You will encounter infinitives with directive force on Catalan signs, labels, forms, and procedural lists: No tocar, Introduir el codi, Conservar en un lloc fresc. They name an action without grammatically naming the person who must perform it. That impersonality makes them compact, but it does not make them the universal Catalan equivalent of an English bare command.
For a direct instruction to readers, careful Catalan style generally prefers the second-person plural imperative: No toqueu, Introduïu el codi, Conserveu-ho en un lloc fresc. The infinitive remains natural as a terse label, a heading, a checklist item, or part of an understood impersonal frame. The real choice is therefore not “correct infinitive versus correct imperative,” but what kind of text the words are creating.
What a directive infinitive does
An infinitive has no person or number. Tancar la porta names the action “to close the door”; context can invite the reader to interpret that action as required. A command such as Tanqueu la porta directly addresses a generic or plural reader.
| Wording | How it frames the action | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Tancar la porta | action label; addressee suppressed | checklist, note, compressed instruction |
| Tanqueu la porta | direct instruction to reader(s) | notice, manual, spoken direction |
| Cal tancar la porta | general necessity | explanation or rule |
| La porta ha de quedar tancada | required resulting state | (formal) policy or safety wording |
Tanqueu la porta en sortir, si us plau.
Please close the door when you leave.
Cal tancar la porta tallafoc després de cada ús.
The fire door must be closed after each use. (formal)
Tancar la clau de pas abans de desmuntar el filtre.
Shut off the stopcock before removing the filter. (compressed procedural style)
The first sentence creates a relationship between writer and reader. The second presents a rule. The third reads like an item in a technical procedure whose omitted frame is “the next action is...”. In continuous prose addressed to a user, an entire sequence of imperatives is usually clearer.
Negative signs: common usage and preferred wording
Forms such as No fumar, No passar, and No tocar are widespread and instantly understood. They are especially common on compact pictograms and inherited signs. However, many Catalan institutional style guides recommend a second-person plural negative command for a genuine instruction: No fumeu, No passeu, No toqueu. The negative command uses the present subjunctive even though its function is imperative.
No fumeu dins de l'edifici.
Do not smoke inside the building.
No trepitgeu la gespa acabada de sembrar.
Do not walk on the newly seeded grass.
No fumar.
No smoking. (terse sign wording)
Do not overstate the distinction: No fumar is not incomprehensible or rare Catalan. It is a telegraphic, impersonal sign formula, reinforced by international signage conventions and contact with Spanish. No fumeu is the safer choice when producing a full Catalan notice that explicitly guides its audience.
Other fully impersonal alternatives avoid the issue: Prohibit de fumar “Smoking prohibited,” No es permet fumar “Smoking is not permitted,” or Espai sense fum “Smoke-free space.” These are (formal) or institutional and focus on the rule rather than on a command.
No es permet l'accés fora de l'horari d'obertura.
Access is not permitted outside opening hours. (formal)
Prohibit de deixar bicicletes al replà.
Leaving bicycles on the landing is prohibited. (formal)
Instructions in manuals, recipes, and interfaces
A procedure should choose one organizing voice and maintain it. The generic second-person plural—historically compatible with vós address—is conventional in clear public instructions. It works for one reader or many readers without requiring vostè.
| Consistent imperative sequence | Consistent infinitive sequence |
|---|---|
| Obriu la tapa. | Obrir la tapa. |
| Introduïu la targeta. | Introduir la targeta. |
| Seleccioneu una opció. | Seleccionar una opció. |
| Confirmeu l'operació. | Confirmar l'operació. |
The left-hand sequence directly leads the reader and is normally preferable in a manual. The right-hand sequence is acceptable as a compact checklist, a flowchart, or interface specification where each infinitive functions as the name of a step. Mixing Obriu, Introduir, Selecciona, and Confirmació without a reason makes the document's viewpoint unstable.
Afegiu-hi la ceba i deixeu-la coure a foc lent.
Add the onion and let it cook over low heat.
Marcar aquesta casella només si voleu rebre avisos.
Tick this box only if you want to receive notifications. (compressed form instruction)
In (formal) official language, a consistent imperative is often the clearest reader-oriented option. Regional standards share this basic contrast. A (regional: Valencian) text may use vosté/vostés spellings when formal third-person address is intended, but generic instructions can likewise use second-person plural imperatives: Marqueu, introduïu, no desconnecteu.
Pronouns and negation
With a standalone directive infinitive, weak pronouns attach after it: tancar-la, prémer-lo, introduir-hi, adreçar-s'hi. If no negates that infinitive, it comes before the verb while the pronoun remains attached after: no tocar-lo. This does not rule out clitic climbing in finite verb phrases such as l'heu de tancar. In a negative finite command, by contrast, the pronoun precedes the verb: no el toqueu.
