogether, va-. These forms themselves are irregular in their own right, as well:

  • The present tense forms drop the vowel of the ending: vas, va, van.
  • The 1st person singular present and the present subjunctive use the stem vaj-: vaig, vagi, vagis, vagin.
  • The 2nd person singular imperative is different altogether: vés.

In addition to this, the stem that is used to form the future and conditional forms is not anar-, but instead the irregular anir-.

estar edit

The present tense of estar has the stress on the ending rather than on the e: estàs, està, estan. The 1st person singular present, the preterite, and both subjunctive tenses have a velar stem, estig- (which becomes estic in the first due to devoicing, and estigu- before e or i). There are no imperative forms, instead forms based on the subjunctive are used.

Second conjugation edit

With irregular past participle edit

The regular past participle ending is -ut, but there are so many irregular forms that it isn't actually that frequent. For velar-infix stems (ending in -l and -n) and vowel stems, the usual ending is -gut, but it is rarer still.

The following verbs have velar-infix stems, but past participles ending in -ut.

Infinitive Past participle Derived verbs
vendre venut malvendre

The following verbs do not have velar-infix stems, but still have past participles ending in -gut, or have an irregular stem.

Infinitive Past participle Derived verbs
caure caigut decaure, escaure, recaure
conèixer conegut desconèixer, reconèixer
córrer corregut acórrer, concórrer, encórrer, escórrer
parèixer paregut aparèixer, comparèixer
pertànyer pertangut
poder pogut
ser/ésser sigut (archaic), estat
soler solgut
tenir tingut contenir, entretenir, mantenir, obtenir, retenir, sostenir
venir vingut contravenir, esdevenir, intervenir, prevenir, provenir, revenir
voler volgut

The following verbs have past participles ending in -scut.

Infinitive Past participle Derived verbs
créixer crescut
merèixer merescut
néixer/nàixer nascut
péixer/pàixer pascut
viure viscut conviure, malviure

The following verbs have past participles ending in -t attached directly to the stem, which may lose its final consonant. (This -t does not become -d- in the feminine.)

Infinitive Past participle Derived verbs
constrènyer constret
coure cuit
dir dit contradir, desdir, predir
dur dut endur
escriure escrit
fer fet estrafer, desfer, refer
moldre mòlt remoldre
pondre post compondre, correspondre, descompondre, despondre's, recompondre, respondre
-soldre -solt absoldre, dissoldre, resoldre
toldre tolt
treure/traure tret bestreure/bestraure, distreure/distraure, retreure/retraure
veure vist entreveure, preveure, reveure

The following verbs have past participles ending in -s, which usually causes the preceding consonant to disappear or change.

Infinitive Past participle Derived verbs
atènyer atès
cloure clos, -clòs descloure, encloure, incloure
enfondre enfús
fendre fes, -fès defendre, ofendre
fondre fos, -fós confondre, difondre, infondre, refondre, transfondre (but see above for enfondre)
metre mes, -mès admetre, emetre, transmetre, sotmetre
prendre pres, -près aprendre, dependre, despendre
romandre romàs
suspendre suspès
-tendre -tès atendre, distendre, entendre, estendre, pretendre

Irregular infinitive edit

The following verbs have an infinitive ending in stressed -er or in just -r. Most of these verbs have an alternative, more regular infinitive, which may be more or less frequently used than the irregular one. Note that in the case of infinitives in stressed -er, the future and conditional are formed based on the "regular" alternative infinitive form.

Irregular Alternative Derived verbs
caber cabre
caler caldre
dir contradir, desdir, predir
doler doldre condoldre/condoler
dur endur
fer desfer, estrafer, refer
haver heure/haure
poder (podre)
saber (sabre)
ser ésser
soler (soldre)
valer valdre equivaler/equivaldre, prevaler/prevaldre
voler (voldre)

With alternating stem vowel edit

The following verbs have e when the stem vowel is stressed, a when it is not stressed. This alternation only occurs in Eastern Catalan (which includes the Catalan of most of Catalonia and the Balears). In Western Catalan (including Valencian), the verbs have only a.

Infinitive (stressed) Unstressed stem Derived verbs
heure hau-/hav-
jeure ja- ajeure
néixer naix-
péixer paix-
treure tra- bestreure, distreure, retreure

Other irregularities edit

Verb Other verbs Irregularity
cabre/caber Present subjunctive/imperative with stem càpig-.
saber Present subjunctive/imperative with stem sàpig-.
Irregular present 1st singular indicative (sé).
poder Irregular present indicative 1/2/3sg (puc, pots, pot).
Otherwise as prendre in all forms but present and imperfect indicative.
But present subjunctive/imperative with stem pug-.
córrer acórrer, concórrer, encórrer, escórrer With stem correg- in the preterite and imperfect subjunctive.
3rd singular present and 2nd singular imperative in -e.
aparèixer comparèixer, conèixer, desconèixer, parèixer, reconèixer With stem apareg- in the 1sg. present, preterite, subjunctive, imperative and past participle.
voler Pres.ind.1 (vull), present subjunctive/imperative with stem vulg-.
caldre/caler Defective, third person forms only.
haver (aux) As heure, but with shortened present indicative.
Present subjunctive in -g- instead of -gu-.
escriure All verbs in -scriure With 3rd conjugation (-i-) endings in present participle, present indicative 1/2pl, imperative 2pl.
Alternative forms for preterite, subjunctive imperfect with stem escriv- and 3rd conj. endings.
viure conviure, malviure As escriure, but with -g- (pres.ind.1sg -c) replaced by -sc- (-sq-) in all forms.
caure decaure, escaure, recaure With stem cai- also in pres.ind.1sg (caic), preterite and subjunctive; stem quei- in imperfect.
veure entreveure, preveure, reveure With stem vei- also in pres.ind.1sg (veig), preterite and subjunctive imperfect.
-g- instead of -gu- in subjunctive present.
Alternative forms for pret. in ve(r)-.
fer
desfer estrafer, refer as fer except impr.2, impf.subj.1,3
ser/ésser Irregular/suppletive.

tenir and venir edit

Model verb: tenir
Template: {{ca-conj-ir-tenir}}

The verbs tenir and venir appear to belong to the third conjugation, because their infinitives end in -ir. Indeed, the present tense (apart from the 1st person singular) and the imperfect tense are conjugated as in the third conjugation (without -eix-). However, in all other forms, these verbs and their derivatives conjugate as if their infinitives were tindre and vindre, like the second conjugation. Because their stems end in -n, they have a velar infix as well.

The difference between the verbs along with their derivatives is in the 2nd, 3rd person singular and 3rd person plural indicative, as well as the 2nd person imperative. These may or may not have an accent on the -e. The 3rd person singular indicative and 2nd person singular imperative may also retain or drop the final -n of the stem. The singular imperative of venir itself is unique: vine.

Third conjugation edit

With irregular past participle edit

There are two main types of irregular past participle. These irregularities also occur in the second conjugation.

The following verbs have past participles ending in -t attached directly to the stem, which may get an extra -e- before the final consonant.

Infinitive Past participle Derived verbs
cobrir cobert
complir complert
morir mort
obrir obert
omplir omplert
sofrir sofert
suplir suplert

The following verbs have past participles ending in -s, which usually causes the preceding consonant to disappear or change.

Infinitive Past participle Derived verbs
imprimir imprès

With alternating stem vowel edit

The following verbs have u and i when the stem vowel is stressed, o and e(i) when it is not stressed.

Infinitive Stressed stem Derived verbs
collir cull- recollir
cosir cus-
eixir ix- reeixir
escopir escup-
sortir surt- ressortir
tossir tuss-