Catalan hi resumes a known location when that place is static, a destination, or a path: Treballo a l'hospital → Hi treballo; Vaig al mercat → Hi vaig. A source introduced by de normally takes en: Vinc del mercat → En vinc. English often uses “there” for all three relations or simply omits the place, but Catalan makes the source/non-source contrast grammatically visible.
Hi is an invariable weak pronoun: it has no gender, number, or stressed form and it never elides. It is also an inseparable part of existential haver-hi. Unless otherwise labeled, the patterns below are neutral contemporary standard Catalan.
Static location, destination, and path
Locative hi can replace phrases headed by several prepositions and locative expressions. What unites them is that they do not present the place as the source of motion.
| Spatial role | Full phrase | With hi |
|---|---|---|
| static location | Treballa a l'ajuntament. | Hi treballa. |
| interior location | Les claus són dins del calaix. | Les claus hi són. |
| destination | Anem cap al refugi. | Hi anem. |
| endpoint | Arribaran a l'estació. | Hi arribaran. |
| path | Passem pel passeig marítim. | Hi passem. |
Les ulleres són damunt de la tauleta; les hi vaig deixar abans de dormir.
The glasses are on the bedside table; I left them there before going to sleep.
Demà anem a Lleida i hi arribarem cap a les deu.
Tomorrow we're going to Lleida, and we'll arrive there around ten.
No passis pel centre a aquesta hora: hi trobaràs molt de trànsit.
Don't go through the city center at this time; you'll find a lot of traffic there.
The governing verb matters. Ser a/dins/damunt locates something; anar a/cap a supplies a destination; passar per supplies a path. In each case, hi preserves the place role even though the preposition disappears.
Pure location with ser
Catalan commonly uses ser for the simple location of people and things: On són les claus? Són al calaix. This differs from Spanish, which normally uses estar in the same context. Whatever locative verb the construction licenses, replacing the place does not replace the subject.
—On és la Marta? —És a la sala petita; hi és amb dos clients.
Where is Marta? —She's in the small meeting room; she's there with two clients.
Els documents ja no són a l'arxiu: ahir encara hi eren.
The documents are no longer in the archive; yesterday they were still there.
Hi is not a copula and does not mean “is.” It only resumes the location; és/eren still carry tense, person, and number. That is why La Marta hi cannot stand alone as a full clause.
Replacing the place while another object remains
A verb may take both a direct object and a destination or location. Hi can replace the place while the direct object remains overt.
He acompanyat la Júlia a l'estació. → Hi he acompanyat la Júlia.
I accompanied Júlia to the station. → I accompanied Júlia there.
Deixa els paquets sota l'escala. → Deixa-hi els paquets.
Leave the packages under the stairs. → Leave the packages there.
In the first derivation, la Júlia is the direct object and therefore has no Spanish-style personal a in neutral Catalan. If the person rather than the location is replaced, use the direct-object pronoun: L'he acompanyada a l'estació. If both are replaced, use a cluster; the hi combinations page explains the order.
This distinction also prevents analysis by word order. In Hi he acompanyat la Júlia, hi comes before the finite verb, but it still represents the destination that followed the object in the full sentence.
Overt place: replacement, dislocation, or coexistence
In an ordinary clause, choose either the full place phrase or referential hi: Treballo a l'hospital or Hi treballo. Avoid Hi treballo a l'hospital as the neutral edited pattern when both elements fill the same ordinary complement slot.
An overt place can coexist with resumptive hi when it is detached as a topic or an afterthought. A comma makes the information structure visible.
A l'hospital, hi treballo des de fa sis anys.
At the hospital, I've been working there for six years.
Hi vam passar tot l'agost, en aquell poble del Priorat.
We spent the whole of August there, in that village in Priorat.
The detached phrase establishes or clarifies the location; hi occupies the clause-internal position. This is not pointless repetition. It lets Catalan put the topic at the edge while retaining the grammatical link inside the clause.
There is another major coexistence pattern: haver-hi. In A la plaça hi ha un mercat, the initial location and hi coexist because hi belongs to the existential verb itself, not because it merely replaces a la plaça.
Haver-hi: obligatory existential hi
Existential “there is/are” is haver-hi. The pronoun cannot be removed, even when a location is explicit.
| Time | Neutral formal form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| present | hi ha | Hi ha una farmàcia al costat. |
| imperfect | hi havia | Hi havia dues cadires lliures. |
| periphrastic past | hi va haver | Hi va haver un tall de llum. |
| future | hi haurà | Hi haurà més trens a l'estiu. |
| conditional | hi hauria | Hi hauria prou espai. |
No hi havia ningú a recepció, però hi havia llum al despatx del fons.
There was nobody at reception, but there was a light on in the office at the back.
Al barri hi haurà dues escoles noves l'any que ve.
There will be two new schools in the neighborhood next year.
If the existential noun is omitted but a quantity remains, partitive en combines with lexical hi: Hi ha sis cadires → N'hi ha sis. Neither pronoun is optional in that reduced construction.
