Not every instance of Catalan hi means “there” or replaces a visible preposition. It can resume a predicative complement—a property, state, or manner attributed to a subject or object—and it is built into expressions such as veure-hi, sentir-hi, tant hi fa, and som-hi. In these uses, the old spatial intuition has faded or disappeared.
English usually repeats the adjective, uses so, or leaves the expression without any pronoun. Catalan keeps hi beside the verb. The challenge is to distinguish productive predicative hi from ordinary attributes with ho and from lexicalized expressions that must be learned as wholes.
Hi can stand for a property or manner
A predicative complement says what state a participant is in while the verbal event occurs. It complements both the verb and a subject or direct object: in La Jana va arribar esgotada, esgotada describes the subject la Jana at her arrival. Once that state is given, it can be resumed by hi.
La Jana va arribar esgotada i la seva companya també hi va arribar.
Jana arrived exhausted, and her colleague arrived that way too.
El primer informe va quedar incomplet, però el segon no hi va quedar.
The first report was left incomplete, but the second one wasn't.
La reunió va començar tranquil·la i no hi va acabar gens.
The meeting began calmly, and it did not end that way at all.
The replacement is a state → hi, not “a noun → it.” The pronoun is invariable: it does not become feminine because esgotada is feminine or plural because a predicative adjective was plural.
Manner expressions can behave similarly. This use is grammatical but can be less frequent in spontaneous conversation when an isolated hi would be unclear; speakers often repeat a short adverb instead. A clear comparison supplies the needed antecedent.
Diuen que l'Èlia parla massa de pressa, però avui no hi ha parlat gens.
They say Èlia speaks too quickly, but today she hasn't spoken that way at all.
Abans treballava molt concentrat; ara ja no hi treballa perquè l'interrompen contínuament.
He used to work very focused; now he no longer works that way because he is constantly interrupted.
A predicative complement of the direct object
The property may describe a direct object rather than the subject. In Porta els pantalons massa llargs, els pantalons is the object and massa llargs is its predicative complement. If both are resumed, the object pronoun comes before hi.
El meu pare porta els pantalons massa llargs i el meu germà també els hi porta.
My father wears his trousers too long, and my brother wears his that way too.
Ahir vaig trobar la porta oberta, però avui no la hi he trobada.
Yesterday I found the door open, but today I did not find it that way.
The participle trobada in the second example shows standard agreement with a preceding feminine direct-object pronoun; many speakers, especially in informal Central usage, use the invariable form trobat. That variation concerns participle agreement, not the choice of hi.
The cluster makes the two functions visible: la resumes la porta, while hi resumes oberta. Without the object pronoun, hi does not suddenly mean “the door.” This division matters when interpreting apparently opaque forms such as l'hi, la hi, els hi, and les hi.
Quasicopular verbs that select hi
Several verbs lose part of their ordinary lexical meaning and present a resulting or continuing state. With anar, venir, tornar(-se), quedar(-se), parar, acabar, posar-se, and similar quasicopular uses, a known attribute is normally resumed by hi.
La Mireia sempre va molt elegant a les inauguracions; fins i tot ahir hi anava.
Mireia always looks very elegant at openings; even yesterday she looked that way.
La llet s'ha tornat agra? —Sí, s'hi ha tornat aquesta nit.
Has the milk gone sour? —Yes, it went sour overnight.
Encara estàs de baixa? —No, ja no hi estic; dilluns vaig tornar a la feina.
Are you still on sick leave? —No, I'm not anymore; I went back to work on Monday.
Do not extend this mechanically to every copular attribute. With ser and a nonlocative, indefinite attribute, the usual pronoun is ho: És pacient? —Sí que ho és. A locative use of ser takes hi: Quan vaig arribar a l'oficina, la directora ja no hi era. The semantic type of the attribute and the host verb both matter.
La Carla és molt pacient i sempre ho ha estat, però avui ha acabat nerviosa i el seu ajudant també hi ha acabat.
Carla is very patient and always has been, but today she ended up nervous, and her assistant did too.
The real exceptions: en and ho
Predicative hi is the general pattern, but there are lexical exceptions. There is no useful shortcut beyond learning them with the construction.
With fer de + profession or role, use en: Fa de directora → En fa. The same pronoun appears with fer-se + member, profession, or affiliation: Es va fer sòcia de l'entitat → Se'n va fer.
Durant el curs fa de directora del grup, però a l'estiu no en fa.
During the school year she serves as the group's director, but in the summer she doesn't.
Li van proposar que es fes sòcia de la cooperativa i finalment se'n va fer.
They suggested that she become a member of the cooperative, and eventually she did.
With an obligatory predicative complement—especially one containing a quantifier—en may alternate with hi: No se sent gens segura → No se'n sent gens / No s'hi sent gens. With naming constructions, dir-se and posar can instead select en or ho: Abans no se'n deia / no s'ho deia; No li'n posarem / no li ho posarem. These are governed lexical choices, not free substitutes for hi everywhere.
Abans se sentia molt insegura a les reunions, però ara ja no se'n sent gens.
She used to feel very insecure in meetings, but now she doesn't feel that way at all.
