Conjugation of haver

Haver has two central grammatical jobs. As a personal auxiliary, it combines with a past participle to build every compound tense: he arribat, havíem parlat, hauràs entès. In the fixed existential verb haver-hi, it means “there is/are”: hi ha una cadira; hi ha quatre cadires. It also appears in haver de + infinitive, a personal construction of obligation or scheduled expectation.

English “have” hides the difference between possession and auxiliary grammar. Catalan possession normally uses tenir, not haver: tinc una bicicleta, but he comprat una bicicleta. Learning each principal part with one of these grammatical jobs is more reliable than looking for a single English translation.

For the broader tense system built from this auxiliary, start with present-perfect formation; for existential syntax, continue with existential haver-hi.

Nonfinite forms and principal parts

The ordinary perfect construction is finite haver + participle of another verb: hem decidit. The participle hagut is most visible in existential sequences such as hi ha hagut un error and hi havia hagut protestes. In perfect tenses, a participle governed by haver is normally invariable: les cartes que he escrit, not agreement copied from an adjective.

Indicative: the personal auxiliary

Present he, has, ha, hem, heu, han must be memorized as a unit. Do not add the third-conjugation incoative extension: haveixo and hageixo are impossible. The short third-person ha is a verb, while a without h is a preposition. Likewise, hem is distinct from the weak pronoun em.

The periphrastic and synthetic past forms do not normally stand without a complement. They occur in past obligation (vaig haver de marxar) and in the past anterior, which marks an event completed immediately before another: quan va haver acabat or (formal/literary) quan hagué acabat. Ordinary narrative generally uses the pluperfect havia acabat when immediate sequence is not being specially profiled.

The alternative conditional series haguera, hagueres, haguera, haguérem, haguéreu, hagueren is also standard, especially in Valencian usage: Sense ajuda, no ho haguera pogut acabar. Because the same forms serve as an imperfect subjunctive in those varieties, syntax determines the mood.

Compound tenses of haver itself

For completeness, haver can take its own participle. These forms are fully alive in perfect obligation (he hagut de tornar, havíem hagut d'esperar), while nonmodal use heavily favors third-person singular existential haver-hi: hi ha hagut, hi havia hagut, hi haurà hagut.

Subjunctive: simple and compound

The personal present subjunctive is the auxiliary of the perfect subjunctive: hagi arribat, hagis vist, hàgim resolt. The accents on hàgim and hàgiu are mandatory. In existential use, hi hagi means “there be/are” inside a nonasserted frame.

Three further periphrastic rows complete the reference system. They have restricted (regional/formal) distribution and are not the first forms a learner needs for ordinary conversation.

The existential haver-hi

In formal general-standard prose, existential haver-hi is impersonal and remains third-person singular before both singular and plural noun phrases.

The weak pronoun hi is part of the existential citation haver-hi; dropping it does not produce the ordinary general-standard existential. When en replaces a quantity or noun, the two pronouns combine: n'hi ha dos; no n'hi havia prou. This is not a freely optional “pronominal version” of haver: haver-hi is the lexicalized existential, while personal auxiliary haver has no hi.

Number agreement is widespread in Central and Valencian speech: speakers may say hi han tres persones or Valencian n'hi han tres. In Balearic, Northwestern, and Northern Catalan, nonagreement is usual even in speech; formal general Catalan likewise uses invariant hi ha tres persones. Conversely, auxiliary haver agrees normally with its subject: tres persones han arribat. That contrast explains why both hi ha tres persones and tres persones han arribat are correct.

Haver de and the absence of an imperative

Haver de + infinitive expresses personal necessity, commitment, or a strongly expected outcome: he de marxar, havíeu de trucar, hauran de decidir. The governed preposition is de. In the first-person singular present, haig de is common (regional: especially Central) beside he de. It belongs to this modal construction, never to the perfect: haig acabat is impossible.

Haver has no productive imperative in contemporary Catalan. To express a command, use another construction: has de sortir ara, cal que surtis, or jussive que hi hagi silenci. A table of forms such as hages or haveu as commands would falsely suggest a living paradigm.

(Regional: Valencian) standard present subjunctive is haja, hages, haja, hàgem, hàgeu, hagen, and the imperfect may use haguera.... The older bisyllabic present forms havem and haveu are also standard, but they are residual in speech and markedly formal in contemporary writing; neutral usage has hem and heu. These attested variants should not be confused with invented regularizations.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

Personal haver agrees with its subject and builds perfect tenses: he, has, ha, hem, heu, han + participle. Existential haver-hi is invariant in the formal general standard: hi ha, hi havia, hi va haver, hi haurà, hi hagi. Keep hi in the existential and add en only when it replaces an understood quantity: n'hi ha tres. Use haver de + infinitive for personal obligation, and remember that modern haver has no productive imperative.