The preposition de links two high-frequency Catalan aspectual constructions. Acabar de + infinitive most often places an event immediately before the reference time: acabo d'arribar “I have just arrived.” Deixar de + infinitive presents an activity or state as ceasing: ha deixat de fumar “she has stopped smoking.” Their negative forms are especially important, because no acabo d'entendre and no deixa de ploure do not mean the simple opposite of their affirmative counterparts.
Only the first verb agrees with the subject and carries tense and mood. The infinitive remains unchanged. Both constructions are neutral in contemporary Catalan across formal writing and everyday speech unless a use is explicitly labeled otherwise.
Basic form and present agreement
| Person | acabar de llegir | deixar de llegir |
|---|---|---|
| jo | acabo de llegir | deixo de llegir |
| tu | acabes de llegir | deixes de llegir |
| ell / ella / vostè | acaba de llegir | deixa de llegir |
| nosaltres | acabem de llegir | deixem de llegir |
| vosaltres / vós | acabeu de llegir | deixeu de llegir |
| ells / elles / vostès | acaben de llegir | deixen de llegir |
The stress follows the regular first-conjugation pattern: acabo but acabem; deixo but deixem. Before a vowel, de is written with an apostrophe: acabo d'arribar, deixa d'insistir. Before a consonant it remains separate: acaben de sortir.
Acabo d'enviar-te el contracte; mira si t'ha arribat.
I've just sent you the contract; check whether it arrived.
Els veïns han deixat de fer soroll i per fi podem dormir.
The neighbors have stopped making noise, and at last we can sleep.
Acabar de: immediately before a reference point
With a present form, acabar de + infinitive reports something that happened moments ago or is still highly relevant now. English may use “have just,” “just did,” or even a simple past. Catalan does not choose its tense by copying any one of those forms.
La directora acaba de confirmar que demà l'escola estarà tancada.
The principal has just confirmed that the school will be closed tomorrow.
Acabem de veure la teva germana al mercat.
We just saw your sister at the market.
The construction contains a present finite verb, but the infinitive's event lies immediately before the present. That is why word-by-word tense matching fails: acaba is morphologically present while the confirmation is complete.
To shift the reference point into the past, Catalan normally uses the imperfect acabava / acabaven de. The lower event then occurred just before another past moment.
Quan hi vam arribar, el tren acabava de sortir.
When we got there, the train had just left.
Acabàvem de seure quan es va apagar el llum.
We had just sat down when the light went out.
This is a viewpoint relation: the departure precedes the arrival, and the sitting precedes the blackout. The imperfect supplies a past reference window. A mechanical English rule such as “had + participle means pluperfect” cannot predict that Catalan will often prefer acabava de + infinitive when recency is the point.
Recent past or lexical completion?
The ordinary verb acabar also means “finish.” A noun can be its direct object: acabar la feina. With an infinitive after de, context may foreground either immediate recency or the completion of the activity. Often both are true.
Ja he acabat l'informe; te'l passo ara mateix.
I've finished the report; I'll send it to you right now.
Acabo de revisar l'última pàgina.
I've just finished reviewing the last page.
In the second sentence, acabo de both locates the review moments ago and naturally implies that the review reached its endpoint. Other patterns make lexical completion clearer: acabar una tasca, acabar fent una cosa “end up doing something,” and acabar per fer una cosa “eventually do something.” They are not interchangeable with the recent-past periphrasis; the completion page treats them separately.
The periphrastic past va acabar de revisar commonly means “finished reviewing,” because it presents acabar itself as a bounded past event. For “had just reviewed” relative to another past moment, acabava de revisar is usually clearer.
Abans de dinar va acabar de revisar totes les factures.
Before lunch, she finished reviewing all the invoices.
Deixar de: cessation and change
Deixar de + infinitive presupposes that an activity, habit, or state held before the relevant boundary and says that it no longer holds. The subject may intentionally stop, but intention is not required.
Vaig deixar de prendre cafè a la tarda perquè no dormia bé.
I stopped drinking coffee in the afternoon because I wasn't sleeping well.
Quan van reparar la teulada, va deixar d'entrar aigua al passadís.
When they repaired the roof, water stopped coming into the hallway.
Si deixes de practicar, et costarà recuperar la fluïdesa.
If you stop practicing, it will be hard to regain fluency.
An imperative is common when asking someone to end an ongoing behavior. It can sound direct, so add si us plau or another softener where politeness matters.
Deixa de picar la taula, si us plau; no em puc concentrar.
Stop tapping the table, please; I can't concentrate.