Lexicalized and idiomatic hi
In some verbs and fixed expressions, no full phrase needs to be recoverable. The pronoun is part of the lexical item or construction, and removing it changes the meaning or produces no standard expression.
| Expression | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|
| veure-hi / sentir-hi | be able to see / hear | neutral |
| tant hi fa | it does not matter | neutral |
| no s'hi val | that is not allowed / fair | informal |
| som-hi! | let's go / let's get started | informal |
| no hi toca | he/she is not all there | informal; potentially disparaging |
| haver-hi | there be | neutral |
Amb aquesta lletra tan petita no hi veig gens; deixa'm les ulleres.
I can't see at all with this tiny print; give me my glasses.
—Quin dels dos horaris prefereixes? —Tant hi fa; tots dos em van bé.
Which of the two schedules do you prefer? —It doesn't matter; both work for me.
No s'hi val canviar les regles quan el partit ja ha començat.
It's not fair to change the rules once the match has already begun.
Ja ho tenim tot preparat. Som-hi, que farem tard!
We've got everything ready. Let's go, or we'll be late!
In veure-hi, hi distinguishes visual capacity from transitive veure: No hi veig means “I cannot see,” whereas No el veig means “I cannot see him/it.” Existential haver-hi is another lexicalized construction and has its own agreement and combination rules; see the existential haver-hi page.
Placement and written form
Productive and lexicalized hi obey the same placement rules. It precedes a finite verb (hi va arribar, no hi veu, s'hi ha tornat), but attaches to an infinitive, gerund, or affirmative imperative (arribar-hi, veient-hi, posa-t'hi). It never elides: h'arriba cannot represent hi arriba.
Si la sala és tan fosca que no s'hi veu, encén els llums abans d'entrar-hi.
If the room is so dark that you can't see, turn on the lights before going in.
With another weak pronoun, follow ordinary cluster order: s'hi, m'hi, la hi, els hi. The first pronoun may elide before hi; hi itself never does. Postverbally, the same order is preserved: trobar-la-hi, posar-s'hi.
A dialogue with a clear state antecedent
—El Pau ha arribat enfadat a l'assaig? —Sí, hi ha arribat, però no hi ha acabat: després de parlar amb la directora ja estava tranquil.
Did Pau arrive angry at rehearsal? —Yes, he arrived that way, but he didn't finish that way: after talking to the director he was calm.
Both instances of hi resume enfadat. Neither refers to l'assaig: the location remains overt in the question, and the answer tracks Pau's changing state.
Regional perspective
Predicative and lexicalized hi belong to contemporary IEC and AVL standards. The productive replacement of a manner or state is more frequent in careful writing than in some varieties of spontaneous speech, where repeating the adjective may be clearer. Individual idioms also vary regionally: (informal) som-hi is especially characteristic of much Central usage, while other areas may prefer a full imperative such as anem. Such preferences do not license deleting hi from fixed standard constructions such as haver-hi or confusing predicative hi with ho.
Common Mistakes
1. Omitting hi because English simply says “finish that way.”
❌ La reunió ha començat tensa, però segur que no acabarà.
Incorrect for the intended 'will not end that way' — without hi, acabarà means simply 'will end.'
✅ La reunió ha començat tensa, però segur que no hi acabarà.
The meeting started tense, but it surely won't end that way.
2. Using ho with every adjective by analogy with ser.
❌ El vi s'ha tornat agre i, si no canviem els taps, el de l'altra ampolla també s'ho tornarà.
Incorrect — a resumed state with tornar-se takes hi.
✅ El vi s'ha tornat agre i, si no canviem els taps, el de l'altra ampolla també s'hi tornarà.
The wine has turned sour, and if we don't change the corks, the wine in the other bottle will turn sour too.
3. Copying Spanish personal a before a direct object.
❌ Van trobar a la Joana molt tranquil·la.
Incorrect in the neutral pattern — Joana is the direct object and takes no Spanish-style personal a.
✅ Van trobar la Joana molt tranquil·la; feia mesos que no la hi trobaven.
They found Joana very calm; they hadn't found her that way for months.
4. Reversing a direct-object-plus-predicative cluster.
❌ Ahir van trobar la Joana tranquil·la i avui hi la han trobada també.
Incorrect — the direct-object pronoun precedes predicative hi, and la elides before han.
✅ Ahir van trobar la Joana tranquil·la i avui la hi han trobada també.
Yesterday they found Joana calm, and today they found her that way too.
5. Eliding hi or separating a postverbal form.
❌ Amb poca llum no h'veig bé i em costa acostumar m'hi.
Incorrect — hi never elides, and postverbal pronouns form one hyphenated cluster.
✅ Amb poca llum no hi veig bé i em costa acostumar-m'hi.
I can't see well in low light, and I find it hard to get used to it.
Key Takeaways
Predicative hi resumes a known state or manner and can describe either the subject or the direct object. With ser, ordinary nonlocative attributes usually take ho, while state-presenting verbs such as anar, tornar-se, and acabar favor hi. Learn the genuine en/ho exceptions, and memorize lexicalized expressions such as veure-hi, tant hi fa, and som-hi as complete units.
Related Topics
- 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.
- Inherently Pronominal VerbsA2 — Recognize Catalan verbs whose weak reflexive pronoun is part of the verb itself, and use them with the right person, complement, and placement.
- 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.
- Adjectives with Ser and EstarB1 — Choose ser for characterization and estar for attained states, while recognizing adjectives whose meaning changes with the copula.
- Existential Haver-hi Across TensesB2 — Master the invariant existential forms hi ha, hi havia, hi va haver, hi haurà, and hi hagi, together with standard singular agreement and partitive n'hi.