Catalan uses com si “as if” to compare reality with an imagined scenario: Parla com si ho sabés tot. The scenario is not asserted as fact, so it normally takes an imperfect subjunctive; if the imagined event is already completed before the relevant viewpoint, it takes a pluperfect subjunctive.
English can use an ordinary past after “as if,” and casual English sometimes uses an indicative-looking form. Catalan keeps the irrealis comparison grammatically visible. The key choice is not “present main verb versus past main verb,” but simultaneous or still relevant versus already anterior.
The core construction
Com si introduces a comparison, not a true condition. In Em parla com si fos una criatura, nobody says what would happen under a condition; the speaker compares the person's manner of speaking with behavior in an imagined world where the speaker is a child.
Em parla com si fos una criatura.
He talks to me as if I were a child.
Mires el mòbil com si esperessis una notícia important.
You're looking at your phone as if you were expecting important news.
Es movien per la casa com si la coneguessin de tota la vida.
They moved around the house as if they had known it all their lives.
No em miris com si no m'entenguessis.
Don't look at me as if you didn't understand me.
The main verb may be present, past, imperative, or future; the simple imperfect subjunctive remains possible whenever the comparison depicts a state or action simultaneous with the relevant scene:
The form van entrar, as in Ahir van entrar sense trucar, is the Catalan periphrastic past and contains no a. By contrast, van anar a visitar la casa means “they went to visit the house”: full anar expresses movement and a + infinitive its purpose.
| Main scene | Imagined comparison | Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| Parla... | com si ho sabés | knowing is presented as current |
| Parlava... | com si ho sabés | knowing is simultaneous with the past speaking |
| Parlarà... | com si ho sabés | knowing belongs to the imagined future scene |
This stability shows why a mechanical English tense translation fails. The form sabés marks the comparison as irrealis and takes its time from the surrounding scene.
Use the pluperfect for an earlier imagined event
When the compared event is already complete before the relevant action or observation, use hagués plus a participle:
M'ha saludat com si no m'hagués vist mai.
She greeted me as if she had never seen me before.
Tenia els ulls vermells, com si hagués plorat tota la nit.
Her eyes were red, as if she had cried all night.
Ens van donar les gràcies com si els haguéssim salvat la vida.
They thanked us as if we had saved their lives.
Ho explica com si hi hagués estat, però aquell dia era a Brussel·les.
He tells it as if he had been there, but that day he was in Brussels.
Compare the aspect directly:
- Corre com si l'empaitessin — the imagined chasing accompanies the running.
- Corre com si hagués vist un fantasma — the imagined sight occurred before and explains the running.
The pluperfect paradigm uses the imperfect subjunctive of haver plus an ordinarily invariable participle:
| Person | Model with veure |
|---|---|
| jo | hagués vist |
| tu | haguessis vist |
| ell / ella / vostè | hagués vist |
| nosaltres | haguéssim vist |
| vosaltres | haguéssiu vist |
| ells / elles / vostès | haguessin vist |
The accents in hagués, haguéssim, and haguéssiu are required. Person and number appear on the auxiliary; vist does not change to agree with the subject.
For the compound form beyond this comparison frame, see the pluperfect subjunctive.
Weak pronouns, negation, and progressive meaning
Weak pronouns precede the finite subjunctive auxiliary or simple verb: com si ho sabés; com si no m'hagués sentit; com si se n'haguessin oblidat. Negation precedes the cluster.
Continuen discutint com si no els haguéssim avisat del risc.
They keep arguing as if we hadn't warned them about the risk.
Va passar pel meu costat com si no em veiés.
She walked past me as if she couldn't see me.
Do not automatically reproduce an English progressive. Actua com si manés ell naturally means “He acts as if he were in charge.” Use estigués manant only when the ongoing exercise of authority itself is the focus; in most habitual comparisons, the simple form is better.
The verb in the comparison agrees with its own subject. In Ens tracten com si fóssim clients nous, fóssim agrees with implied nosaltres, not with the plural subject of tracten.
