This article discusses the forms and functions of thepersonal pronouns inCatalan andValencian.

The "strong" pronouns (Catalan:pronoms forts) in Catalan have the following forms:

These forms are used assubject pronouns (with the exception ofsi), and also asdisjunctive pronouns, for example, after apreposition.

• Jo encara no en sé gaire. ("I still don't know much about it.")
• Ell, no crec que vingui. ("Him, I don't think he's coming.")
• Han preguntat pervosaltres. ("They asked about you.")

The first person singular pronoun has a special formmi after most prepositions.

• Queda't ambmi. ("Stay with me.")

However, the formjo is used with some prepositions, for example, insegons jo ("according to me"), and in coordinated structures with another noun or pronoun:contra tu i jo ("against you and me").

The third person reflexive pronounsi (both singular and plural) cannot be used as a subject. It most commonly appears after a preposition, often reinforced bymateix:

• Ho va comprar per asi mateix. ("He bought it for himself.")
• Ho va comprar per asi mateixa. ("She bought it for herself.")
• Ho van comprar per asi mateixos. ("They bought it for themselves (masculine).")
• Ho van comprar per asi mateixes. ("They bought it for themselves (feminine).")

The 2nd personpolite pronouns arevostè (singular) andvostès (plural). They combine with 3rd person verbs.

• Vostè em faria un favor? ("Would you do me a favor?")

The older formvós (with 2nd person plural verb agreement) can be found in some varieties of Catalan, and in contexts like administrative texts.

The 1st personmajestic plural is expressed with the pronounNós (in place ofnosaltres).

There exists as well an impersonal subject pronounhom (unmarked for either gender or number), always used with 3rd person singular verbs, nowadays archaic and only used in writing:

• Hom no es fa monja perquè sí ("One does not become a nun because of nothing.")

Theweak pronouns (Catalan:pronoms febles) areproforms that, as the name indicates, do not carrystress. All are monosyllabicclitics, and all must always appear immediately before or after averb: 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.

Weak pronouns in Catalan vary according to:

1. theperson,number, andgender of theantecedent
2. its syntactic function (direct or indirectobject oradverbial complement).

The form of a given pronoun is determined by its position with respect to theverb, and whether it is adjacent to avowel or aconsonant in the verb. There are four possible configurations:

• reinforced form (forma reforçada): used before a verb that begins with a consonant, separated from the verb by a space

Em veieu. ("You see me.")

• elided form (forma elidida): used before a verb that begins with a vowel (orh-), and separated from it by an apostrophe

Això m'agrada ("I like that."; lit. "That pleases me")

• full form (forma plena): used after a verb that ends in a consonant (or adiphthong ending in-u), connected to the verb with a hyphen

En Joan no vol seguir-me. ("John doesn't want to follow me.")

• reduced form (forma reduïda): used after a verb that ends in a vowel, separated from it by an apostrophe (except in the case of-us)

Dóna'm un llibre. ("Give me a book.")

Not all pronouns have four distinct forms. The following table shows the complete inventory.

The weak pronouns primarily expresscomplements of the verb.

• Direct objects

Ahirel vaig veure. ("Yesterday I saw him.")

Ahirla vaig veure. ("Yesterday I saw her.")

• Indirect objects

Li donaràs el llibre? ("Will you give him/her the book?")

• Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive –La nenaes renta. ("The girl is washing herself.")

Pronominal –Totses van penedir d'això. ("Everyone was sorry about that.")

• The neuter proformho replaces pronouns such asaçò ("this"),això,allò ("that"), ortot ("everything"), or even an entireclause.

Noho sé. ("I don't know [the thing you just asked about].")

-T'agrada mirar la televisió? -No,ho trobo avorrit. ("Do you like to watch TV?" "No, I think it's boring.")

Cal netejar-ho tot. ("We have to clean it all up.")

• The proformhi replaces adverbial complements such as:

Locative expressions:Sempre he tingut ganes d'anar-hi. ("I've always wanted to go [there].")

Prepositional phrases denoting manner or instrument, or starting with the prepositionsa,amb,en,per, etc.:Hi estic d'acord. ("I agree [with that, with you, etc].)."

Adverbs and adjectives used with verbs other thanser,ésser,estar,semblar,esdevenir: -Que t'has llevat alegre? -Sí, m'hi he llevat. (-"Did you get up in a good mood?" -"Yes, I did.")

Intransitive verbs of perception:L'home nohi sent. ("The man can't hear.")

• The adverbial proformen replaces

Prepositional phrases starting withde:Tothomen parla. ("Everyone is talking about it.");En vinc. ("I'm from there.")

Unmodified nouns or nouns preceded by numbers, quantifying adverbs or an indefinite article:Quantes cases teniu? —En tenim dues/moltes. ("How many houses do you have?" — "We have two/many [of them].");Tens adreça de correu electrònic? —Sí,en tinc. ("Have you got an email address?" — "Yes, I do.")

The weak pronouns are eitherproclitic (appearing immediately before the verb) orenclitic (immediately after).

Enclitic pronouns are used with infinitives, gerunds, and positive imperatives.

• Pots fer-nos mandonguilles? ("Can you make us meatballs?")
• Veient-ho des de fora, analitzant-ho objectivament ("Seeing it from an outsider's point of view, analyzing it objectively")
• Vés-hi i espera'm. ("Go there and wait for me.")

