Correlative conjunctions work in pairs: the first element announces a relation and the second completes it. Catalan uses ni… ni for joint negation, o… o for alternatives, tant… com for balanced inclusion or equality, no sols… sinó també for emphatic addition, and ara… ara for alternation. The key is not merely learning two small words; it is making the coordinated elements grammatically parallel and placing negation, clitics, and shared material where their scope is clear.
English often tolerates loose pairings such as “not only the budget fell, but also delays increased.” Careful Catalan makes the two coordinated units visibly comparable. A pair can link words, phrases, or whole clauses, but it should not begin with one category and finish with another without a deliberate reason.
For the simpler unpaired coordinators that underlie two of these patterns, review i and o; the present page explains what repetition and paired scope add.
Decision table
| Relation | Pair | Normal effect | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither member holds | ni… ni | Joint negative scope | All registers |
| One alternative or another | o… o | Explicit choice; context decides exclusivity | All registers |
| Both members included equally | tant… com | Balanced inclusion or equal degree | All registers |
| Second member added emphatically | no sols… sinó també | “Not only… but also” | Neutral to formal |
| Repeated alternation | ara… ara | “Now… now / at times… at times” | Literary or careful narrative |
Ni… ni: negative coordination
Ni… ni excludes both coordinated members. If the pair comes after the verb, Catalan normally also places no before the verb, following the ordinary pattern of negative concord. If the initial ni-phrase is fronted before the verb, that preverbal negative element itself licenses the negation and no is normally absent.
No he vist ni la Joana ni el seu germà.
I have seen neither Joana nor her brother.
Ni la Joana ni el seu germà han respost el missatge.
Neither Joana nor her brother has replied to the message.
These are a minimal order pair: postverbal ni… ni co-occurs with preverbal no; fronted ni… ni does not need an additional no. The pair can also coordinate predicates, in which case shared clitics need not be repeated.
La proposta no ens convenç ni ens resol el problema principal.
The proposal neither convinces us nor solves our main problem.
With a compound subject such as ni la Joana ni el seu germà, plural agreement is the safest standard choice because two referents are coordinated. Singular agreement may be heard when the nearest singular member dominates processing, but formal prose should avoid that instability.
O… o: making the alternatives explicit
Ordinary o may be inclusive or exclusive according to context. Repeating it as o… o presents a sharper choice, often suggesting that the addressee must select one alternative, though the construction itself is not a mathematical guarantee of exclusivity.
O m'envies el document avui o el revisarem dilluns.
Either you send me the document today or we will review it on Monday.
Podem reunir-nos o dimarts o dijous; tots dos dies em van bé.
We can meet either Tuesday or Thursday; both days work for me.
The second example shows why context matters: the alternatives name possible meeting dates, while the following clause says the speaker is available on both. Do not force English either into Catalan as an extra word; repeated o already frames the alternatives.
When full clauses are long, a comma before the second o can aid reading, especially if each branch has internal complements. Short paired phrases normally take no comma.
O bé ajornem la votació fins que arribin els informes, o bé votem avui sabent que ens falten dades.
Either we postpone the vote until the reports arrive, or we vote today knowing that we lack data.
O bé… o bé is an expanded neutral-to-(formal) variant that makes the paired architecture especially clear.
Tant… com: balanced inclusion
As a correlative, tant… com can mean “both… and,” not only the degree comparison “as much as.” It presents both coordinated members as equally included in the statement.
El protocol afecta tant el personal fix com els col·laboradors externs.
The protocol affects both permanent staff and external collaborators.
La mesura és útil tant per reduir costos com per simplificar els tràmits.
The measure is useful both for reducing costs and for simplifying the procedures.
Notice the repeated preposition per. Omitting it from the second member is sometimes possible, but repetition makes the parallel structure and government unmistakable. English can strand or share a preposition more freely; Catalan formal prose generally benefits from making the relationship explicit.
When tant modifies a noun quantitatively, it agrees (tants llibres com revistes). In the correlative “both X and Y” use before a determiner or preposition, however, it functions as a fixed linking element: tant els llibres com les revistes; tant a casa com a la feina.
No sols… sinó també: corrective addition
No sols… sinó també first rejects a limited expectation and then adds a stronger or less expected member: “not only X, but also Y.” No solament… sinó també is an equally standard, slightly more explicit variant. Sinó carries an accent and must not be confused with conditional si no (“if not”).
La tempesta no sols va tallar la carretera, sinó que també va deixar tres pobles sense llum.
The storm not only closed the road but also left three villages without power.
Because the second member is a finite clause, sinó que també introduces it. With phrases rather than clauses, use sinó també without que.
Necessitem no sols més temps, sinó també dades més fiables.
We need not only more time but also more reliable data.
Parallelism affects focus. Compare:
No sols van entrevistar els testimonis, sinó que també van revisar les gravacions.
They not only interviewed the witnesses but also reviewed the recordings. (Two actions are contrasted.)
Van entrevistar no sols els testimonis, sinó també els responsables de seguretat.
They interviewed not only the witnesses but also the security managers. (Two objects are contrasted.)
Moving no sols changes its scope. In the first sentence it scopes over the predicate; in the second, over the object. This is why copying English word order mechanically can change what Catalan presents as the surprising addition.
