The perfect infinitive (infinitiu compost) is haver + past participle: haver parlat, haver perdut, haver sortit. It combines the infinitive’s lack of tense and person marking with perfect meaning: it presents the event as bounded or complete inside a relation supplied by another verb, a preposition, or the context. That event usually precedes the higher viewpoint; an expression such as abans d'haver sortit, however, places the higher event before the represented completion.
English often has “to have done” in the same places, but not always. After a preposition, English may use “having done,” whereas Catalan normally keeps an infinitive: després d'haver sopat “after having eaten dinner.”
Formation and the logic of relative anteriority
The auxiliary is always the infinitive haver. Add the ordinary past participle of the lexical verb.
| Type | Simple infinitive | Perfect infinitive |
|---|---|---|
| regular -ar | parlar | haver parlat |
| regular participle in -ut | perdre | haver perdut |
| regular -ir | sortir | haver sortit |
| irregular participle | fer | haver fet |
| pronominal verb | equivocar-se | haver-se equivocat |
| negative form | no respondre | no haver respost |
The perfect infinitive has no six-person paradigm: haver arribat itself does not reveal whether the understood subject is “I,” “you,” or “they.” A finite verb or the surrounding clause supplies that information.
Em sap greu haver arribat tan tard.
I'm sorry to have arrived so late.
Ens alegrem d'haver pres aquesta decisió.
We are glad to have made this decision.
La Júlia afirma no haver rebut cap missatge.
Júlia states that she did not receive any message. (formal reporting)
In all three, the perfect infinitive’s event precedes the feeling or assertion. The form does not mean “past” by itself. In Demà, després d'haver dinat, sortirem, the lunch is still in the future relative to now, but it is earlier than tomorrow’s departure. This is relative anteriority.
Demà, després d'haver dinat, anirem a caminar.
Tomorrow, after we have eaten lunch, we'll go for a walk.
After prepositions and prepositional expressions
When a preposition directly introduces a verbal complement, Catalan uses an infinitive rather than a finite tense. A finite clause instead requires a conjunction such as que, as in sense que ningú se n'adonés. Use the simple infinitive when the two situations overlap or when completion is irrelevant; use the perfect infinitive when the subordinate event is viewed as complete.
The broader selection rules are explained on Infinitives after Prepositions.
| Expression | Typical relation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| després d'haver... | after completing | després d'haver pagat |
| sense haver... | without having completed | sense haver llegit |
| per haver... | because of having done | per haver ajudat |
| malgrat haver... | despite having done | malgrat haver insistit |
| abans d'haver... | before reaching completion | abans d'haver acabat |
Després d'haver pagat, vam sortir sense esperar el canvi.
After paying, we left without waiting for the change.
El van sancionar per haver compartit dades confidencials.
They sanctioned him for sharing confidential data. (formal)
Malgrat haver dormit poc, avui em trobo força bé.
Despite having slept little, I feel quite well today.
The perfect form is not automatic after these expressions. Compare sense mirar “without looking” with sense haver mirat “without having looked.” The second explicitly looks back at an omitted or completed opportunity. Likewise, abans de sortir is the normal choice for “before leaving”; abans d'haver sortit is useful only when the relevant boundary is completion: Ho va descobrir abans d'haver sortit de l'edifici.
After modal and raising verbs
Modals locate possibility, probability, ability, obligation, or criticism. A simple infinitive places the event at the modal viewpoint; a perfect infinitive looks backward from it.
Deu haver sortit: no hi ha llum al despatx.
He must have left: there is no light in the office.
Podries haver avisat que arribaries tard.
You could have warned us that you would be late.
Sembla haver entès finalment el problema.
She seems finally to have understood the problem. (formal)
In deu haver sortit, present deu does not place the leaving in the present. It expresses a current inference about an earlier event. Podries haver avisat is commonly a reproach: the opportunity existed, but the warning did not happen. Sembla haver entès is concise (formal) prose; everyday speech more often uses Sembla que finalment ha entès el problema.
English speakers sometimes overuse a progressive here: “She must have been working” does not force estar + gerund in Catalan. Choose according to viewpoint. Devia treballar can describe an inferred ongoing past situation; deu haver treballat molt infers a completed amount of work from present evidence.
Reporting, control, and who did the action
With afirmar, admetre, negar, lamentar, and similar verbs, the understood subject of the perfect infinitive is normally the subject of the main verb.
Els tècnics admeten haver calculat malament el termini.
The technicians admit having calculated the deadline incorrectly. (formal)
Here the technicians both admit and calculate. If the subordinate action has a different subject, Catalan generally uses que + finite verb: Els tècnics neguen que la direcció els hagi avisat “The technicians deny that management warned them.” The subjunctive is chosen because the embedded warning is denied, not merely because negar appears.
Va marxar sense haver-se acomiadat de ningú.
She left without saying goodbye to anyone.
Va marxar sense que ningú se n'adonés.
She left without anyone noticing.
