Catalan compound tenses combine a form of haver with a past participle: he parlat, havia sortit, hauran arribat, hagis entès. The auxiliary carries person, number, tense, and mood. The participle identifies the lexical event and presents it as anterior to the viewpoint established by the auxiliary.
The basic agreement rule is simple: after haver, the participle is ordinarily the masculine singular form, whatever the subject and whatever direct object follows. A restricted agreement pattern with preceding third-person object clitics is also standard and important; it does not overturn the basic rule.
The division of labor
Compare the present perfect of parlar. The participle never changes for person:
| Person | Auxiliary | Complete form |
|---|---|---|
| jo | he | he parlat |
| tu | has | has parlat |
| ell/ella/vostè | ha | ha parlat |
| nosaltres | hem | hem parlat |
| vosaltres | heu | heu parlat |
| ells/elles/vostès | han | han parlat |
He parlat amb la propietària i m'ha confirmat la reserva.
I've spoken with the owner, and she confirmed the booking.
Has vist les claus del cotxe?
Have you seen the car keys?
Encara no hem rebut cap resposta.
We haven't received any reply yet.
Haver changes again when the viewpoint changes. The participle remains constant:
| Form | Model | Core viewpoint |
|---|---|---|
| present perfect indicative | he parlat | prior to a present reference point |
| pluperfect indicative | havia parlat | prior to a past reference point |
| past anterior | hagué parlat / va haver parlat | immediately prior in narration; (formal/literary) |
| future perfect | haurà parlat | complete before a future reference point, or inference |
| conditional perfect | hauria parlat | hypothetical prior completion |
| perfect subjunctive | hagi parlat | prior event inside a present or future subjunctive frame |
| pluperfect subjunctive | hagués parlat | prior event inside a past or counterfactual subjunctive frame |
| perfect infinitive | haver parlat | nonfinite anteriority |
| compound gerund | havent parlat | completed accompanying circumstance |
The ordinary invariable pattern
With a following noun object, use the masculine singular participle even when that object is feminine or plural:
Hem comprat dues entrades per al concert.
We've bought two tickets for the concert.
La Júlia havia preparat totes les habitacions abans que arribéssim.
Júlia had prepared all the rooms before we arrived.
Quan tornis, les botigues ja hauran tancat.
By the time you return, the shops will already have closed.
Do not change comprat to comprades merely because dues entrades is feminine plural. Do not change preparat to match either the feminine subject la Júlia or the feminine plural object habitacions. In a neutral haver + participle sequence, agreement is not with the subject and not with a following object.
This differs sharply from an adjectival participle:
| Construction | Example | What agrees? |
|---|---|---|
| compound tense | Hem tancat les finestres. | tancat is ordinarily invariable |
| resultant-state adjective | Les finestres estan tancades. | tancades agrees with finestres |
| eventive passive | Les finestres van ser tancades pel conserge. | tancades agrees with the passive subject |
The passive and adjective both show agreement, so form alone does not separate them. The passive narrates an event and can name an agent with per; the adjective describes a state. The dedicated page on Participles as Adjectives develops that contrast.
Restricted agreement with a preceding object clitic
When a third-person direct-object clitic precedes the compound verb, standard Catalan permits visible agreement, especially with feminine la and les and in careful language:
| Object | Agreement | Invariable alternative |
|---|---|---|
| la proposta | l'hem acabada | l'hem acabat |
| les claus | les he trobades | les he trobat |
| els documents | els heu revisats | els heu revisat |
La Marta? Sí, l'he trobada a la biblioteca aquest migdia.
Marta? Yes, I ran into her at the library at lunchtime.
Les persianes encara no les han reparades.
They still haven't repaired the blinds.
Agreement is more usual with feminine objects than with masculine plural ones. (Formal) careful usage often maintains l'he vista, les he vistes. (Informal, especially Central Catalan) l'he vist, les he vist is widespread and standard. (Regional: Valencian; formal AVL preference) feminine agreement is particularly favored. (Regional: Balearic) broader traditional agreement remains robust.
With partitive en, agreement with the understood quantified object can occur: De pomes, n'he menjada una but n'he menjades dues. This pattern is receding in many areas but remains alive especially (regional: Balearic and Northern Catalan). Do not generalize any of these patterns to a following full noun: hem comprat dues pomes, not hem comprades dues pomes.
Negation and weak-pronoun placement
In a finite compound tense, the order is:
negation + weak pronoun(s) + finite haver + participle
No me n'he adonat fins aquest matí.
I didn't realize it until this morning.
Encara no l'havíem poguda provar, la màquina nova.
We still hadn't been able to test the new machine.
