The present subjunctives of Catalan's three most important grammatical verbs are irregular: ser → sigui, estar → estigui, and haver → hagi. They express the same person, time relationship, and nonassertive dependency as any other present subjunctive, but their stems must be memorized.
The three verbs do different jobs. Ser and estar link a subject to an identity, property, state, or location; haver builds compound tenses; impersonal haver-hi presents something as existing. English “be,” “have,” and “there is” do not map form for form onto this system.
The three complete paradigms
These are the general forms used with the Central Catalan baseline. The singular and third-person plural forms are stem-stressed. In siguem/sigueu and estiguem/estigueu, stress falls on -em/-eu. The written u keeps g hard before i/e. In hàgim and hàgiu, the accent is obligatory and marks stress on the first syllable.
| Person | ser | estar | haver |
|---|---|---|---|
| jo | sigui | estigui | hagi |
| tu | siguis | estiguis | hagis |
| ell / ella / vostè | sigui | estigui | hagi |
| nosaltres | siguem | estiguem | hàgim |
| vosaltres | sigueu | estigueu | hàgiu |
| ells / elles / vostès | siguin | estiguin | hagin |
És important que siguis sincer amb ella.
It is important that you be honest with her.
Encara que siguem pocs, farem la reunió igualment.
Even if there are only a few of us, we'll hold the meeting anyway.
Espero que estiguis millor després de descansar.
I hope you feel better after resting.
La cap vol que estigueu disponibles a partir de les nou.
The manager wants you all to be available from nine onward.
Subject pronouns are normally omitted because the ending and context identify the subject. Use them for contrast: Vol que jo sigui a recepció i que tu estiguis a la sala. Formal vostè takes the third-person singular; vostès takes the third-person plural.
Sigui and estigui: mood does not decide the copula
The indicative/subjunctive choice and the ser/estar choice are independent. First decide what relation is meant; then decide whether the clause is asserted or dependent inside a wish, evaluation, doubt, or other nonassertive environment.
Sé que la sala és prou gran.
I know the room is big enough.
Necessitem una sala que sigui prou gran per a tothom.
We need a room that is big enough for everyone.
Sé que la directora és al despatx.
I know the director is in her office.
Pot ser que la directora estigui reunida ara mateix.
The director may be in a meeting right now.
In contemporary Catalan, ser is widely used for simple location without an added state reading: és al despatx. Estar becomes natural when duration, availability, posture, or a resulting condition is prominent: estar reunida, estar malalta, estar-se tres dies a Girona. The subjunctive does not erase that lexical distinction.
The English progressive deserves special caution. Catalan uses estar + gerund when an activity is viewed as actually unfolding, not merely because English has be + -ing.
Dubto que estiguin treballant ara: no hi ha cap llum encesa.
I doubt they're working right now: no lights are on.
Espero que treballin demà.
I hope they work tomorrow.
Only the first sentence zooms in on an activity in progress. A scheduled or expected event normally uses the simple subjunctive.
Hagi as the auxiliary of the perfect subjunctive
The present perfect subjunctive consists of present subjunctive of haver + past participle: hagi arribat, hagis vist, hàgim acabat, hàgiu entès, hagin sortit. It presents an event as already completed relative to the relevant present or future viewpoint while keeping it inside a nonassertive or evaluated frame.
M'alegra que hagis trobat feina tan aviat.
I'm glad you've found a job so quickly.
Quan hàgim acabat l'informe, te l'enviarem.
When we have finished the report, we'll send it to you.
Without a preceding direct-object clitic, the participle after auxiliary haver is invariable: hàgim acabat, not hàgim acabats. Catalan permits participle agreement in certain constructions with preceding third-person direct-object clitics, but that separate pattern does not affect the basic tense formation here. Do not substitute ser or estar as the perfect auxiliary, and do not copy a Spanish form into an otherwise Catalan sentence. The full tense is treated on the present perfect subjunctive page.
Compare viewpoint:
Espero que arribin abans de les deu.
I hope they arrive before ten.
Espero que hagin arribat abans de les deu.
I hope they have arrived by ten.
The simple present subjunctive views the arrival itself as pending. The perfect looks back on it as completed by a reference point. English translations overlap, so the temporal relation—not the nearest English word—must decide.
Existential hi hagi
Impersonal haver-hi means “there is/are.” Its present-subjunctive form is hi hagi, and because the construction is impersonal, formal general usage keeps it in the third-person singular even before a plural noun.
Busquem un pis on hi hagi dues habitacions i molta llum.
We're looking for an apartment with two bedrooms and plenty of light.
No crec que hi hagi entrades per a dissabte.
I don't think there are any tickets for Saturday.
Pot ser que no n'hi hagi prou per a tothom.
There may not be enough for everyone.
In the last sentence, en replaces an understood quantity and combines with existential hi: n'hi hagi. Both clitics stand before the finite verb, and negation stands before them: que no n'hi hagi. The plural noun after hi hagi is not its grammatical subject in the traditional impersonal analysis.