—Hi ha prou gots per a tothom? —Sí, n'hi ha dotze al rentaplats.
Are there enough glasses for everyone? —Yes, there are twelve in the dishwasher.
In the (formal) pan-regional baseline, haver-hi remains singular before a plural noun: hi ha dues escoles, hi havia problemes. (informal, common in Central and Valencian speech) plural agreement such as hi han dues escoles and hi havien problemes occurs. (regional: Balearic, Northwestern, and Northern Catalan) nonagreement is consistently traditional. For reliable production across regions and in edited prose, use the nonagreeing forms in the table.
Placement, hyphenation, and no elision
Before a finite verb, hi is written as a separate word: hi vaig, hi entro, hi havia. It never apostrophizes before a vowel: h'entro and h' havia are impossible.
After an infinitive, gerund, or affirmative imperative, attach it with a hyphen: anar-hi, entrant-hi, ves-hi. A negative imperative places it before the verb: no hi vagis.
No hi entris encara; espera que jo t'avisi abans d'entrar-hi.
Don't go in there yet; wait until I tell you before going in.
Ves-hi d'hora i queda-t'hi fins que arribi la tècnica.
Go there early and stay there until the technician arrives.
With a reflexive or personal pronoun, that pronoun comes first: m'hi quedo, t'hi acostes, s'hi instal·la, ens hi trobem, us hi poseu, s'hi asseuen. The sequence hi em quedo is not possible.
A dialogue with a clear place antecedent
—Encara viviu a Reus? —Sí, hi vivim, però treballem a Tarragona i hi anem cada dia amb tren.
Do you still live in Reus? —Yes, we live there, but we work in Tarragona and go there every day by train.
The first hi refers unambiguously to Reus. The second refers to Tarragona as the destination of anar. The overt a Tarragona is the complement of treballem, not a duplicate of the later hi.
Regional perspective
Locative hi belongs to the shared standard, but its vitality and lexical distribution vary in speech. It is especially robust in Central and Balearic Catalan; some Valencian speech uses fewer instances in environments where the antecedent is easily recoverable. The standard Valencian system nevertheless includes hi in constructions that require it, especially haver-hi, and formal writing preserves the source contrast en versus non-source hi. Do not delete hi merely because Spanish has no matching clitic.
Common Mistakes
1. Omitting hi because English leaves the destination unspoken.
❌ —Vas sovint a Olot? —Sí, vaig cada mes.
Incomplete in the neutral pronominal answer — the known destination is resumed by hi.
✅ —Vas sovint a Olot? —Sí, hi vaig cada mes.
Do you go to Olot often? —Yes, I go there every month.
2. Using en for a destination rather than a source.
❌ Demà arribarem a l'illa i en passarem una setmana.
Incorrect — the island is the destination and then the location, not the source.
✅ Demà arribarem a l'illa i hi passarem una setmana.
Tomorrow we'll arrive on the island and spend a week there.
3. Apostrophizing hi before a vowel.
❌ H'anem a peu perquè és a prop.
Incorrect — hi never elides.
✅ Hi anem a peu perquè és a prop.
We go there on foot because it's nearby.
4. Removing hi from haver-hi when a place is overt.
❌ A la cantonada ha una fleca nova.
Incorrect — existential haver-hi always contains hi.
✅ A la cantonada hi ha una fleca nova.
There is a new bakery on the corner.
5. Doubling an ordinary in-place complement without dislocation.
❌ Hi dormirem a l'hotel aquesta nit.
Avoid in neutral edited Catalan when a l'hotel is the ordinary focused location.
✅ Dormirem a l'hotel aquesta nit. / A l'hotel, hi dormirem aquesta nit.
We'll sleep at the hotel tonight. / At the hotel, we'll sleep there tonight.
Key Takeaways
Use hi for known static locations, destinations, and paths; use locative en for a source in de. Keep hi unchanged before vowels and attach it with a hyphen after nonfinite forms and affirmative imperatives. An ordinary overt place replaces referential hi, but a detached topic can be resumed by it. In haver-hi, by contrast, hi is obligatory even when a place phrase is also present.
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Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- Locative EnB1 — Use locative en for places of origin introduced by de, and distinguish this productive source use from lexicalized pronominal verbs.
- Hi for Prepositional ComplementsB1 — Use hi to resume known complements governed by a, en, amb, or per without confusing them with direct and indirect objects.
- Choosing En or HiB1 — Choose en for de-relations, sources, and partitives, and hi for other governed complements, destinations, locations, and paths.
- Combining Hi with Other PronounsB1 — Build and interpret clusters such as m'hi, s'hi, l'hi, and la hi while keeping each pronoun's function distinct.
- Postverbal Pronouns with Infinitives, Gerunds, and ImperativesA2 — Attach weak pronouns after infinitives, gerunds, and affirmative imperatives with the correct full or reduced form.
- A versus En for LocationA2 — Choose between Catalan a and en by separating destination from position and then considering the determiner, place type, discourse context, and regional standard.