Catalan personal pronouns


This article discusses the forms and functions of the personal pronouns in Catalan grammar.

Strong pronouns

The "strong" pronouns in Catalan have the following forms:
These forms are used as subject pronouns, and also as disjunctive pronouns, for example, after a preposition.
The first person singular pronoun has a special form mi after most prepositions.
However, the form jo is used with some prepositions, for example, in segons jo, and in coordinated structures with another noun or pronoun: contra tu i jo.
The third person reflexive pronoun si cannot be used as a subject.
It most commonly appears after a preposition, often reinforced by mateix:
The 2nd person polite pronouns are vostè and vostès. They combine with 3rd person verbs.
The older form vós can be found in some varieties of Catalan, and in contexts like administrative texts.
The 1st person majestic plural is expressed with the pronoun Nós.
There exists as well an impersonal subject pronoun hom, always used with 3rd person singular verbs, nowadays archaic and only used in writing:
The weak pronouns are proforms that, as the name indicates, do not carry stress. All are monosyllabic clitics, and all must always appear immediately before or after a verb: they cannot be used on their own or attached to a different element of the sentence. The combination of the verb plus the weak pronoun or pronouns always has a single stressed vowel, that of the verb.

Forms

Weak pronouns in Catalan vary according to:
  1. the person, number, and gender of the antecedent
  2. its syntactic function.
The form of a given pronoun is determined by its position with respect to the verb, and whether it is adjacent to a vowel or a consonant in the verb. There are four possible configurations:
Not all pronouns have four distinct forms. The following table shows the complete inventory.

Uses

The weak pronouns primarily express complements of the verb.
The weak pronouns are either proclitic or enclitic.
Enclitic pronouns are used with infinitives, gerunds, and positive imperatives.
With all other forms of the verb, the weak pronouns are proclitic. This includes, in particular, conjugated verbs and negative imperatives:
In complex verbal constructions consisting of a conjugated verb and an infinitive or gerund, the pronoun can appear either before the first verb or after the second verb.
Use of weak pronouns varies significantly across the Catalan linguistic area.
Northern Catalan and the Balearic dialect do not generally use the reinforced forms.
In the imperative mood in Northern Catalan, the reduced form of the pronoun is replaced by a tonic form. For example, mira'm! in Northern Catalan is rendered as mira-mé!.