With all other forms of the verb, the weak pronouns are proclitic. This includes, in particular, conjugated (finite) verbs and negative imperatives:

• Ens faràs encara mandonguilles? ("Will you make us meatballs again?")
• Nom'esperis. ("Don't wait for me.")

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.

• Els volien atacar. orVolien atacar-los. ("They wanted to attack them.")
• L'estem escoltant. orEstem escoltant-lo. ("We are listening to him.")

Use of weak pronouns varies significantly across the Catalan linguistic area.^[1]

Northern Catalan (particularly as spoken inNorthern Catalonia) and theBalearic dialect do not generally use the reinforced forms (e.g.te veig instead ofet veig).^[1]

In theimperative mood in Northern Catalan, the reduced form of the pronoun is replaced by atonic form (thus, not strictly being aweak pronoun anymore). For example,mira'm! (en:look at me!) in Northern Catalan is rendered asmira-mé!.

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 furthermoreho cannot combine withen orhi.

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 usedbefore a verb that begins with a consonant
3. enclitic form usedafter a verb that ends with a vowel (except "u")
4. enclitic form usedafter a verb that ends with a consonant (or "u")

In combinations likees +en, the resulting form, pronounced[sən], could be analyzed either ass' +en or asse +'n. The orthographic convention in such cases is to place the apostrophe as far to the right as possible:se'n, and nots'en, and similarly forse'ls,me'n,te'm,te'ns, etc. The combination ofel/la withen, however, is writtenl'en, because there is no such pronoun asle that would justify the spellingle'n.

As mentioned above, the combinationsho +hi andho +en are not allowed in the standard language, and must be avoided, for example by keeping onlyho and leaving the other pronoun unexpressed. In some contexts, it is also acceptable to replaceho withel, giving rise to the following combinations:

• ho +hi →el +hi →l'hi

(Això, a Sabadell) l'hi portaré demà. ("I will take it there tomorrow")

• ho +en →el +en →l'en

In the second case, it is also possible to replace the pronounen withhi:

• ho +en →el +hi →l'hi

(Això, de l'armari) l'en/l'hi trauré després. ("I will take it out of there afterwards")

This substitution ofhi foren is also used to express the combination ofen (ablative) +en (genitive), since the form *ne'n is not allowed:

• en +en →en +hi →n'hi

(D'homes, del teatre) n'hi sortiran tres. ("Three of them will come out of there")

Sequences of three pronouns are possible, and generally consist of one of the two-pronoun combinations from the table above, preceded byem,et,ens,us, and most commonlyes (the added pronoun must not already appear in the original two-pronoun cluster).^[2]

• Us posen vi als gots (They put wine in the glasses for you) →Us n'hi posen (They put some there for you)
• Se t'ofereix cervesa (You are offered beer) →Se te n'ofereix (You are offered some)

Combinations of four pronouns are very rare:

• Se'm posa pols a les sabates (Dust gets into my shoes) →Se me n'hi posa (Some of it [the sand] gets into them [the shoes])

The linguist Joan Solà presents a progression that culminates in a combination of six weak pronouns:

• Aquell amic nostre (→ te me) és capaç de posar-se a casa (→ hi) tres parents (→ ’n) del senyor Pere (→ li) (That friend of ours is able to give lodging in his house to three relatives of Senyor Pere) →Se te me li n’hi posarà tres

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 ofli + direct object pronoun (el,la,els,les) given in the table above, central Catalan varieties replaceli withhi:

• li +el →el +hi →l'hi (instead ofli'l)
• li +la →la +hi →la hi (instead ofli la)
• li +els →els +hi →els hi (instead ofli'ls)
• li +les →les +hi →les hi (instead ofli les)

Furthermore, the feminine forms can merge phonetically with the masculine forms, i.e.la hi is pronounced likel'hi andles hi likeels hi.

Combinations ofli withen andho can also undergo modification:

• li +en →en +hi →n'hi (instead ofli'n)
• li +ho →el +hi →l'hi (instead ofli ho)

In more colloquial registers, the plural indirect object pronounels is realized asels hi, and this extended form is used instead of all combinations ofels followed by a 3rd person direct object pronoun:

• els +el/la/els/les/ho →els hi

The elided proclitic formsens n' andus n' are regularly replaced by the unelided formsens en andus en before a verb starting with a vowel. For example:

• Ens en anem, instead ofEns n'anem
• Us en alegreu, instead ofUs n'alegreu

• Pro-drop language
• Prepositional pronoun
• Clitic doubling

• Bonet, Eulàlia (1995). "Feature Structure of Romance Clitics".Natural Language & Linguistic Theory.13 (4):607–647.doi:10.1007/BF00992853.S2CID 170844704.
• Dorandeu, Joan; Montserrat Moral de Prudon (1979).El catalán sin esfuerzo (in Spanish). Chennevières-sur-Marne: Assimil.ISBN 978-2-7005-0106-3.
• Pellicer, Joan E.; Francesc Ferran (1998).Gramática de uso de la lengua catalana (in Spanish). Barcelona: MIL999.ISBN 84-930236-0-4.

• ésAdir: Pronoms(in Catalan)

• Catalan grammar
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