Conjugation of donar

Donar begins with literal transfer—“to give”—but extends to effects (donar resultat), support, permission, news, views, measurements, and many fixed expressions. Morphologically it is a regular first-conjugation verb in the general standard. Its difficulty is syntactic: learners must keep track of the thing given, the recipient, the weak-pronoun order, and the noun that selects donar rather than fer.

Nonfinite forms

In compound tenses, donat is normally invariable: hem donat les claus a la portera. An agreeing participle is adjectival or passive: una oportunitat donada a temps. Do not confuse infinitive donar with the less productive verb dar, preserved in a few forms and set expressions such as Déu-n'hi-do; donar is the ordinary full verb.

Indicative: simple and periphrastic tenses

Current spelling writes third-person dona without a diacritical accent. Context distinguishes dona “gives” from dona “woman.” The imperfect needs the written accents donàvem, donàveu. Everyday completed narration uses vaig donar; the synthetic past is chiefly (formal/literary) in much Central usage and remains spoken in some Valencian and Balearic areas (regional).

Compound tenses and subjunctive

All compound tenses use haver + donat. The past anterior is (formal/literary); the present perfect, pluperfect, future perfect, and conditional perfect are fully current.

The present subjunctive is doni, not dongui; the imperfect is donés, not dongués. The mistaken velar forms are tempting because several frequent second-conjugation verbs have -g-, but donar belongs to the regular -ar pattern. As a first-conjugation verb, it also never takes the third-conjugation incoative extension -eix-; doneixo is impossible.

Three additional periphrastic rows complete the reference. The subjunctive rows have restricted (regional/formal) distribution; general conversation uses donés and hagués donat.

Imperative and the two objects

A literal transfer normally has a direct object—the thing—and an indirect object—the recipient: Dono les claus a la Mireia. The direct object becomes les; the recipient becomes li: Les dono a la Mireia; li dono les claus. With first- or second-person recipients, two pronouns combine transparently: Te les dono. For third-person combinations, regional standard patterns differ, so learn the pronoun system rather than translating English word order one word at a time.

Affirmative commands attach pronouns: dona'm el rebut; dona-l'hi; doneu-nos-en dos. Negative commands place the whole cluster before the verb: no me'l donis. This placement contrast belongs to the imperative, not to the lexical meaning of donar.

Meanings, collocations, and pronominal uses

Beyond transfer, donar expresses provision (donar informació), social acts (donar les gràcies, donar l'enhorabona), support (donar suport a), permission (donar permís per), and orientation (la finestra dona al pati). It also appears in donar per + participle: donar per fet, per acabat, per perdut. The complement describes the status the subject assigns to something.

English “give” is not a safe collocation generator. Catalan commonly says fer un petó, fer una abraçada, fer por, and fer la impressió, while it says donar suport, donar les gràcies, and donar una resposta. The dedicated donar versus fer page gives the broader map.

Transfer donar is not pronominal. Donar-se has separate lexical uses: an event “occurs” (es dona sovint), someone gives themselves over to an activity, or someone yields in donar-se per vençut. In La Júlia es dona per satisfeta, es cannot be removed without changing the construction.

(Regional: Valencian) regular first-person present done and present-subjunctive forms in -e are standard within the Valencian system. (Regional: Balearic) a zero-ending first person such as don occurs. These systematic regional forms should not be confused with nonstandard velar donc/dongui.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

The conjugation is regular: dono, doni, donés, donat. The real work lies in mapping the thing given and its recipient, ordering their pronouns, and learning noun–verb collocations. Keep donar distinct from lexical donar-se, and do not introduce a velar consonant into the standard paradigm.