Combinations of weak pronouns

When two weak pronouns appear with the same verb, they must appear in a fixed order, as illustrated in the following table:
The two pronouns must be selected from different columns, and furthermore ho cannot combine with en or hi.
All of the combinations allowed in the standard language are given in the following table, which also shows the necessary morpho-phonological and orthographic adjustments. In each cell of the table, the forms are listed in the following order, with the same contextual conditions as explained above for the simple pronouns:
  1. proclitic form used before a verb that begins with a vowel
  2. proclitic form used before a verb that begins with a consonant
  3. enclitic form used after a verb that ends with a vowel
  4. enclitic form used after a verb that ends with a consonant
hienhoellaelslesliemetensus
ess'hi
s'hi
-s'hi
-s'hi		se n'
se'n
-se'n
-se'n		s'ho
s'ho
-s'ho
-s'ho		se l'
se'l
-se'l
-se'l		se l'
se la
-se-la
-se-la		se'ls
se'ls
-se'ls
-se'ls		se les
se les
-se-les
-se-les		se li
se li
-se-li
-se-li		se m'
se'm
-se'm
-se'm		se t'
se't
-se't
-se't		se'ns
se'ns
-se'ns
-se'ns		se us
se us
-se-us
-se-us
ett'hi
t'hi
-t'hi
-t'hi		te n'
te'n
-te'n
-te'n		t'ho
t'ho
-t'ho
-t'ho		te l'
te'l
-te'l
-te'l		te l'
te la
-te-la
-te-la		te'ls
te'ls
-te'ls
-te'ls		te les
te les
-te-les
-te-les		te li
te li
-te-li
-te-li		te m'
te'm
-te'm
-te'm		te'ns
te'ns
-te'ns
-te'ns
usus hi
us hi
-us-hi
-vos-hi		us n'
us en
-us-en
-vos-en		us ho
us ho
-us-ho
-vos-ho		us l'
us el
-us-el
-vos-el		us l'
us la
-us-la
-vos-la		us els
us els
-us-els
-vos-els		us les
us les
-us-les
-vos-les		us li
us li
-us-li
-vos-li		us m'
us em
-us-em
-vos-em		us ens
us ens
-us-ens
-vos-ens
emm'hi
m'hi
-m'hi
-m'hi		me n'
me'n
-me'n
-me'n		m'ho
m'ho
-m'ho
-m'ho		me l'
me'l
-me'l
-me'l		me l'
me la
-me-la
-me-la		me'ls
me'ls
-me'ls
-me'ls		me les
me les
-me-les
-me-les		me li
me li
-me-li
-me-li
ensens hi
ens hi
'ns-hi
-nos-hi		ens n'
ens en
'ns-en
-nos-en		ens ho
ens ho
'ns-ho
-nos-ho		ens l'
ens el
'ns-el
-nos-el		ens l'
ens la
'ns-la
-nos-la		ens els
ens els
'ns-els
-nos-els		ens les
ens les
'ns-les
-nos-les		ens li
ens li
'ns-li
-nos-li
lili hi
li hi
-li-hi
-li-hi		li n'
li'n
-li'n
-li'n		li ho
li ho
-li-ho
-li-ho		li l'
li'l
-li'l
-li'l		li l'
li la
-li-la
-li-la		li'ls
li'ls
-li'ls
-li'ls		li les
li les
-li-les
-li-les
els
ind. obj.		els hi
els hi
'ls-hi
-los-hi		els n'
els en
'ls-en
-los-en		els ho
els ho
'ls-ho
-los-ho		els l'
els el
'ls-el
-los-el		els l'
els la
'ls-la
-los-la		els els
els els
'ls-els
-los-els		els les
els les
'ls-les
-los-les
ell'hi
l'hi
-l'hi
-l'hi		el n'
l'en
-l'en
-l'en
lala hi
la hi
-la-hi
-la-hi		la n'
la'n
-la'n
-la'n
els
dir. obj.		els hi
els hi
'ls-hi
-los-hi		els n'
els en
'ls-en
-los-en
lesles hi
les hi
-les-hi
-les-hi		les n'
les en
-les-en
-les-en
enn'hi
n'hi
-n'hi
-n'hi

In combinations like es + en, the resulting form, pronounced, could be analyzed either as s' + en or as se + 'n. The orthographic convention in such cases is to place the apostrophe as far to the right as possible: se'n, and not s'en, and similarly for se'ls, me'n, te'm, te'ns, etc. The combination of el/la with en, however, is written l'en, because there is no such pronoun as le that would justify the spelling le'n.

Impossible combinations

As mentioned above, the combinations ho + hi and ho + en are not allowed in the standard language, and must be avoided, for example by keeping only ho and leaving the other pronoun unexpressed. In some contexts, it is also acceptable to replace ho with el, giving rise to the following combinations:
In the second case, it is also possible to replace the pronoun en with hi:
This substitution of hi for en is also used to express the combination of en + en, since the form *ne'n is not allowed:
Sequences of three pronouns are possible, and generally consist of one of the two-pronoun combinations from the table above, preceded by em, et, ens, us, and most commonly es.
Combinations of four pronouns are very rare:
Combinations of weak pronouns are subject to wide regional and stylistic variation, and in several cases the normative rules presented above do not reflect actual usage.
For example, alongside the transparently derived forms of li + direct object pronoun given in the table above, central Catalan varieties replace li with hi:
Furthermore, the feminine forms can merge phonetically with the masculine forms, i.e. la hi is pronounced like l'hi and les hi like els hi.
Combinations of li with en and ho can also undergo modification:
In more colloquial registers, the plural indirect object pronoun els is realized as els hi, and this extended form is used instead of all combinations of els followed by a 3rd person direct object pronoun:
The elided proclitic forms ens n' and us n' are regularly replaced by the unelided forms ens en and us en before a verb starting with a vowel. For example: