Catalan: Determiners

Determiners (Determinants)

Determiners are words (as an article, possessive, demonstrative, or quantifier) that makes specific the denotation of a noun phrase. In Catalan they agree in gender and number with the noun.
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Articles (Articles)

		*INDEFINITE*	*D E F I N I T E*					*PERSONAL*
			*from L. ille*				*from L. ipse* *("Salty Article")*
			*Basic forms*	*Contracted forms*
			*Basic forms*	a	de	*per*
*Sg.*	m	un	el (l')	al	del	pel	es (s')	en (l')
*Sg.*	f	una	la (l')	--	--	--	sa (s')	la
*Pl.*	m	uns	els	als	dels	pels	es (ets)	--
*Pl.*	f	unes	les	--	--	--	ses	--

The Personal article is required before personal names, cf.:

en Joan John, la Maria Mary.

The elided form l' is used in front of masculine nouns beginning with vowel and with feminine nouns beginning with vowel different from unstressed i, u, cf.:

l'amic the friend (he), l'imperi the empire (m.);
l'amiga the friend (she), l'illa the isle (f.) butla ideathe idea (f.);
en Joan Johnbut l' Antoni Anthony.

Some Catalan dialects still preserve the medieval forms of the masculine definite articles lo and los.

The salty article originated in Costa Brava, where nowadays it is obsolete, but it is still present in toponyms like S'Agaró or Sa Tuna. When Mallorca was conquered by Jaume I in the 13th century people from Costa Brava settled on the Balearic Islands and now the salty article is used there. The Balearic dialect uses personal feminine article na (instead of la).
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Possessive Adjectives (Adjectius Possessius)

...		O n e o w n e r				M a n y o w n e r s
...		*S i n g u l a r*		*P l u r a l*		*S i n g u l a r*		*P l u r a l*
*Person*		*Stressed*	*Unstressed*	*Stressed*	*Unstressed*	*Stressed and Unstressed*		*Stressed and Unstressed*
*1^st*	m	meu	mon	meus	mos	nostre		nostres
*1^st*	f	meva	ma	meves	mes	nostra		nostres
*2^nd*	m	teu	ton	teus	tos	vostre		vostres
*2^nd*	f	teva	ta	teves	tes	vostra		vostres
*3^rd*	m	seu	son	seus	sos	seu	llur	seus	llurs
*3^rd*	f	seva	sa	seves	ses	seva	llur	seves	llurs

The stressed forms may be placed before and after the nouns; when preceding the nouns, they are used with definite article, cf.:

el meu amic my friend (he), la meva amiga my friend (she);
els meus amics my friends (masc.), les meves amigues my friends (fem.).

The unstressed forms are retained in some dialects. In the literary language they are used in fixed expressions like:

mon pare my father, ma mare my mother etc.

The forms llur, llurs are used in the literarary language only.
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Demonstrative Adjectives (Adjectius Demostratius)

	*Singular*		*Plural*
	*Masculine*	*Feminine*	*Masculine*	*Feminine*
*Near objects*	aquest this	aquesta	aquests	aquestes
*Remote objects*	aqueix this, that	aqueixa	aqueixos	aqueixes
*Remote objects*	aquell that	aquella	aquells	aquelles

Examples:

aquest llibre this book

aquests llibresthese books
aquesta dona this woman
aquestes dones these women

aquell llibre that book

aquells llibres those books
aquella dona that woman
aquelles dones those women

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Interrogative Adjectives (Adjectius Interrogatius)

*Singular*		*Plural*
*Masculine*	*Feminine*	*Masculine*	*Feminine*
quin? what kind of?	quina?	quins?	quines?

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Indefinite Adjectives (Adjectius Indefinits)

*V a r i a b l e*				*Invariable*
*S i n g u l a r*		*P l u r a l*
*Masculine*	*Feminine*	*Masculine*	*Feminine*
algun some	alguna	alguns	algunes	massa too much, too many cada each, every prou enough una mica de a few... un poc de a few...
altre other	altra	altres
mateix same	mateixa	mateixos	mateixes
molt much	molta	molts many	moltes
poc few, little	poca	pocs	poques
[no] gaire no much		[no] gaires no many
qualsevol whatever		qualssevol
tal such		tals
tot all, the whole...	tota	tots every	totes

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Negative Adjectives (Adjectius Negatius)

*S i n g u l a r*		*P l u r a l*
*Masculine*	*Feminine*	*Masculine*	*Feminine*
ni un (ningun) none	ni una (ninguna)	--	--

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