Diuen que demà plourà literally has a plural verb, “they say,” but it need not refer to any previously identified group. Catalan uses the third-person plural with no overt subject to imply unnamed human agents: someone stole the bike, people say a storm is coming, the authorities have closed a road, or staff will call later.
English often translates this construction with a passive, but Catalan has not made the affected participant into a subject. The clause remains active: an unexpressed human group performs the action, the verb is plural, and any object keeps its ordinary object marking and pronouns.
Formation across tenses
There is no special impersonal ending. Use the ordinary third-person plural of the tense or mood required by the discourse and omit the subject pronoun ells/elles. With dir as a model:
| Time or mood | Form | Natural interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| present | diuen | they say / people say |
| imperfect | deien | people used to say |
| periphrastic past | van dir | someone said / they said |
| present perfect | han dit | someone has said / they have said |
| pluperfect | havien dit | they had said |
| future | diran | they will say |
| conditional | dirien | they would say |
| present subjunctive | diguin | that they say |
| imperfect subjunctive | diguessin | that they said / were to say |
Diuen que el mercat reobrirà abans de Nadal.
They say the market will reopen before Christmas.
Quan jo era petit, deien que aquella casa estava encantada.
When I was little, people said that house was haunted.
Han tallat dos carrils per un despreniment a la carretera.
Two lanes have been closed because of a rockfall on the road.
Demà ens trucaran per confirmar l'hora de la visita.
They'll call us tomorrow to confirm the appointment time.
The tense contributes its usual viewpoint. Deien presents a repeated or background rumor; van dir would locate a bounded act of saying. Han tallat views the closure as currently relevant, while tallaran predicts a later intervention. Impersonality does not turn every event into a present progressive, nor does it decide the mood.
Unnamed does not mean nonexistent
The omitted agent is normally human and contextually plausible. Speakers may know the agent's institutional role without knowing or caring which individuals acted: municipal workers, doctors, police officers, a company's staff. The construction often corresponds to English “they” with no clear antecedent, but it is not sloppy when the social setting supplies the group.
M'han canviat la consulta al dimecres sense avisar-me.
They moved my appointment to Wednesday without notifying me.
A la recepció t'explicaran com funciona la targeta nova.
At reception they'll explain how the new card works.
Li van robar la motxilla mentre pujava al tren.
Her backpack was stolen while she was getting on the train.
English strongly favors passives in the last example. Catalan instead foregrounds an implicit thief through an active plural verb and keeps la motxilla as the direct object. The dative li marks the affected possessor. Translating mechanically as “they robbed her the backpack” would misrepresent natural English, but recasting the Catalan as a passive would hide its syntax.
The ambiguity created by subject omission
Catalan routinely omits recoverable subject pronouns. Consequently, han arribat tard may mean either “those known people arrived late” or generic “people arrived late,” depending on context. Grammar alone cannot always decide.
Els músics ja han sortit de l'hotel; han arribat tard a la prova de so.
The musicians have already left the hotel; they arrived late for the sound check.
Here han arribat has the specific omitted subject els músics. By contrast, Han trucat a la porta can be uttered when the speaker does not know who called. An overt ells usually reinforces a specific or contrastive group and therefore works against an impersonal reading.
Han trucat tres vegades, però quan he obert ja no hi havia ningú.
Someone knocked three times, but when I opened the door there was nobody there.
Ells han trucat tres vegades; nosaltres només una.
They called three times; we called only once.
This contrast is especially important for English speakers, since English requires the written or spoken pronoun they. Catalan encodes person and number in the verb and normally leaves the impersonal subject slot empty.
Objects and weak pronouns
Because the construction is active, weak pronouns behave exactly as the verb requires. They precede a finite verb and attach to an infinitive or gerund under the ordinary placement rules.
La bicicleta era nova i me la van ratllar davant de l'estació.
The bicycle was new, and someone scratched it outside the station.
Si no troben la teva reserva, demana que te la tornin a buscar pel cognom.
If they don't find your booking, ask them to look it up again by surname.