Related irrealis frames
Talment com si and ben bé com si intensify the comparison. (formal) Talment com si is especially common in polished descriptive prose; (literary) it can give a scene an elevated narrative tone.
La sala va quedar en silenci, talment com si el temps s'hagués aturat.
The room fell silent, just as if time had stopped.
(informal) Com si res is an elliptical fixed expression meaning that someone acts as though nothing had happened or as though something did not matter:
Després de fer-nos esperar una hora, va arribar com si res.
After making us wait for an hour, he turned up as if nothing had happened.
Ni que plus the imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive rejects an exaggerated implication. It is emphatic and common in conversation:
No cal que cridis, ni que fos sord!
You don't need to shout—it's not as if I were deaf!
Només he arribat deu minuts tard, ni que hagués comès un delicte!
I'm only ten minutes late—it's not as if I'd committed a crime!
These frames do not make every following statement doubtful. They create an alternative scenario for comparison or rejection. Mood follows that nonasserted status; time and aspect still locate the imagined event.
Regional forms and register
(regional: Valencian) Standard speech and writing commonly use the -ra series: com si fora fàcil, com si ho sabera tot, com si ho haguera vist. (regional: Balearic) Traditional first-conjugation forms may use -às: com si esperàs qualcú. Central forms such as fos, sabés, and esperés remain the baseline on this page.
The constructions themselves are shared across the major varieties. No special Northern or Alguerese form is needed for the basic rule; genuine local phonetic or lexical differences do not change the choice between simple and pluperfect subjunctive.
Mini-dialogue: the mysterious email
—Per què la Laia ha tancat l'ordinador tan de pressa? —No ho sé; feia com si hagués llegit alguna cosa que l'espantava.
—Why did Laia close the computer so quickly? —I don't know; she was acting as if she'd read something that frightened her.
—I ara parla com si no hagués passat res. —Sí, com si nosaltres no ens n'haguéssim adonat.
—And now she's talking as if nothing had happened. —Yes, as if we hadn't noticed.
Hagués llegit is anterior to her behavior; l'espantava describes the imagined effect within that past scenario. The second exchange uses two pluperfect forms because both “happening” and “noticing” precede the current talking.
Common Mistakes
1. Using the indicative after com si.
❌ Parla com si ho sap tot.
Incorrect—the comparison is an imagined frame, not an asserted fact.
✅ Parla com si ho sabés tot.
He talks as if he knew everything.
2. Using the present subjunctive because the main scene is present.
❌ Em mira com si no em conegui.
Incorrect—the ordinary irrealis frame after com si uses the imperfect subjunctive.
✅ Em mira com si no em conegués.
She looks at me as if she didn't know me.
3. Missing anteriority.
❌ Té els ulls vermells com si plorés tota la nit.
Incorrect for the intended completed cause—the crying precedes the present evidence.
✅ Té els ulls vermells com si hagués plorat tota la nit.
Her eyes are red as if she had cried all night.
4. Importing the Spanish auxiliary.
❌ Actua com si hubiera guanyat.
Incorrect Catalan—hubiera is Spanish.
✅ Actua com si hagués guanyat.
He acts as if he had won.
5. Attaching a pronoun to the finite form.
❌ Parla com si hagués oblidat-se'n.
Incorrect placement with a finite perfect form.
✅ Parla com si se n'hagués oblidat.
She speaks as if she had forgotten about it.
Key Takeaways
- Com si normally selects the subjunctive because it introduces a nonasserted comparison.
- Use the imperfect subjunctive for a simultaneous imagined state or event and the pluperfect for an earlier completed one.
- The main verb's tense does not mechanically determine the tense after com si.
- Pronouns precede the finite verb or auxiliary; regional endings change the form, not the time relationship.
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- The Pluperfect SubjunctiveB2 — Form hagués plus a participle for events anterior to past attitudes and for unreal or regretted past alternatives.
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