The first sentence has one understood subject: she both left and failed to say goodbye. The second needs a finite clause because ningú is the subject of noticing. This source-to-target difference matters: English “without anyone noticing” looks nonfinite, but natural Catalan uses sense que + subjunctive.
Counterfactual and retrospective uses
D'haver + participle can introduce a counterfactual condition. The event did not occur, and the main conditional describes the unrealized result.
D'haver-ho sabut, no hauria acceptat l'encàrrec.
Had I known, I would not have accepted the assignment.
D'haver sortit deu minuts abans, hauríem agafat el tren.
If we had left ten minutes earlier, we would have caught the train.
This compact construction is common in careful speech and writing. It has no overt subject, so context must identify one. For an emotionally forceful reproach, contemporary standard Catalan normally keeps a finite modal before the perfect infinitive: M'ho podies haver dit abans! “You could have told me sooner!”
M'ho podies haver dit abans! T'hauria pogut ajudar.
You could have told me sooner! I could have helped you.
Pronoun placement and participle agreement
Weak pronouns attach to haver, not to the participle: haver-ho dit, haver-me'n anat, haver-s'hi quedat. With a preposition, the entire unit follows it: sense haver-ho vist. Negation precedes haver: per no haver-hi pensat.
The participle is generally invariable: elles lamenten haver arribat tard. It never agrees with the understood subject. With a preceding feminine direct-object clitic, agreement is possible in traditional and careful usage: lamenta haver-les perdudes; the invariable haver-les perdut is widespread and standard.
Em penedeixo de no haver-t'ho explicat abans.
I regret not having explained it to you sooner.
Mini-dialogue
—Per què està tan enfadat el Martí?
—Why is Martí so angry?
—Diu que podríem haver-lo avisat del canvi d'hora.
—He says we could have warned him about the time change.
—Té raó. Em sap greu no haver-hi pensat.
—He's right. I'm sorry I didn't think of it.
—Truca-li ara; més val tard que mai.
—Call him now; better late than never.
Regional and register notes
Haver + participle is shared across contemporary standard Catalan. The principal variation here is stylistic rather than territorial. Reporting patterns such as afirma haver observat and raising patterns such as sembla haver disminuït are especially (formal/academic). Conversation often expands them to afirma que ha observat and sembla que ha disminuït. Valencian, Balearic, Northwestern, Northern, and Alguerese speakers may differ in nearby finite perfect systems, but the perfect infinitive itself remains transparent and common in the standard language.
Common Mistakes
1. Using a gerund after a preposition because English says “after having.”
❌ Després d'havent sopat, vam fer un volt.
Incorrect — after a preposition, Catalan uses the perfect infinitive.
✅ Després d'haver sopat, vam fer un volt.
After dinner, we went for a walk.
2. Copying the Spanish auxiliary.
❌ Em sap greu haber arribat tard.
Incorrect — Catalan spells the auxiliary haver.
✅ Em sap greu haver arribat tard.
I'm sorry to have arrived late.
3. Attaching the pronoun to the participle.
❌ Hauries d'haver dit-ho abans.
Incorrect — the clitic attaches to the infinitive auxiliary.
✅ Hauries d'haver-ho dit abans.
You should have said it sooner.
4. Forcing an infinitive despite a different subordinate subject.
❌ La mare lamenta haver el nen perdut l'autobús.
Incorrect and unnatural — el nen needs a finite clause as its own subject.
✅ La mare lamenta que el nen hagi perdut l'autobús.
The mother is sorry that the child missed the bus.
5. Making the participle agree with the understood subject.
❌ Elles neguen haver arribades tard.
Incorrect — the participle does not agree with the subject after haver.
✅ Elles neguen haver arribat tard.
They deny having arrived late. (formal)
Key Takeaways
- Form the perfect infinitive with invariable haver + participle.
- It presents an event as complete within a relative-time relation; it is usually earlier than the higher viewpoint, though abans d'haver... places that viewpoint before the represented completion.
- Use it after prepositions, modals, control verbs, and in compact counterfactual clauses.
- Attach weak pronouns to haver: haver-ho fet, haver-se'n anat.
- When the subordinate action has a different subject, prefer a finite clause and choose its mood from meaning.
Related Topics
- Finite and Nonfinite Verb FormsA1 — Distinguish person-marked indicative, subjunctive, and imperative forms from infinitives, gerunds, and participles and use each to build clauses.
- Infinitives after PrepositionsA2 — Choose the preposition that expresses or is selected by the relationship, then use an infinitive—not an English-style gerund—when it introduces an event.
- Infinitives after Modal and Control VerbsA2 — Combine poder, voler, saber, intentar, decidir, and prometre with an infinitive, and identify who performs the infinitive's action.
- Expressing the Subject of an InfinitiveB1 — Learn how Catalan identifies an infinitive's understood or explicit subject and when a finite que-clause is clearer.
- The Compound GerundA2 — Form the Catalan compound gerund with havent plus a participle and use it for a completed circumstance before another event.
- Epistemic, Deontic, and Dynamic ModalityC1 — How Catalan distinguishes probability, obligation, permission, willingness, and ability through modal verbs and related constructions.