Catalan has only a small cluster of truly troublesome imperfect stems. Among the most frequent are deia “said,” feia “did/made,” veia “saw,” duia “carried/wore,” seia “sat/was sitting,” and reia “laughed/was laughing.” Their meanings are ordinary imperfect meanings; what must be learned is the contracted stem and, in the plural, the written accent.
English gives no clue that these forms belong together. A useful Catalan clue is their relation to gerunds such as dient, fent, veient, duent, seient, and rient. The imperfect stems preserve the changed shape seen around those non-finite forms rather than simply copying the infinitive.
Six complete model paradigms
The Central standard spellings are shown below. First- and third-person singular are identical, as in other imperfect paradigms.
| Person | dir | fer | veure | dur | seure | riure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| jo | deia | feia | veia | duia | seia | reia |
| tu | deies | feies | veies | duies | seies | reies |
| ell / ella / vostè | deia | feia | veia | duia | seia | reia |
| nosaltres | dèiem | fèiem | vèiem | dúiem | sèiem | rèiem |
| vosaltres | dèieu | fèieu | vèieu | dúieu | sèieu | rèieu |
| ells / elles / vostès | deien | feien | veien | duien | seien | reien |
Jo deia que marxéssim abans que es fes fosc.
I was saying that we should leave before it got dark.
Què fèieu encara a l'oficina a aquella hora?
What were you still doing at the office at that time?
Des del balcó vèiem tota la plaça.
From the balcony we could see the whole square.
These forms carry normal person-number agreement. The contracted lexical stem does not eliminate the ending: compare singular feia, second singular feies, and plural feien. An overt subject is usually unnecessary, but jo or ella may clarify the ambiguous singular feia.
How the stems are built
The -eia family contains dir → deia, fer → feia, veure → veia, seure → seia, and riure → reia. The infinitive vowel or consonant may change or disappear, so forms such as diria and veuria are not imperfects: they are conditionals built on the infinitive.
Dur follows a parallel -uia pattern: duia, duies, duia, dúiem, dúieu, duien. It means “carry,” “bring,” or “wear” depending on its complement and context.
Quan anàvem d'excursió, ella sempre duia una farmaciola a la motxilla.
When we went hiking, she always carried a first-aid kit in her backpack.
No duies les ulleres quan ens vam conèixer, oi?
You didn't wear glasses when we met, did you?
Els avis seien al balcó i reien de les històries del veí.
The grandparents would sit on the balcony and laugh at the neighbor's stories.
Other common verbs show the same contracted shape: caure → queia, creure → creia, jeure → jeia, treure → treia. This page concentrates on the six high-frequency models in the title brief, but the pattern is productive enough to recognize elsewhere. It is still not safe to invent a form from the English translation: verify the Catalan infinitive and its established stem.
Stress and written accents
In deia, feies, and deien, the i functions as a glide and the first vowel of the sequence carries the lexical stress. The Central plural forms therefore need a grave accent: dèiem, dèieu; fèiem, fèieu; vèiem, vèieu; sèiem, sèieu; rèiem, rèieu. The dur forms instead take an acute accent on ú: dúiem, dúieu.
The other persons need no written accent under ordinary Catalan spelling rules. Do not add a diaeresis: veïa, seïa, reïa are incorrect. These forms do not follow the hiatus spelling of regular vowel-stem verbs such as produïa.
For the productive -ia series and the genuine hiatus pattern, see Regular -er, -re, and -ir Verbs in the Imperfect.
Mentre nosaltres fèiem el sopar, vosaltres rèieu mirant vídeos antics.
While we were making dinner, you were laughing at old videos.
Sempre em deies que aquell abric em quedava massa gran.
You always told me that coat was too big for me.
What the forms mean
Irregular morphology does not create a special tense meaning. These verbs still present a past habit, state, or unfolding background without asserting its endpoint.
La Laia feia cafè quan va saltar el diferencial.
Laia was making coffee when the circuit breaker tripped.
Des d'on seia, no veia la pantalla.
From where he was sitting, he couldn't see the screen.
Here feia gives the ongoing activity interrupted by va saltar. In the second sentence, seia and veia describe two simultaneous states. English prefers progressive “was making” in the first but simple “couldn't see” in the second; Catalan uses the imperfect for both because the shared viewpoint is internal and unbounded.
For a completed event, use the periphrastic past: va dir, va fer, va veure, va dur, va seure, va riure. Notice that this is va + infinitive, never va + imperfect.
| Imperfect viewpoint | Bounded periphrastic past |
|---|---|
| Em deia això cada setmana. It was a repeated habit. | Ahir m'ho va dir. One completed telling. |
| Feia fred quan vam sortir. Background weather. | Va fer fred tota la setmana. The week is treated as a closed span. |
| Reien quan vaig entrar. Laughter already in progress. | Van riure quan ho van sentir. The reaction is a completed event. |
Weak pronouns and polarity
Weak pronouns precede these finite forms; no precedes the whole cluster. The verb agrees with the subject, not with the object represented by the pronoun.