Ara… ara: alternating states
Repeated ara… ara presents situations that alternate: “now X, now Y” or “at one moment X, at another Y.” It is understood across Catalan but is more characteristic of careful narrative, (literary) description, and some fixed rhythmic sequences than of spontaneous everyday speech. Conversation often prefers a vegades… a vegades or tan aviat… com.
El cel, vist des de la terrassa, ara s'enfosquia, ara s'il·luminava amb els llamps.
The sky, seen from the terrace, now grew dark, now lit up with lightning.
The embedded participial phrase vist des de la terrassa interrupts the subject and predicate, but the repeated ara still pairs the two alternating verbs.
Durant l'entrevista, ara responia amb seguretat, ara evitava la pregunta.
During the interview, at times she answered confidently, at times she avoided the question.
The imperfect is natural because it presents repeated or unfolding alternation. Other tenses are possible when the discourse calls for them; the correlative does not itself select a tense or mood.
Mood, tense, and shared material
Correlatives coordinate structures; they do not normally trigger a mood. Subjunctive forms arise from the meaning inside a branch, as after fins que with a future event, not from o… o itself. Similarly, a shared auxiliary or clitic can stand outside both branches only if it genuinely applies to each.
Vull que o bé ho revisis avui o bé me'n confirmis demà la versió definitiva.
I want you either to review it today or to confirm the final version to me tomorrow.
Both coordinated verbs are subjunctive because they depend on Vull que. The clitics differ because the verbs have different argument structures; forcing one shared clitic sequence would be ungrammatical.
A natural dialogue
—Per a la presentació necessitem tant les xifres com els gràfics. —D'acord, però o els prepara l'equip de dades o els haurem de fer nosaltres. —I no sols els hem de fer, sinó que també els hem de revisar abans de divendres.
—For the presentation we need both the figures and the charts. —All right, but either the data team prepares them or we will have to make them ourselves. —And we not only have to make them; we also have to review them before Friday.
The dialogue keeps the coordinated objects parallel, then coordinates two full alternatives, and finally adds a second obligation emphatically.
Regional and register guidance
The core pairs are accepted in IEC and AVL standards and across Central, Valencian, Balearic, Northwestern, Northern, and Alguerese Catalan. No sols and no solament are both standard; no només is also widespread and neutral. Spanish-influenced no solo… sino también should not enter Catalan unchanged: write no sols/no solament/no només… sinó també, with Catalan spelling and accentuation. Ara… ara is best treated as a recognition and careful-writing resource rather than a mandatory conversational pattern.
Short correction task
Correct the lack of concord, pairing, or parallelism.
- He vist ni el correu ni l'avís.
- No sols van reduir el preu, sinó també van ampliar la garantia.
- El curs serveix tant per escriure millor com la comprensió oral.
No he vist ni el correu ni l'avís.
I have seen neither the email nor the notice.
No sols van reduir el preu, sinó que també van ampliar la garantia.
They not only reduced the price but also extended the warranty.
El curs serveix tant per escriure millor com per millorar la comprensió oral.
The course serves both to write better and to improve listening comprehension.
Common Mistakes
❌ No vindrà ni la Carla o en Miquel.
Incorrect — the pair begins with ni but ends with o.
✅ No vindran ni la Carla ni en Miquel.
Neither Carla nor Miquel will come.
❌ Ni la Carla ni en Miquel no vindran.
Avoid the extra no in standard Catalan when the ni… ni subject is already preverbal.
✅ Ni la Carla ni en Miquel vindran.
Neither Carla nor Miquel will come.
❌ No sols és ràpid, si no també molt precís.
Incorrect — si no means if not; the corrective conjunction is sinó.
✅ No sols és ràpid, sinó també molt precís.
It is not only fast but also very accurate.
❌ La beca cobreix tant la matrícula que els materials.
Incorrect — inclusive tant pairs with com.
✅ La beca cobreix tant la matrícula com els materials.
The grant covers both tuition and materials.
Key Takeaways
- Treat each correlative as a pair and keep its two members structurally parallel.
- Postverbal ni… ni normally needs preverbal no; fronted ni… ni normally does not.
- Use sinó que també before a finite clause but sinó també before a phrase.
- Place no sols directly before the material in its scope.
- Ara… ara marks alternation and is especially useful in careful or literary narrative.
Now practice Catalan
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Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- I, O, and Basic CoordinationA1 — Join Catalan words, phrases, and clauses with i and o while preserving parallel structure, agreement, punctuation, and the intended kind of alternative.
- Però, Sinó, and Sinó QueA1 — Choose però for a contrast that leaves both claims standing, and sinó or sinó que to replace a negated constituent or clause.
- Comparative ConjunctionsA2 — How Catalan links standards of comparison with com, que, com si, tant… com, més… que, and natural ellipsis.
- The Complementizer QueA2 — Use que to introduce finite Catalan complement clauses after speech, thought, perception, emotion, and evaluation, without copying English omission or Spanish prepositions.
- Negative Words: Ningú, Res, Cap, Mai, and EnllocA1 — How Catalan negative words express nobody, nothing, no, never, and nowhere before or after the verb through negative concord.