Indicative or Subjunctive?

The Catalan indicative normally asserts a proposition: the speaker presents it as information to add to the conversation. The subjunctive normally places that proposition inside a desire, doubt, evaluation, purpose, unidentified description, or pending future frame without asserting it independently. This is more accurate than “indicative is real; subjunctive is unreal.”

A fact can take the subjunctive when someone reacts to it: M'alegra que siguis aquí does not cast doubt on your presence. An uncertain prediction can take the indicative when it is asserted with a hedge: Potser arribarà tard. Mood encodes the clause's role in discourse, not a truth meter.

Spanish has a closely related mood contrast, but copying the nearest Spanish form still fails: standard Catalan normally uses indicative after potser, and its regional subjunctive endings are its own. Reconstruct the Catalan clause's information status instead.

The present-subjunctive introduction explains the basic forms; this page concentrates on making the choice.

The decision workflow

1. Is the subordinate clause being reported, known, perceived, or asserted? Choose the indicative.
2. Is it a desired, commanded, feared, doubted, denied, or evaluated outcome? Choose the subjunctive.
3. Does a relative clause identify a known person or thing? Use the indicative. If it describes someone or something still sought, absent, or hypothetical, use the subjunctive.
4. Does an adverbial clause describe a habit or fact, or a purpose and pending future event? Habit/fact takes indicative; purpose/pending event takes subjunctive.
5. Can either mood follow the connector? Read the intended stance. With encara que, indicative acknowledges a fact; subjunctive leaves it open or makes it irrelevant.
6. Have you chosen the right time? Mood and tense are separate: dubto que vingui, dubtava que vingués, dubto que hagi vingut.

Assertion versus desire, doubt, and evaluation

Verbs of reporting, perception, and knowledge normally assert their complement. Verbs of will and influence present another event as a target rather than a fact. Doubt and negated belief withhold commitment.

Minimal pair 1: report or request

The form presenteu happens to be identical in the regular first-conjugation indicative and subjunctive for vosaltres: compare confirma que presenteu with vol que presenteu. Syntax and meaning, not spelling alone, reveal the mood when the forms coincide.

Minimal pair 2: belief or rejected belief

Compare Crec que la porta no està oberta, “I think the door isn't open.” That sentence remains indicative because the speaker asserts a negative proposition. Negation is not itself a subjunctive switch; its scope matters.

Minimal pair 3: observation or reaction

The second arrival is no less real. The subjunctive marks it as the object of an emotion rather than the main assertion. This is why “subjunctive equals uncertainty” produces errors.

Identified or still open?

In a relative clause, the indicative describes a referent treated as identified and existent. The subjunctive states a requirement for a referent that has not yet been identified, or denies that such a referent exists.

Minimal pair 4: known person or open search

Articles alone do not choose the mood. He trobat una gestora que coneix el cas uses an indefinite article but refers to an actual person already found. Conversely, Triaré el model que sigui més eficient can use a definite article while the winning model remains unidentified.

The bus is denied, so the property que passi... cannot be asserted about an existing referent.

Cause, purpose, habit, and pending time

The conjunction perquè introduces either a reason or a purpose. A reason is asserted and takes indicative. A purpose is a desired outcome and takes subjunctive.

Minimal pair 5: reason or purpose

Time clauses show a related contrast. The indicative describes what habitually happens or what has happened. The subjunctive places a future event ahead of the current reference point.

Minimal pair 6: routine or pending occasion

English uses the present “leaves” in both. Catalan makes the habitual-versus-pending distinction through mood. The subjunctive is not itself a future tense; the main clause and context provide future time.

Concession: fact or obstacle treated as open

With encara que, both moods are possible. The indicative acknowledges the subordinate content as a fact. The subjunctive presents it as hypothetical or brackets it as irrelevant to the outcome.

Minimal pair 7: acknowledged fact or irrelevant possibility

A speaker who knows that it is windy may still choose faci to background the concession. Mood reflects rhetorical framing, not merely objective meteorology.

Tense comes after mood

Once the clause requires subjunctive, locate its event relative to the main viewpoint. Use present subjunctive for simultaneous or later situations after a present viewpoint, perfect subjunctive for an earlier completed event, imperfect subjunctive after a past viewpoint, and pluperfect subjunctive for an event already complete before that past viewpoint.

English often hides these formal shifts. Do not leave a present subjunctive after a past main verb merely because English says “arrive” in both translations.

Regional forms and register

This page uses Central forms such as sigui, conegui, faci, surti, hagin. (regional: Valencian) Standard Valencian commonly has siga, conega, faça, isca, hagen. The assertion-versus-nonassertion decision is the same; only the morphology differs. Both IEC- and AVL-based formal standards use the subjunctive systematically.

The subjunctive is not inherently (formal). Vull que vinguis is ordinary conversation. A construction may be formal because of its vocabulary—Es requereix que adjunteu el certificat (formal)—but the mood itself belongs to every register.

Dialogue: an identified technician or anyone qualified?

The first speaker identifies a particular technician, so repara and treballa assert facts about him. Algú que repari leaves the helper open, and quan acabi places the end of his current visit in the future. Choosing repara after algú would suggest that a particular suitable person is already in mind.

Ambiguous English prompts

• “I'm looking for the book that explains it.” If a known book exists: Busco el llibre que ho explica. If any suitable book will do: Busco un llibre que ho expliqui.
• “Although she's tired, she'll come.” If her tiredness is asserted: Encara que està cansada, vindrà. If it is conceded as irrelevant: Encara que estigui cansada, vindrà.
• “Tell him when he arrives.” A command about a future arrival: Digues-l'hi quan arribi. A report of his habitual arrival time: Digues-li quan arriba normalment.

Correction task

Correct the mood for the intended meaning.

1. Known fact: Sé que la Jana tingui les claus.
2. Open search: Busquem un pis que té dues habitacions.
3. Future time: Quan tornaràs, en parlarem.
4. Asserted uncertainty with potser: Potser vingui més tard.

Answers: Sé que la Jana té les claus; un pis que tingui; Quan tornis; Potser vindrà més tard. In contemporary standard Catalan, potser normally combines with the indicative; és possible que vingui selects the subjunctive because it grammatically embeds the possibility.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The indicative normally asserts; the subjunctive places a clause inside a stance without asserting it independently.
• Desire, doubt, denial, emotion, evaluation, purpose, open identification, and pending future time commonly create subjunctive environments.
• Known facts can be evaluated in the subjunctive, while hedged claims with potser normally remain indicative.
• Connectors such as perquè and encara que do not choose one mood mechanically; meaning does.
• Select mood first, then select the subjunctive tense that locates the event relative to the main viewpoint.