Catalan past participles have three productive endings: -at, -ut, and -it. They appear after haver in compound tenses (hem parlat), in passives (la proposta va ser aprovada), and as adjectives (les finestres tancades). The form begins with the verb’s conjugation, but many frequent verbs belong to irregular families that must be learned.
English participles show almost no gender or number marking. Catalan participles can inflect like adjectives, although after haver the basic form is normally masculine singular. Formation and syntactic use are therefore separate questions: first choose the correct participial stem; then decide whether the construction requires agreement.
The three regular patterns
| Infinitive class | Operation | Model | Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ar | remove -ar, add -at | parlar | parlat |
| -er/-re | remove the infinitive ending, add -ut | perdre | perdut |
| -ir | remove -ir, add -it | dormir | dormit |
Aquest matí he parlat amb la gestora i ja hem resolt el problema.
This morning I spoke with the account manager, and we've already solved the problem.
Has venut la bicicleta que tenies al traster?
Have you sold the bicycle you kept in the storage room?
Els nens han dormit gairebé deu hores.
The children have slept for almost ten hours.
The first conjugation is highly regular: treballar → treballat, buscar → buscat, pagar → pagat, començar → començat. The second and third conjugations contain more irregular high-frequency verbs, so -ut and -it are strong default patterns, not guarantees.
Regular participles are stressed on the last syllable: par-lat, per-dut, dor-mit. They do not take a written accent because their final consonant already predicts final stress under ordinary Catalan spelling rules.
Spelling and the diaeresis
Most regular forms preserve the spelling needed before a, u, or i: buscar → buscat, tocar → tocat, pagar → pagat, començar → començat, menjar → menjat. The cedilla in començat is essential because it keeps the /s/ sound before a.
Verbs whose participle contains stressed i after another vowel often require a diaeresis to show that the vowels belong to separate syllables:
| Infinitive | Participle | What the spelling marks |
|---|---|---|
| produir | produït | the u and stressed ï are separate |
| construir | construït | hiatus before -t |
| reduir | reduït | hiatus before -t |
| agrair | agraït | the stressed i is syllabic |
| obeir | obeït | the stressed i is syllabic |
L'empresa ha reduït el consum d'aigua sense reduir la producció.
The company has reduced water use without reducing production.
The diaeresis is not decoration and cannot be replaced by an acute accent here: produït, not produit or produít. See The Diaeresis for the wider orthographic system.
Major irregular participles
There is no single rule that predicts fer → fet or veure → vist. These forms are genuinely lexical. The efficient strategy is to learn a small core and then extend it through prefixed families.
| Family | Core form | Related forms |
|---|---|---|
| fer | fet | desfet, refet |
| dir | dit | contradit, predit |
| veure | vist | previst, revist |
| prendre | pres | après, comprès, reprès |
| escriure | escrit | descrit, inscrit, prescrit |
| metre | mès | admès, emès, permès, promès |
| obrir/cobrir | obert/cobert | descobert |
| morir | mort | — |
| resoldre | resolt | dissolt |
No m'has dit qui ha fet aquest pastís.
You haven't told me who made this cake.
Finalment hem comprès per què fallava la connexió.
We've finally understood why the connection was failing.
Ja m'he inscrit al curs que em vas recomanar.
I've already enrolled in the course you recommended.
Some participles retain -ut but change the stem: tenir → tingut, venir → vingut, beure → begut, conèixer → conegut, néixer → nascut, viure → viscut, saber → sabut, poder → pogut, and voler → volgut. The familiar ending can make these irregularities easy to overlook.
Aquest any hem tingut més inscripcions del que havíem previst.
This year we've had more registrations than we had expected.
No person forms, but an agreement paradigm
A participle does not have first-, second-, and third-person forms. In he parlat, has parlat, hem parlat, and han parlat, person and number are carried by haver. The participle parlat stays unchanged.
When the participle functions adjectivally or in a passive, however, it has a complete gender-and-number paradigm:
| Gender and number | tancar | escriure |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | tancat | escrit |
| feminine singular | tancada | escrita |
| masculine plural | tancats | escrits |
| feminine plural | tancades | escrites |
Hem tancat les finestres i ara totes estan ben tancades.
We've closed the windows, and now they're all properly closed.