No precedes the pronoun cluster, and the pronouns precede haver; weak pronouns do not go between the auxiliary and its participle. Thus ho he fet and no l'havia vist are standard, while he ho fet and he fet-ho are not.
In nonfinite compounds, placement follows the nonfinite auxiliary: haver-ho fet and havent-ho fet. The clitic still attaches to haver/havent, never to fet. For the full placement system, see Weak-Pronoun Placement.
Tense and mood come from meaning
English form matching cannot choose a Catalan compound tense. In much of Central Catalan, avui he parlat amb ella places the conversation in a present time frame, whereas ahir vaig parlar amb ella presents it in a closed past frame. The exact distribution varies regionally, but vaig parlar is never vaig parlat: the periphrastic past takes an infinitive.
Mood likewise depends on how the subordinate proposition is presented—as asserted, doubted, desired, or evaluated—not merely on seeing que:
Sé que ho ha fet, però dubto que ho hagi fet expressament.
I know he did it, but I doubt he did it deliberately.
Ha fet is asserted under sé. Hagi fet is placed inside doubt and is not asserted independently. The same participle appears because mood is carried by the auxiliary.
English progressive perfects also need interpretation rather than imitation. “We've been waiting for an hour” is naturally Fa una hora que esperem when duration to the present matters. Hem estat esperant exists, but it deliberately highlights the unfolding activity; it is not the automatic translation of every English “have been -ing.”
Regional auxiliary patterns
The common contemporary standard across regions uses haver as the perfect auxiliary: he vingut, hem anat, han vist. Some traditional systems preserve ser/ésser in limited ways. (Regional: Balearic; traditional/recessive) som vengut or som venguda can correspond to general he vingut. (Regional: Northern Catalan; local speech) forms such as som vist and sem anat occur in broader person-based systems.
These are coherent local paradigms, not isolated substitutions. Learners using the broad Central/general baseline should keep haver throughout; speakers following a regional model should preserve that model’s auxiliary and agreement rules consistently.
Mini-dialogue
—Heu enviat les invitacions?
—Have you sent the invitations?
—Sí, les hem enviades aquest matí, però no hem rebut cap resposta.
—Yes, we sent them this morning, but we haven't received any reply.
—Quan n'hàgiu rebut alguna, aviseu-me.
—When you receive one, let me know.
The dialogue contrasts asserted indicative hem enviades / hem rebut with future-oriented perfect subjunctive hàgiu rebut inside a time clause. The participle formation remains unchanged; the auxiliary expresses the mood contrast.
Common Mistakes
1. Agreeing with a following full object.
❌ Han decorades tres sales per a la festa.
Incorrect — the following noun object does not trigger agreement.
✅ Han decorat tres sales per a la festa.
They've decorated three rooms for the party.
2. Agreeing with the subject after haver.
❌ Elles han arribades tard.
Incorrect — compound-tense participles do not agree with the subject.
✅ Elles han arribat tard.
They arrived late.
3. Putting a weak pronoun after the participle.
❌ He explicat-ho dues vegades.
Incorrect — in a finite compound tense, ho precedes haver.
✅ Ho he explicat dues vegades.
I've explained it twice.
4. Copying a Spanish auxiliary form.
❌ Hemos acabat l'informe.
Incorrect — hemos is Spanish, not a Catalan form of haver.
✅ Hem acabat l'informe.
We've finished the report.
5. Using a participle in the periphrastic past.
❌ Dissabte passat vam visitat el monestir.
Incorrect — the periphrastic past uses an infinitive.
✅ Dissabte passat vam visitar el monestir.
Last Saturday we visited the monastery.
Key Takeaways
- Compound tenses use haver + participle; haver carries person, tense, and mood.
- The participle is ordinarily masculine singular and does not agree with the subject or a following object.
- A preceding third-person object clitic can license standard agreement: l'he vista, les hem pagades.
- Put negation and clitics before finite haver: no me n'he adonat.
- Distinguish compound tense hem tancat from adjectival state estan tancades and passive event van ser tancades.
Now practice Catalan
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Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- Forming the Present PerfectA2 — Build the Catalan present perfect with present haver plus a past participle, and place negation, questions, and weak pronouns correctly.
- Why the Participle Usually Does Not Agree with HaverB1 — Distinguish the invariable participle in compound tenses from agreement with objects, adjectives, and passive subjects.
- The Pluperfect IndicativeB1 — Use havia plus a participle to locate an event before another past reference point.
- Forming Past ParticiplesA2 — Build Catalan participles in -at, -ut, and -it, spell hiatus forms correctly, and learn the major irregular families.
- Pronoun Placement Across Verb FormsB1 — Place weak pronouns before finite verbs, after infinitives, gerunds, and affirmative imperatives, and correctly across verb phrases.