In me la van ratllar, me is the affected-person dative and la replaces la bicicleta. Nothing in the impersonal meaning changes the cluster. A Catalan periphrastic past is van ratllar, without a; do not confuse it with the movement sequence van anar a ratllar.
Mood also remains semantically motivated:
Dubto que ens deixin entrar abans de les nou.
I doubt they'll let us in before nine.
The subjunctive deixin comes from the nonassertive scope of dubto que, not from the missing subject. In Sé que ens deixen entrar a les nou, the corresponding asserted fact takes indicative deixen.
Third-person plural, impersonal es, and the passive
| Choice | Example | What it profiles |
|---|---|---|
| agentless third plural | Han ajornat el concert. | unnamed human decision-makers; active and often conversational |
| impersonal es | Es va parlar d'ajornar el concert. | generic or backgrounded participants; singular verb |
| ser passive | El concert ha estat ajornat. | the affected event as grammatical subject; often formal |
| active with agent | L'organització ha ajornat el concert. | the responsible party |
The first is especially natural when listeners can infer “the organizers.” Journalism uses it in headlines and brief reports, but careful reporting may name the institution when responsibility matters. (Formal) administrative prose often favors a passive or an explicit institutional subject; (informal) speech readily uses the unnamed plural. This strategy is found throughout the Catalan-speaking area, though individual texts differ in how freely they leave institutional agents implicit.
(Regional: Valencian) also has a lexicalized present-tense reportive diu que, equivalent in suitable contexts to es diu que or general diuen que: Diu que demà farà mal oratge. It can even follow the reported clause in spontaneous speech. This is not a freely productive singular version of the construction across tenses; the ordinary indefinite pattern remains plural in van dir and diran.
For the singular no-subject alternative, compare Impersonal Se, which presents a generic activity rather than an unnamed plural group acting on a particular occasion.
Mini-dialogue: waiting for a repair
—Encara no tens aigua calenta? —No; ahir van venir, però no ho van poder arreglar.
—You still don't have hot water? —No; someone came yesterday, but they couldn't fix it.
—I quan tornaran? —Diuen que m'avisaran aquest vespre.
—And when will they come back? —They say they'll notify me this evening.
The people referred to by van venir, van poder, diuen, and avisaran are understood as repair staff. No overt ells is needed, and English may alternate naturally between “someone” and “they.”
Common Mistakes
1. Adding an overt pronoun to a genuinely unspecified agent.
❌ Ells diuen que apujaran el preu del bitllet.
Misleading in the intended generic reading — ells points to a particular contrasted group.
✅ Diuen que apujaran el preu del bitllet.
They say the ticket price is going up.
2. Making the verb agree with the object instead of the implicit agent.
❌ M'ha canviat les dates de la reserva.
Incorrect for an unnamed plural-agent reading — the singular form suggests one specific person.
✅ M'han canviat les dates de la reserva.
They changed the dates of my reservation.
3. Copying an English progressive where Catalan reports a completed result.
❌ Estan tallant la carretera des d'ahir. [intended: the road was closed yesterday]
Wrong viewpoint for the intended completed closure.
✅ Van tallar la carretera ahir al vespre.
They closed the road yesterday evening.
4. Adding a to the Catalan periphrastic past.
❌ Van a anunciar els resultats a migdia.
Incorrect as a completed past — this copies a prospective pattern instead of the periphrastic past.
✅ Van anunciar els resultats a migdia.
They announced the results at noon.
5. Selecting subjunctive just because the agent is unknown.
❌ Sé que tanquin la biblioteca a les vuit.
Incorrect — sé que asserts the schedule as a fact.
✅ Sé que tanquen la biblioteca a les vuit.
I know they close the library at eight.
Key Takeaways
- Omit the subject and use an ordinary third-person plural verb to imply unspecified human agents.
- The construction is active even when idiomatic English translates it with a passive.
- Tense and mood keep their normal discourse meanings; an unknown agent does not trigger subjunctive.
- Overt ells/elles generally points to a specific or contrastive group.
- Weak pronouns remain ordinary objects: me la van ratllar, ens trucaran, t'ho explicaran.
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