The full finite pattern is developed on the page about pronouns with negative imperatives.
No desconnectar-lo mentre s'està actualitzant.
Do not disconnect it while it is updating. (compressed procedural style)
No el desconnecteu mentre s'actualitza.
Do not disconnect it while it is updating.
Deseu els canvis abans de sortir del programa.
Save your changes before exiting the program.
Notice also that Catalan does not need an English-style progressive everywhere English uses one. In a current on-screen process, mentre s'actualitza is natural; a general prohibition can simply say No desconnecteu el dispositiu durant l'actualització. The progressive is for an action genuinely in progress, not a marker of instructional tone.
Stress, spelling, and capital letters
Directive use does not change the infinitive's spelling or stress. Introduir has no diaeresis, but the imperative introduïu does; prémer retains its accent; sortir does not acquire one. All-capital signs must retain Catalan accents, the diaeresis, apostrophes, the cedilla, and the middle dot.
INTRODUÏU EL CODI I PREMEU ACCEPTAR.
ENTER THE CODE AND PRESS ACCEPT.
SORTIDA D'EMERGÈNCIA — NO L'OBSTRUÏU.
EMERGENCY EXIT — DO NOT OBSTRUCT IT.
The accents in introduïu and obstruïu are not decoration; they indicate hiatus and remain obligatory in capitals. A short sign is still a fully spelled Catalan text.
Mini-dialogue
—El rètol diu «No passar», però he de lliurar aquest paquet. —No hi passeu; deixeu-lo a recepció.
—The sign says ‘Do not enter,’ but I have to deliver this parcel. —Don't go through there; leave it at reception.
The employee quotes a terse impersonal sign, then addresses the visitor directly with negative no hi passeu and affirmative deixeu-lo. Context shifts the text from a label to interpersonal instructions, and the grammar shifts with it.
Common Mistakes
1. Using an infinitive as a personal spoken command.
❌ Esperar aquí, senyora.
Incorrect as a direct spoken command to a specific person.
✅ Esperi aquí, senyora.
Wait here, ma'am. (formal)
2. Copying a Spanish verb into a Catalan prohibition.
❌ No piseu la gespa.
Incorrect — pisar is a Spanish transfer in this meaning.
✅ No trepitgeu la gespa.
Do not walk on the grass.
3. Attaching a pronoun after a negative finite command.
❌ No desconnecteu-lo.
Incorrect — the negative command requires a preverbal pronoun.
✅ No el desconnecteu.
Do not disconnect it.
4. Omitting a required diaeresis in an imperative.
❌ Introduiu la contrasenya.
Incorrect — the hiatus in the imperative requires a diaeresis.
✅ Introduïu la contrasenya.
Enter the password.
5. Switching grammatical voice inside one short procedure.
❌ Obriu l'aplicació, introduir el codi i confirma l'operació.
Incorrectly inconsistent — plural imperative, infinitive, and singular imperative are mixed.
✅ Obriu l'aplicació, introduïu el codi i confirmeu l'operació.
Open the application, enter the code, and confirm the operation.
Key Takeaways
An infinitive can label a required or forbidden action without naming an addressee, which suits checklists and compressed signage. For an actual instruction to readers, the second-person plural imperative is usually clearer and is widely preferred in careful Catalan. Keep the chosen voice consistent, preserve all diacritics even in capitals, and distinguish no tocar-lo from finite no el toqueu.
Related Topics
- Affirmative ImperativesA2 — Form affirmative Catalan commands for tu, vostè, nosaltres, vosaltres, and vostès, with correct agreement and weak-pronoun placement.
- Negative ImperativesA2 — Build Catalan prohibitions with no plus the present subjunctive, placing weak pronouns correctly for every command person.
- Commands, Requests, and Pragmatic ForceA2 — Choose among Catalan imperatives, polite questions, conditional requests, and impersonal instructions without sounding abrupt or unnatural.
- Weak Pronouns with Affirmative CommandsA2 — Learn where Catalan weak pronouns go in affirmative commands and how hyphens, apostrophes, stress, and pronoun clusters work.
- Infinitive Forms and Conjugation ClassesA2 — Recognize Catalan infinitives, their stress patterns, and the three conjugation classes that organize finite verb forms.
- Infinitives as Subjects and PredicatesA2 — Use a bare infinitive clause for an activity as subject or predicate, and distinguish it from a genuinely nominalized infinitive with a determiner.