Conjugation of adonar-se | Catalan Grammar

Adonar-se means “to realize, notice, become aware.” It is obligatorily pronominal in this sense: m'adono, te n'adones, se'n va adonar. The base adonar without a subject-matching weak pronoun does not express ordinary “realize.” This makes the verb a compact test of three Catalan systems at once: regular first-conjugation endings, reflexive-form pronouns, and clitic en replacing a de-complement.

The verb itself is morphologically regular: m'adono – m'adonava – em vaig adonar – m'adoní – m'adonaré – m'adoni – m'adonés – m'he adonat. What is difficult is not the stem but the subject-matching clitic and, when en replaces a complement, the resulting cluster and its position. English has no equivalent mandatory pronoun, and Spanish encourages the nonstandard calque donar-se compte.

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Store two frames, not one isolated word: adonar-se de + noun and adonar-se que + clause. When the de-complement is understood, replace it with en: me n'adono.

Nonfinite forms

Form	Catalan	English guide
Infinitive	adonar-se	to realize / notice
Perfect infinitive	haver-se adonat	to have realized
Gerund	adonant-se	realizing / noticing
Perfect gerund	havent-se adonat	having realized
Participle	adonat; adonada, adonats, adonades	realized / noticed

The citation pronoun -se changes with the subject: adonar-me, adonar-te, adonar-nos. If en also represents the complement, both pronouns attach in their normal order: adonar-me'n, adonar-te'n, adonar-se'n. In a finite compound tense they move before haver: me n'he adonat. The participle stays invariable after haver.

Vaig preferir callar després d'adonar-me de l'error.

I preferred to keep quiet after noticing the mistake.

Indicative: simple and periphrastic tenses

Tense	jo	tu	ell / ella / vostè	nosaltres	vosaltres	ells / elles / vostès
Present	m'adono	t'adones	s'adona	ens adonem	us adoneu	s'adonen
Imperfect	m'adonava	t'adonaves	s'adonava	ens adonàvem	us adonàveu	s'adonaven
Periphrastic past	em vaig adonar	et vas adonar	es va adonar	ens vam adonar	us vau adonar	es van adonar
Simple past	m'adoní	t'adonares	s'adonà	ens adonàrem	us adonàreu	s'adonaren
Future	m'adonaré	t'adonaràs	s'adonarà	ens adonarem	us adonareu	s'adonaran
Conditional	m'adonaria	t'adonaries	s'adonaria	ens adonaríem	us adonaríeu	s'adonarien

Before a vowel-initial finite form, em, et, and es elide: m'adono, t'adones, s'adona. Before the consonant-initial periphrastic auxiliary, use full em, et, es: em vaig adonar. The simple past is chiefly (formal/literary) in Central Catalan; em vaig adonar is the neutral conversational past.

Ara m'adono que he deixat les claus dins del cotxe.

Now I realize that I left the keys inside the car.

Mentre parlàvem, no s'adonava del soroll del carrer.

While we were talking, she did not notice the street noise.

Ens vam adonar de l'error quan ja havíem enviat el document.

We noticed the error when we had already sent the document.

Quan revisis les xifres, t'adonaràs que falta una columna.

When you review the figures, you will realize that a column is missing.

Compound tenses

Indicative tense	jo	tu	ell / ella / vostè	nosaltres	vosaltres	ells / elles / vostès
Present perfect	m'he adonat	t'has adonat	s'ha adonat	ens hem adonat	us heu adonat	s'han adonat
Pluperfect	m'havia adonat	t'havies adonat	s'havia adonat	ens havíem adonat	us havíeu adonat	s'havien adonat
Past anterior	m'haguí adonat	t'hagueres adonat	s'hagué adonat	ens haguérem adonat	us haguéreu adonat	s'hagueren adonat
Future perfect	m'hauré adonat	t'hauràs adonat	s'haurà adonat	ens haurem adonat	us haureu adonat	s'hauran adonat
Conditional perfect	m'hauria adonat	t'hauries adonat	s'hauria adonat	ens hauríem adonat	us hauríeu adonat	s'haurien adonat

The past anterior and periphrastic em vaig haver adonat series are (formal/literary) and unusual. When en is present, it stands between the reflexive pronoun and haver: me n'he adonat, te n'has adonat, se n'ha adonat, ens n'hem adonat, us n'heu adonat, se n'han adonat.

No me n'he adonat fins que m'ho has assenyalat.

I did not notice it until you pointed it out to me.

Si se n'haguessin adonat abans, haurien aturat la publicació.

If they had realized it earlier, they would have stopped publication.

Subjunctive and imperative

Subjunctive tense	jo	tu	ell / ella / vostè	nosaltres	vosaltres	ells / elles / vostès
Present	m'adoni	t'adonis	s'adoni	ens adonem	us adoneu	s'adonin
Imperfect	m'adonés	t'adonessis	s'adonés	ens adonéssim	us adonéssiu	s'adonessin
Present perfect	m'hagi adonat	t'hagis adonat	s'hagi adonat	ens hàgim adonat	us hàgiu adonat	s'hagin adonat
Pluperfect	m'hagués adonat	t'haguessis adonat	s'hagués adonat	ens haguéssim adonat	us haguéssiu adonat	s'haguessin adonat

Addressee	Affirmative	Negative
tu	adona't	no t'adonis
vostè	adoni's	no s'adoni
nosaltres	adonem-nos	no ens adonem
vosaltres	adoneu-vos	no us adoneu
vostès	adonin-se	no s'adonin

Commands are grammatical but pragmatically marked because realization is not always voluntary. They are natural when directing attention: Adona't del contrast. With en, affirmative forms are adona-te'n, adoni-se'n, adonem-nos-en, adoneu-vos-en, adonin-se'n; negative forms are no te n'adonis, and so on. The restricted periphrastic subjunctives em vagi adonar and em vagi haver adonat, with corresponding person forms, are (regional/formal). The ordinary forms above should be used in neutral prose and speech.

Vull que t'adonis de l'efecte que tenen aquestes paraules.

I want you to realize the effect these words have.

Adona't de com canvia el significat quan mous la coma.

Notice how the meaning changes when you move the comma.

Complements with de, clauses with que, and en

With a noun phrase, the verb selects de: adonar-se de l'error, del canvi, de la seva absència. When a finite content clause follows, standard Catalan normally drops the preposition before que: adonar-se que era tard, not adonar-se de que era tard. This deletion is structural, not optional tidying.

La tècnica es va adonar que el sensor estava desconnectat.

The technician realized that the sensor was disconnected.

When the de-complement is recoverable, en replaces it: T'has adonat del canvi? Sí, me n'he adonat. The order is reflexive pronoun + en, one application of the broader two-clitic order: me'n, te'n, se'n, ens en / ens n', us en / us n', se'n. Apostrophizing depends on the following verb: ens n'adonem before a vowel; ens en vam adonar before consonantal vam.

—Us heu adonat de la data? —Sí, ens n'hem adonat aquest matí.

—Have you noticed the date? —Yes, we noticed it this morning.

Do not confuse en with part of the citation form. The verb is adonar-se, not obligatorily adonar-se'n: a following noun or que-clause already supplies the content. Nor is adonar-se interchangeable with notar. Notar can report a direct sensation (noto fred; noto una vibració); adonar-se profiles the mental transition into awareness.

(Regional: Valencian) first-person present m'adone and present subjunctive m'adone, t'adones, s'adone... are standard; imperfect subjunctive m'adonara... is also standard. (Regional: Balearic) present forms include m'adon, ens adonam, us adonau. Central m'adono / m'adoni / m'adonés is the teaching baseline.

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If you can say the content after de, you can normally replace it with en. If the content is a finite que-clause, omit de: m'adono que...

Common Mistakes

❌ M'he donat compte que la porta era oberta.

Incorrect—the Spanish-based expression donar-se compte is not the standard verb for ‘realize.’

✅ M'he adonat que la porta era oberta.

I realized that the door was open.

❌ Adono que falta una pàgina al contracte.

Incorrect—adonar-se is obligatorily pronominal in this sense.

✅ M'adono que falta una pàgina al contracte.

I realize that a page is missing from the contract.

❌ M'he adonat de que havíem calculat malament el total.

Incorrect—drop de before a finite content clause introduced by que.

✅ M'he adonat que havíem calculat malament el total.

I realized that we had calculated the total incorrectly.

❌ Em he adonat del canvi d'andana massa tard.

Incorrect—em elides before vowel-initial he.

✅ M'he adonat del canvi d'andana massa tard.

I noticed the platform change too late.

❌ Me n'he adonat del canvi d'hora.

Incorrect—the pronoun en already replaces the full de-complement, so the sentence duplicates it.

✅ M'he adonat del canvi d'hora.

I noticed the time change.

Key Takeaways

The endings of adonar-se are regular; its syntax is not optional. Keep the subject-matching pronominal clitic, use de before a noun but not before a finite que-clause, and add en when an understood de-complement is resumed. In clusters, preserve both order and elision: me n'adono, me n'he adonat, ens en vam adonar.

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