The first tancat belongs to the compound tense with haver and uses the basic form. Tancades is an adjective describing finestres and must agree. Restricted object-clitic agreement such as les hem tancades is also standard in appropriate varieties and registers; it is explained under Participles in Compound Tenses.
Accepted variants and regional preferences
Several verbs have standard participial doublets. In the general standard and especially in Central Catalan, complert, establert, ofert, omplert, and sofert are widespread. (Regional: Valencian, Balearic, and Northwestern/Tortosí) complit, establit, oferit, omplit, and sofrit are the regular regional forms; they are also the forms preferred by the AVL for Valencian. Use a coherent regional model; do not label either standard series as an error.
Ens han oferit una plaça al curs de vesprada.
They've offered us a place in the evening course. (regional: Valencian)
The high-frequency core fet, dit, vist, pres, escrit, obert, and mort is shared across the main standards. (Informal, especially Central Catalan) analogical sapigut can be heard, but neutral and formal Catalan uses sabut. The separate page on Double Participles treats lexical and stylistic doublets in detail.
Pronouns and neighboring verb forms
In a finite compound tense, weak pronouns precede haver: ho he fet, no l'hem vist, se n'han anat. They do not attach to the participle. In a compound gerund, they attach to havent: havent-ho fet. The participle remains the same lexical form in both constructions.
Do not confuse the participle with the infinitive after the periphrastic-past auxiliary. Ahir vam escriure is a past with vam + infinitive; avui hem escrit is a compound tense with hem + participle. Nor does an English progressive predict a participle: “we are writing” is escrivim or, when ongoingness is emphasized, estem escrivint.
Mini-dialogue
—Has imprès els documents que t'he enviat?
—Have you printed the documents I sent you?
—Sí, i també he escrit els noms a la primera pàgina.
—Yes, and I've also written the names on the first page.
—Perfecte. Jo encara no he fet les còpies per als convidats.
—Perfect. I still haven't made the copies for the guests.
The dialogue uses three irregular participles: imprès, escrit, and fet. Their auxiliary and pronoun placement are entirely regular.
Common Mistakes
1. Importing a Spanish participle.
❌ He vendido la taula vella per internet.
Incorrect — vendido is Spanish, not Catalan.
✅ He venut la taula vella per internet.
I've sold the old table online.
2. Keeping the inchoative increment in the participle.
❌ Aquest resum m'ha serveixit molt.
Incorrect — the participle of servir is servit.
✅ Aquest resum m'ha servit molt.
This summary has helped me a lot.
3. Omitting the diaeresis in a hiatus participle.
❌ Han reduit el pressupost un deu per cent.
Incorrect — reduït requires a diaeresis.
✅ Han reduït el pressupost un deu per cent.
They've cut the budget by ten percent.
4. Regularizing a core irregular form.
❌ Ja heu ferut la llista de convidats?
Incorrect — fer has the participle fet.
✅ Ja heu fet la llista de convidats?
Have you made the guest list yet?
5. Using a participle after the periphrastic-past auxiliary.
❌ Ahir vam escrit al propietari.
Incorrect — vam takes the infinitive in the periphrastic past.
✅ Ahir vam escriure al propietari.
Yesterday we wrote to the landlord.
Key Takeaways
- Regular participles use -at after -ar, -ut after -er/-re, and -it after -ir.
- Preserve Catalan spelling: començat, produït, construït, agraït.
- Learn irregular forms in families: fet/desfet, escrit/descrit, pres/comprès, mès/admès.
- Participles do not mark person; adjectival and passive participles do mark gender and number.
- Regional doublets such as Central ofert and Valencian oferit are standard alternatives, not random variation.
Now practice Catalan
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Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- Regular Past ParticiplesA2 — Form Catalan past participles in -at, -ut, and -it and use them correctly with haver.
- Common Irregular Past ParticiplesA2 — Learn Catalan's high-frequency irregular participles through reusable families and contrasts.
- Participles in Compound TensesA2 — Use haver plus a normally invariable participle, place negation and clitics correctly, and recognize restricted object agreement.
- Double and Competing ParticiplesA2 — Choose among accepted Catalan participle doublets by region, register, syntactic use, and lexical meaning.
- The Diaeresis: ï and üB1 — Use Catalan ï and ü to mark hiatus or a pronounced u, and recognize the systematic contexts where the mark is omitted.