A Catalan past participle can behave like an adjective: una porta tancada, dos informes revisats, les finestres estan obertes. In this use it describes a state or property and agrees with the noun in gender and number. The same participial form can also belong to a compound verb tense or a passive, so agreement alone is important but not always enough to identify its job.
English participles show little visible agreement. Catalan forces the speaker to ask a structural question: is the participle part of haver + verb, an eventive passive, or an adjective describing the noun's resulting condition?
The agreeing adjectival paradigm
Regular participial adjectives use the same four-way agreement as ordinary four-form adjectives.
| Gender and number | tancat | Phrase |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | tancat | un balcó tancat |
| feminine singular | tancada | una terrassa tancada |
| masculine plural | tancats | uns balcons tancats |
| feminine plural | tancades | unes terrasses tancades |
Aquestes dues finestres grans han quedat obertes i les portes petites continuen tancades.
These two large windows have been left open, and the small doors remain closed.
The agreement chains are fully visible: aquestes, dues, finestres, grans, obertes are feminine plural, as are les, portes, petites, tancades. Quedar and continuar work as linking verbs here; they do not remove adjective agreement.
Irregular verbal participles keep their irregular stem and then take ordinary adjectival endings: obert/oberta/oberts/obertes, escrit/escrita/escrits/escrites, fet/feta/fets/fetes, pres/presa/presos/preses, resolt/resolta/resolts/resoltes.
Ja tenim les actes escrites, les decisions preses i els casos més urgents resolts.
We now have the minutes written, the decisions made, and the most urgent cases resolved.
There is no safe rule that predicts every irregular participle. Learn the principal participle with the verb, then apply adjectival agreement when it functions as an adjective.
Resultant-state meaning
Participial adjectives typically describe the state that exists because an event has occurred. La porta està tancada does not narrate the closing; it reports the resulting condition. This is why words such as ja, encara, and completament fit naturally.
Quan hi vam arribar, la botiga ja estava tancada i els llums estaven apagats.
When we arrived, the shop was already closed and the lights were off.
Deixa la documentació preparada damunt la taula, si us plau.
Leave the documentation ready on the table, please.
In the second sentence, preparada is an object-oriented predicative adjective: it describes the condition in which the documentation should be left. The adjective agrees with documentació, not with the person addressed.
Contrast with compound forms of haver
In compound tenses with haver, the participle is part of the verb and is normally invariant in contemporary standard Catalan. It does not copy the gender and number of the direct object.
| Construction | Example | Agreement |
|---|---|---|
| compound perfect | Hem tancat les finestres. | tancat remains masculine singular |
| adjectival state | Les finestres estan tancades. | tancades agrees with finestres |
| attributive adjective | les finestres tancades | tancades agrees with finestres |
La tècnica ha revisat totes les peces i ara les peces estan revisades.
The technician has checked all the parts, and now they are all checked.
The first revisat belongs to ha revisat and remains unchanged before feminine plural peces. The second, revisades, predicates the resulting state of those pieces.
With a preceding third-person direct-object clitic (la, els, les), participle agreement is common in a substantial part of the language and especially in formal registers: La proposta, no l'hem acabada; les claus, les hem trobades. It is more frequent with feminine forms than with masculine plural forms. This restricted pattern does not change the core contrast taught here: do not add agreement to an ordinary haver + participle sequence merely because a following object is feminine or plural.
Contrast with the eventive passive
A passive with ser presents an event from the patient's perspective. Its participle also agrees, but it remains verbal: it can locate the event in time and introduce the agent with per. A state with estar describes the result.
Les portes van ser tancades pel conserge a les deu en punt.
The doors were closed by the caretaker at exactly ten.
A les deu i cinc, les portes ja estaven tancades.
At five past ten, the doors were already closed.
The first sentence narrates who performed the closing and when. The second reports the condition five minutes later. Both participles agree with portes, so meaning and syntax—not just the ending—separate the passive event from the adjectival state.
For a fuller treatment of agents and passive aspect, see the passive with ser page.
When a participle becomes a lexical adjective
Frequent participles can acquire meanings that are no longer simply “having undergone the verb.” Una persona decidida is “a determined person,” not a person whom someone has decided. Un públic entregat is “an enthusiastic, devoted audience,” and una resposta encertada is “an apt/correct answer.” These lexicalized adjectives can be graded and compared like other adjectives.
La Laia és molt decidida i sempre troba una sortida encertada quan hi ha problemes.
Laia is very determined and always finds an apt solution when there are problems.
Després de tres nits mal dormides, tots semblaven esgotats.
After three nights of poor sleep, everyone looked exhausted.