Number agreement occurs naturally (informal) in much of the Central area—hi hagin dues places (regional: Central)—and in Valencian, with the regional morphology hagen and often an additional en: n'hi hagen dues places (regional: Valencian). By contrast, nonagreement is usual in Balearic, Northwestern, and Northern speech (regional: Balearic / Northwestern / Northern) and is the consolidated choice in (formal) general Catalan everywhere: que hi hagi dues places. This is register and regional variation, not a reason to label everyday concordant speech ungrammatical.
Weak pronouns and polarity
Weak pronouns precede these finite subjunctives in ordinary subordinate clauses:
No crec que la proposta els sigui útil.
I don't think the proposal will be useful to them.
Em sap greu que no hi siguis aquesta tarda.
I'm sorry you won't be there this afternoon.
Dubto que se n'hagin adonat.
I doubt they've noticed it.
With negation, the order is que + no + clitic(s) + verb: que no els sigui, que no hi siguis, que no se n'hagin adonat. A negative command also uses present-subjunctive morphology—No hi estiguis gaire estona—while an affirmative formal command attaches a pronoun after the verb where relevant. Pronoun position follows clause type.
Regional and register notes
(regional: Valencian) standard present forms include siga, sigues, siga, siguem, sigueu, siguen; estiga... estiguen; and haja, hages, haja, hàgem, hàgeu, hagen. These are coherent normative regional paradigms, not informal mistakes.
The older series sia, sies, sia, siem/siam, sieu/siau, sien survives chiefly in fixed turns such as sia com sia; productive use of the full series is (archaic). Do not present it as the ordinary spoken alternative to sigui.
In Central colloquial speech, haguem/hagueu can occur for the first and second plural of the perfect subjunctive, but careful (formal) usage has hàgim/hàgiu. This is a genuine memorization point: the accents and vowel are not optional in the formal general paradigm.
Mini-dialogue: checking a venue
—Vols que sigui al local mitja hora abans? —Sí, i comprova que hi hagi prou cadires.
—Do you want me to be at the venue half an hour early? —Yes, and check that there are enough chairs.
—I si encara no han arribat? —Truca'm quan hi siguis; espero que hagin deixat la clau al bar.
—And what if they still haven't arrived? —Call me when you're there; I hope they've left the key at the café.
The simple forms sigui/siguis locate or identify within a pending frame; hi hagi presents existence; hagin deixat looks back on a hoped-for completed action.
Common Mistakes
1. Regularizing an irregular stem.
❌ Espero que la reunió seri curta.
Incorrect—the present subjunctive of ser is sigui.
✅ Espero que la reunió sigui curta.
I hope the meeting is short.
2. Omitting the existential clitic hi.
❌ No crec que hagi places lliures.
Incorrect—the existential verb is haver-hi, so hi must be present.
✅ No crec que hi hagi places lliures.
I don't think there are any places available.
3. Using an indicative auxiliary inside a nonassertive perfect clause.
❌ M'alegra que has vingut.
Incorrect in the standard pattern—the evaluated completed event takes hagis vingut.
✅ M'alegra que hagis vingut.
I'm glad you came.
4. Overusing a progressive for a simple future event.
❌ Vull que estiguis venint demà a les nou.
Unnatural for a requested arrival; it wrongly foregrounds an activity in progress.
✅ Vull que vinguis demà a les nou.
I want you to come tomorrow at nine.
5. Choosing the subjunctive from que alone.
❌ Sé que la Marta estigui bé.
Incorrect—the speaker asserts Marta's state as known.
✅ Sé que la Marta està bé.
I know Marta is well.
Key Takeaways
- Memorize sigui, estigui, and hagi with their full person paradigms; write hàgim and hàgiu with accents.
- Mood choice does not decide between ser and estar; the intended relation does.
- Use haver to build the perfect subjunctive; the participle is invariable unless a preceding third-person direct-object clitic licenses the limited agreement pattern described above.
- Existential hi hagi is impersonal in formal general usage, including before plural nouns.
Related Topics
- What the Subjunctive ContributesB1 — Understand the Catalan subjunctive as a mood of dependent, nonasserted situations—not simply uncertainty.
- Velar and Irregular Subjunctive StemsB1 — Build Catalan present-subjunctive forms such as digui, tingui, vingui, pugui, and conegui from their irregular velar stems.
- The Present Perfect SubjunctiveB2 — Form hagi plus a participle and use it for completed events viewed from a present or future nonassertive frame.
- Present of SerA1 — Use soc, ets, és, som, sou, and són for identity, classification, origin, time, and location in Catalan.
- Present of EstarA1 — Use estic, estàs, està, estem, esteu, and estan for states, results, durative locations, and focused ongoing actions.
- Present of Haver and Haver-hiA1 — Use present-tense haver as a perfect auxiliary, distinguish it from invariant existential hi ha, and place weak pronouns correctly.