Conjugation of passar

Passar is morphologically regular but semantically dense. Depending on its syntax, it can mean “pass,” “go by,” “spend time,” “happen,” “hand something over,” or “move to a new stage.” Both passar-ho and pronominal passar-s'ho mean “have a good or bad time,” while passar-se has distinct senses such as “switch sides” or “become overripe/overdone.” Colloquially, passar-se is also widespread for “go too far.”

Its principal parts—passo – passava – passí – passaré – passi – passat—show one stable stem. The double ss is not an irregularity: it preserves the voiceless /s/ between vowels. English speakers should spend their effort on argument structure and clitics, not on searching for a stem change.

The two pronouns in passar-s'ho bé follow the general two-clitic order, but the combination itself is lexical and must be retained as a unit.

Nonfinite forms

Compound tenses use haver + passat with no agreement: les vacances han passat de pressa. The agreeing forms frequently act as adjectives: la setmana passada, els anys passats. Do not transfer that adjectival agreement into the perfect.

Indicative: simple and periphrastic tenses

Conversation strongly favors vaig passar for a completed past. The simple past passí, passares, passà... is (formal/literary) in most Central contexts but remains spoken in some regions. Orthography carries tense information: passa is present or an imperative, passà is literary past, and passarà is future. The forms passem/passeu are shared by the present indicative, present subjunctive, and first- or second-person plural imperative; context identifies their function.

Indicative compound tenses

The past anterior is (formal/literary). Its periphrastic counterpart is vaig haver passat, vas haver passat, va haver passat, vam haver passat, vau haver passat, van haver passat. Ordinary speech usually chooses the pluperfect for prior past time.

Subjunctive and imperative

These periphrastic subjunctives are (regional/formal). In everyday Central Catalan, the ordinary imperfect or perfect subjunctive normally carries the relevant meaning.

Core syntax, clitics, and meanings

For movement, passar per marks a route or intermediate point: passar per Lleida. With time as a direct object, it means “spend”: passar dues hores esperant. With an event as subject, it means “happen,” but ha passat un accident is not the ordinary standard way to say “an accident happened”; use hi ha hagut un accident. By contrast, què ha passat? and m'ha passat una cosa are central patterns.

In passar-s'ho bé/mal, the reflexive clitic indexes the experiencer (m'ho, t'ho, s'ho, ens ho, us ho, s'ho), while invariant ho represents the experience. The nonpronominal alternative passar-ho bé/mal is equally standard: ho vam passar molt bé. By contrast, passar-se a can mean “switch to,” while colloquial passar-se for “go too far” is better replaced in formal prose by passar de la ratlla, passar de mida or fer-ne un gra massa.

Characteristic collocations include passar comptes “settle accounts,” passar pàgina “move on,” passar per alt “overlook,” passar de llarg “go straight past,” and passar la nit en blanc “spend a sleepless night.” (Informal) passar d'algú/d'alguna cosa means “ignore / not care about.”

(Regional: Valencian) present subjunctive passe, passes... and imperfect passara... are standard Valencian forms. (Regional: Balearic) has present pas, passes, passa, passam, passau, passen and imperfect subjunctive passàs...; (regional: Northern) first-person present passi is also recognized. The core weak-pronoun syntax remains the same, though spoken clitic shapes vary by dialect.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

The conjugation is regular; the double ss remains throughout the stem. Distinguish passar per a route, passar time, and impersonal-event passar. Preserve the full clitic structure of passar-s'ho bé/mal, and do not confuse it with the different meanings of passar-se.