Lexicalization is a matter of usage, not a formula. Dictionaries list established adjective readings because the meaning may drift away from the source verb.
The English-looking form embarassada is a famous false friend. It means “pregnant,” not “embarrassed”; the latter is normally avergonyida.
La seva germana està embarassada de sis mesos, però encara treballa cada dia.
His sister is six months pregnant, but she still works every day.
Position can signal lexicalization
Participial adjectives normally follow the noun: un document signat, les dades actualitzades. Prenominal position is possible when the form has become evaluative or conventional, and it can change the focus.
El jurat va prendre una decisió determinada per les proves.
The jury made a decision determined by the evidence.
El jurat va prendre una determinada decisió per evitar més conflictes.
The jury made a certain decision to avoid further conflict.
Postnominal determinada per les proves retains the event-related meaning “determined by the evidence.” Prenominal una determinada decisió has the lexicalized meaning “a certain decision.” This use of the prenominal adjective is established, but copying English order indiscriminately—les tancades portes, els revisats informes—sounds literary or unnatural in ordinary Catalan.
Complements and neighboring words
Participial adjectives may retain a complement associated with the source verb: un pastís farcit de crema, una decisió basada en dades, persones acostumades al fred. Once the participle is adjectival, agreement still targets the head noun; the preposition is selected by the adjective.
Les noves mesures acordades pel govern estan pensades per a les famílies més afectades.
The new measures agreed by the government are intended for the families most affected.
This sentence contains several agreeing feminine plural forms: les, noves, mesures, acordades, pensades, les, famílies, afectades. The prepositional complements do not interrupt those relations.
Article use depends on reference, not on the participle itself: Busco una habitació moblada introduces any suitable furnished room; Busco l'habitació moblada identifies a particular one. English article habits should not override the Catalan distinction.
Noun gender must come from Catalan too. Unlike Spanish el calor, Catalan has feminine la calor: la calor acumulada, una calor insuportable. A participial adjective therefore gives la calor acumulada, not el calor acumulat.
The core participial system is shared across standards. Keep the surrounding paradigm consistent: Central aquestes portes seves estan obertes; (regional: Valencian) estes portes seues estan obertes. Do not combine Valencian estes with Central seves in a single-variety model.
Common Mistakes
1. Making a participle agree inside an ordinary haver compound.
❌ Hem tancades totes les finestres.
Incorrect in the ordinary compound perfect — the participle after haver is invariant.
✅ Hem tancat totes les finestres.
We have closed all the windows.
2. Failing to agree an adjectival participle.
❌ Totes les finestres estan tancat.
Incorrect — the state adjective must agree with feminine plural finestres.
✅ Totes les finestres estan tancades.
All the windows are closed.
3. Confusing a state with an eventive passive.
❌ Les cartes estaven enviades per la secretària a les nou.
Awkward for a timed event with an expressed agent — estar presents a state, not the event itself.
✅ Les cartes van ser enviades per la secretària a les nou.
The letters were sent by the secretary at nine.
4. Copying English prenominal order.
❌ Hem arxivat els signats contractes.
Unnatural neutral order — a descriptive participial adjective normally follows the noun.
✅ Hem arxivat els contractes signats.
We have filed the signed contracts.
5. Mixing regional neighboring forms.
❌ Estes finestres meves estan obertes.
Inconsistent in a single-variety model — estes is Valencian and meves is Central.
✅ Aquestes finestres meves estan obertes.
These windows of mine are open. Central standard baseline.
Key Takeaways
An adjectival participle describes a noun's property or resulting state and agrees with that noun. A participle after haver in an ordinary compound tense is normally invariant. An eventive passive with ser also shows agreement, but it narrates an event and can name its agent; a construction with estar typically foregrounds the resulting state.
Now practice Catalan
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- Adjective AgreementA1 — Learn how Catalan adjectives match a noun in gender and number, including four-form, two-form, and common spelling patterns.
- Adjectives with Ser and EstarB1 — Choose ser for characterization and estar for attained states, while recognizing adjectives whose meaning changes with the copula.
- Adjective Position Before and After the NounB1 — Choose Catalan adjective position by distinguishing neutral description, classification, evaluation, fixed orders, and information structure.
- Participles in Compound TensesA2 — Use haver plus a normally invariable participle, place negation and clitics correctly, and recognize restricted object agreement.
- The Ser PassiveB2 — Build and use the Catalan ser passive with agreement and per agents, while choosing it only when patient-centered information structure justifies it.
- Adjective ComplementsB1 — Build adjective phrases with selected prepositions, infinitives, finite que-clauses, and the resuming pronouns en and hi.