Negation changes the scope
With deixar de, negating the finite verb denies cessation. No deixar de + infinitive therefore means “not stop,” “keep,” or, in some contexts, “be sure to.”
No ha deixat de ploure en tota la tarda.
It hasn't stopped raining all afternoon.
No deixis de trucar-me quan arribis.
Don't forget to call me when you arrive.
The second use is a conventional encouraging reminder: literally “do not fail to call.” It is neutral to slightly emphatic, not a negative command to stop calling.
Negated acabar de has a different development. No acabar de + infinitive often means that the subject does not fully achieve a mental or practical result: no acabo d'entendre is “I don't quite understand,” not “I haven't just understood.”
No acabo d'entendre per què hem de repetir tota la prova.
I don't quite understand why we have to repeat the whole test.
La porta no acaba de tancar bé; potser s'ha desajustat.
The door doesn't quite close properly; perhaps it has shifted out of alignment.
Weak-pronoun placement
An object of the infinitive can commonly stand before the finite verb or attach to the infinitive: l'acabo de veure / acabo de veure'l; ho has deixat de fer / has deixat de fer-ho. Both arrangements preserve the same time and aspect.
Aquest missatge, l'acabo de llegir. / Acabo de llegir-lo.
I've just read this message.
Ja no se'n queixa tant: n'ha deixat de parlar cada dia.
He doesn't complain about it as much anymore: he's stopped talking about it every day.
With a cluster, keep the pronouns together: t'ho acabo d'explicar / acabo d'explicar-t'ho. Attachment obeys Catalan apostrophe and hyphen spelling. See pronoun climbing for the full system.
Mood and assertion
The construction itself does not impose a mood. An asserted report uses the indicative; a wish, doubt, or pending condition may require the subjunctive in the relevant subordinate clause.
Sé que ha deixat de treballar els diumenges.
I know that she has stopped working on Sundays.
Dubto que hagi deixat de preocupar-se pel resultat.
I doubt that he has stopped worrying about the result.
The indicative ha deixat presents the cessation as known. The perfect subjunctive hagi deixat presents it inside a doubt. Memorizing “after que, use the subjunctive” would fail in the first sentence.
Mini-dialogue
—Has vist la Núria? —Sí, acaba de sortir. —Llàstima; encara té el mòbil apagat? —Sí, no deixa de posar-lo en mode avió quan treballa.
—Have you seen Núria? —Yes, she just left. —Too bad; is her phone still off? —Yes, she keeps putting it in airplane mode when she works.
The dialogue contrasts immediate recency (acaba de sortir) with repeated noncessation (no deixa de posar-lo). English uses different resources, but Catalan keeps the aspectual boundary in the finite periphrasis.
Regional and register notes
The constructions and meanings on this page are shared across the major standards. Finite endings may vary—for example, deixe beside Central deixo (regional: Valencian)—without altering de + infinitive. In formal notices, no deixar de can sound ceremonious when it means “be sure to”; everyday speech often chooses a direct reminder instead. Spanish acabar de and dejar de look similar, but that resemblance does not license Spanish conjugations, pronoun order, or spelling in Catalan.
Common Mistakes
1. Using the wrong linking preposition.
❌ Acabo a parlar amb la metgessa.
Incorrect—the recent-past construction requires de.
✅ Acabo de parlar amb la metgessa.
I've just spoken with the doctor.
2. Following the construction with a gerund.
❌ Ha deixat de fumant aquest mes.
Incorrect—deixar de takes an infinitive, not a gerund.
✅ Ha deixat de fumar aquest mes.
She stopped smoking this month.
3. Reading negation too literally.
❌ No deixa de ploure, així que ja no plou.
Incorrect interpretation—negating cessation means the rain continues.
✅ No deixa de ploure, així que ens quedarem a casa.
It won't stop raining, so we'll stay home.
4. Using a periphrastic-past shape for an immediate present result.
❌ Vaig acabar de rebre el missatge ara mateix.
Unnatural for 'I have just received it'—the bounded past tends to present finishing rather than present recency.
✅ Acabo de rebre el missatge ara mateix.
I've just received the message.
5. Selecting the subjunctive from a trigger list instead of the meaning.
❌ És cert que hagi deixat de venir.
Incorrect in the ordinary asserted reading—és cert presents the proposition as fact.
✅ És cert que ha deixat de venir.
It's true that he has stopped coming.
Key Takeaways
Use acabar de + infinitive for an event immediately preceding the reference point, especially acabo de now and acabava de relative to a past moment. Use deixar de + infinitive for cessation. Under negation, interpret scope carefully: no acabar de often means “not quite manage to,” while no deixar de means that an activity continues or should not be omitted.
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