# repetition of subject pronouns



## Setwale_Charm

Ola!!
Spanish has a feature of using object pronouns twice in a sentence for the sake of emphasis:

_La veo a ella._
_Os escucho a vosotros._
_A mi me gusta esta pelicula_.

Is this ever the case in Catalan?


----------



## Setwale_Charm

Sorry, I meant, object pronouns, of course.


----------



## Dixie!

Like you said, just to emphasize


----------



## avellanainphilly

Hi Setwale,

yes, as Dixis says, the facts are the same for Catalan and Spanish. The strong object pronoun is used together with the clitic in order to convey contrast or focus


----------



## Cracker Jack

A professor in Catalan once told me that repetition is allowable in Spanish but not in Catalan.  Such repetitions would constitute ''pleonasmes.''


----------



## avellanainphilly

Cracker Jack said:


> A professor in Catalan once told me that repetition is allowable in Spanish but not in Catalan.  Such repetitions would constitute ''pleonasmes.''



I'm afraid your professor was wrong, Cracker Jack. Such repititions are sometimes even obligatory in some contexts (the sentence becomes ungrammatical if you don´t repeat the pronoun, as in 1b).

(1)
a. A qui prefereixes, a nosaltres o a ells?
" who do you prefer, us or them?"
b. * Us prefereixo
    you-clitic prefer
b'. Us prefereixo a vosaltres 
  you-clitic prefer to you
"I prefer YOU"

('you' would be pronounced with a special stress in English. Cataland and Spanish 'repeat' the pronoun)


----------



## Cracker Jack

The repetitions that I refer to are those used by Spanish speakers.  Now I'm beginning to doubt.

Take a look at these examples:

La maestra se la enseña a los niños la lección.
¿Me dices a mi?
A mi, me gusta .....

I just don't know if in Catalan, the repetitions are also used.  To express, these statements, would you say.

La mestra els l'ensenya la lliço als nens.
Em dius, a mi?
A mi m'agrada...?

I'm asking because frankly I really don't know.


----------



## avellanainphilly

Let´s see...

- ¿Me dices a mi?
- Em dius, a mi?
That would be a bad translation but "em crides a mi?" that would be perfectly fine and actually bad without the two pronouns if what you want to say is "is it me who you are calling, as opposed to someone else?"

- A mi, me gusta .....
- A mi m'agrada...
That's fine if you are contrasting what I like with what someone else likes: "A mi m'agrada molt anar al cine i, en canvi, tu no ho suportes"

- La maestra se la enseña a los niños la lección.
that's a weird sentence in Spanish...

 - La maestra se la enseña, a los niños, la lección.
this one (which has a particular entonation) would be ok in a particular context and the same structure would also be fine in Catalan...

Then, there these cases of clitic doubling, when you need to put the clitic obligatorily with certain verbs, even if there is no contrast:
- le he dicho a pepe que venga
- * he dicho a pepe que venga

As far, as i can see, the same is true for Catalan
- li he dit al pep que vingui
- * he dit al pep que vingui  (maybe this one does not sound as bad in Catalan as in Spanish and maybe there are verbs for which clitic doubling is obligatory in Spanish and not in Catalan, but I cannot think of any example right now...)


----------



## xupxup

> - ¿Me dices a mi?
> - Em dius, a mi?
> That would be a bad translation but "em crides a mi?" that would be perfectly fine and actually bad without the two pronouns if what you want to say is "is it me who you are calling, as opposed to someone else?"



I podria ser "Que m'ho dius a mi?"
Ho dic perquè trobo que en aquest cas la repetició del pronom és inevitable. "Que m'ho dius? // *Que ho dius a mi?" o bé vol dir una altra cosa, o no funciona.


----------



## avellanainphilly

xupxup said:


> I podria ser "Que m'ho dius a mi?"
> Ho dic perquè trobo que en aquest cas la repetició del pronom és inevitable. "Que m'ho dius? // *Que ho dius a mi?" o bé vol dir una altra cosa, o no funciona.



Completament d'acord!


----------

