Catalan

Catalan: An Essential Grammar is a concise and convenient guide to the basic grammatical structure of Catalan. Presenting a fresh and accessible description of the language, this engaging Grammar uses clear explanations and sets out the complexities of Catalan in short, readable sections clarified by examples. Quick reference overviews are also provided in the appendix. Catalan: An Essential Grammar is the ideal reference grammar for all learners of Catalan, whether class-based or independent, looking to progress beyond beginner level.

Nicolau Dols lectures as Professor Titular de Universitat at the University of the Balearic Islands. He is also a full member of the Philological Section of Institut d'Estudis Catalans, the official academy for the Catalan language. Richard Mansell is Senior Lecturer in Translation at the University of Exeter.

Abbreviations ix PART I What is Catalan? 1 Chapter 1 Catalan-speaking areas 3 Chapter 2 Catalan among the other Romance languages 5 Chapter 3 Catalan in the twenty-first century 7 Chapter 4 Main dialects 11 Chapter 5 Pronunciation and spelling 13 5.1 Vowels 13 5.2 Reading and pronouncing consonants 17 PART II Words, word groups, and word formation 19 Chapter 6 Word classes 21 6.1 Nouns 21 6.2 Adjectives 24 6.3 Articles 32 6.4 Personal (stressed) pronouns 37 6.5 Possessives and demonstratives 41 6.6 Quantifiers 46 Chapter 7 Verb phrases 58 7.1 Verbs 58 7.2 Adverbs 79 7.3 Unstressed pronouns 89 Chapter 8 Prepositions 106 8.1 Unstressed (atonic) prepositions 106 8.2 Simple and compound stressed (tonic) prepositions 108 Chapter 9 Derivation: Creating words from other words 114 9.1 Qualifying affixes 114 9.2 Category changing affixes 119 Chapter 10 Compounds 127 10.1 Verb + noun 127 10.2 Noun + noun 128 10.3 Noun (or pronoun) + verb 129 10.4 Noun + adjective / adjective + noun 129 PART III Clauses and sentences 131 Chapter 11 Word order 133 11.1 The basics 133 11.2 Word order in specific contexts 134 Chapter 12 Relating elements 138 12.1 Coordination 138 12.2 Subordinate clauses 142 PART IV Doing things and real language 157 Chapter 13 Intention 159 13.1 Affirmation 159 13.2 Negation 160 13.3 Questions 164 13.4 Exclamation 167 13.5 Giving orders 168 Chapter 14 Focusing 170 14.1 Passive 170 14.2 Impersonal sentences and pronominal passive 172 14.3 Cleft sentences 174 Chapter 15 Defining 176 15.1 The article 176 15.2 Copulative sentences: Linking subjects and predicates 176 Chapter 16 Comparing 182 16.1 Comparing single elements 182 16.2 Clauses 186 Chapter 17 Treatments 189 17.1 Degrees of politeness 189 17.2 Grammatical relations of polite pronouns 189 17.3 Honorifics 190 17.4 Titles before surnames 191 Chapter 18 Emphasizers 192 18.1 Emphasizing single elements 192 18.2 Emphasizing whole phrases 195 Chapter 19 Interjections and ideophones 196 Chapter 20 Frequent native-speaker mistakes (solecisms) 200 20.1 Morphology 200 20.2 Verb usage 204 20.3 Syntax 204 Appendix - Verb conjugation 209 Index 243