No ho dèiem per fer-te mal; ens pensàvem que ja ho sabies.
We weren't saying it to hurt you; we thought you already knew.
La jaqueta blava, se l'enduia sempre que plovia.
He always took the blue jacket with him when it rained.
The pronominal compound endur-se produces s'enduia, with the weak-pronoun cluster before the finite imperfect. Do not attach the pronoun to the finite form: enduia-se is not neutral standard word order.
Mini-dialogue
—Què fèieu tots asseguts a terra? —Vèiem fotos del viatge. En Pol deia que no recordava res, però reia més que ningú.
—What were you all doing sitting on the floor? —We were looking at photos from the trip. Pol said he didn't remember anything, but he was laughing more than anyone.
The dialogue combines plural fèieu, vèiem with singular deia and reia. English changes between progressive and simple forms, but each Catalan imperfect keeps the listener inside the scene.
Regional and register notes
The stems in the table belong to the general contemporary standard and are appropriate in informal speech and (formal) writing. Accent choice in the plural reflects regional vowel quality. The Central baseline writes dèiem, fèiem, vèiem, sèiem, and rèiem with a grave accent. The corresponding forms may be written déiem, féiem, véiem, séiem, and réiem in the Valencian standard (regional: Valencian). Dúiem and dúieu keep the acute accent on ú.
Local speech has additional analogical forms, especially across Northern, Balearic, Northwestern, and Alguerese varieties, but neutral cross-regional writing should not imitate an unheard local pronunciation. The shared stems above are the secure active baseline; use documented regional paradigms when representing a particular community.
These forms are indicative because their situations are asserted. Compare Sabia què feies “I knew what you were doing” with Volia que ho fessis “I wanted you to do it.” The word volia does not make its own clause subjunctive; it makes the desired subordinate event nonasserted.
Common Mistakes
1. Building the imperfect from the infinitive as though it were a conditional.
❌ Cada matí faria cafè abans de sortir.
Incorrect for the intended past habit — faria is conditional.
✅ Cada matí feia cafè abans de sortir.
Every morning I made coffee before leaving.
2. Using a diaeresis in the contracted forms.
❌ Des del balcó veïem el mar.
Incorrect — the imperfect of veure is vèiem, without a diaeresis.
✅ Des del balcó vèiem el mar.
From the balcony we could see the sea.
3. Omitting or misplacing the plural accent.
❌ Nosaltres feiem el dinar i vosaltres duieu les begudes.
Incorrect — the Central forms require fèiem and dúieu.
✅ Nosaltres fèiem el dinar i vosaltres dúieu les begudes.
We made lunch, and you brought the drinks.
4. Combining the periphrastic auxiliary with an imperfect form.
❌ Ahir em va deia que no vindria.
Incorrect — va takes the infinitive dir, not the imperfect deia.
✅ Ahir em va dir que no vindria.
Yesterday she told me she wouldn't come.
5. Placing a weak pronoun after the finite imperfect.
❌ Deia-ho cada vegada que ens vèiem.
Incorrect neutral placement with a finite indicative verb.
✅ Ho deia cada vegada que ens vèiem.
He said it every time we saw each other.
Key Takeaways
Memorize the stems deia, feia, veia, duia, seia, and reia, then extend each across the six persons. Preserve Central dèiem, fèiem, vèiem, sèiem, rèiem and dúiem with their accents; recognize the corresponding acute-é Valencian spellings. The irregularity is morphological only: aspect, pronoun placement, negation, and mood follow the ordinary Catalan system.
Now practice Catalan
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- Regular -er, -re, and -ir Verbs in the ImperfectA2 — Use the shared Catalan -ia imperfect paradigm, including its stress, accents, and diaeresis patterns.
- Imperfect of SerA2 — Form era, eres, era, érem, éreu, and eren and use them for identity, description, time, and background setting in the past.
- Uses of the ImperfectA2 — Use the Catalan imperfect for past habits, background scenes, simultaneous situations, age and time, polite distancing, and unreal play.
- Periphrastic Past versus ImperfectB1 — Choose between vaig parlar and parlava by reading event boundaries, narrative foreground, habits, completed counts, and viewpoint.
- Acute and Grave AccentsA1 — Choose the correct Catalan accent direction and use é, è, ó, and ò to preserve stressed vowel quality.
- Conjugation of ferA1 — Complete contemporary conjugation of fer for doing, making, weather, elapsed time, causatives, idioms, and pronominal fer-se.