Verbs of Motion and Direction in Catalan

In Brief

Catalan usually marks a destination with a and an origin with de: anar a Barcelona “to go to Barcelona,” but venir de Barcelona “to come from Barcelona.” Learn motion verbs as complete patterns—especially anar a, venir de, sortir de, entrar a, and tornar a—while remembering that pujar and baixar may take no preposition when followed directly by stairs, a hill, or another route.

Overview

Motion verbs describe going somewhere, coming from somewhere, entering, leaving, going up or down, and returning. They are an essential A2 tool: with a small group of verbs, you can discuss a commute, tell someone where you are headed, describe a journey, or follow directions inside a station or building.

The verb alone is only part of the pattern. A preposition (a short linking word such as “to” or “from”) often shows whether a place is the destination, the starting point, or the means of travel. Catalan and English frequently agree, but not word for word. English says “enter the room” without a preposition, for example, while Catalan normally has entrar a l’habitació.

The beginner system is pleasantly regular: think a for movement toward a destination and de for movement away from an origin. Then learn a few important patterns where the verb is followed directly by a direct object (the person or thing directly affected by the action), as in pujar les escales “go up the stairs.”

How It Works

Destinations, origins, and routes

The following patterns cover most everyday situations:

Pattern	Main idea	Model phrase
anar a + place	go to	anar a la feina
venir de + place	come from	venir de Girona
venir a + place/event	come to	venir a casa
sortir de + place	leave or come out of	sortir de l’oficina
entrar a + place	enter or go into	entrar al museu
tornar a + place	return to	tornar al poble
pujar + route/object	go or climb up	pujar les escales
pujar a + vehicle/higher destination	get on; go up to	pujar al tren
baixar + route/object	go down	baixar les escales
baixar de + vehicle/origin	get off; come down from	baixar de l’autobús

This gives you two useful questions:

• Where to? Use a destination pattern, usually with a: On vas? Vaig al centre.
• Where from? Use an origin pattern with de: D’on vens? Vinc del centre.

A route can instead follow pujar or baixar directly: Pugem el turó “We go up the hill”; Baixen les escales “They go down the stairs.” Here, the hill or stairs are the path being covered, not a destination introduced by a.

Contractions with articles

A definite article is the word corresponding to English “the.” When a or de comes before masculine el or plural els, the words contract:

Combination	Result	Example
a + el	al	Vaig al mercat.
a + els	als	Entrem als jardins.
de + el	del	Ve del mercat.
de + els	dels	Surten dels jardins.

There is no contraction before la, les, or an article with an apostrophe: a la plaça, a les oficines, a l’estació, de la plaça, de les oficines, de l’estació.

With casa meaning “home,” Catalan commonly omits the article: anar a casa, venir de casa, sortir de casa, tornar a casa. Use an article when referring to a specific house in a fuller noun phrase: entrar a la casa del costat “to enter the house next door.”

The present tense

The infinitive is the dictionary form of a verb, such as anar or sortir. Most of these high-frequency verbs have forms worth learning individually. Catalan often leaves out subject pronouns because the ending already helps identify the subject.

Infinitive	jo	tu	ell/ella/vostè	nosaltres	vosaltres	ells/elles/vostès
anar	vaig	vas	va	anem	aneu	van
venir	vinc	vens	ve	venim	veniu	venen
sortir	surto	surts	surt	sortim	sortiu	surten
entrar	entro	entres	entra	entrem	entreu	entren
pujar	pujo	puges	puja	pugem	pugeu	pugen
baixar	baixo	baixes	baixa	baixem	baixeu	baixen
tornar	torno	tornes	torna	tornem	torneu	tornen

The spelling change in pujo but puges/pugem keeps the same basic consonant sound before different vowels. Treat the forms as one spoken pattern rather than as unrelated spellings.

Choosing between anar and venir

Like English “go” and “come,” anar and venir depend on viewpoint:

• anar usually presents movement toward a place away from the speaker’s current viewpoint: Demà vaig a Lleida.
• venir presents movement toward the speaker, listener, or an agreed meeting point: Vens a la reunió aquesta tarda?

The same verb can mention both destination and origin: Vinc de Tarragona a Barcelona “I come from Tarragona to Barcelona.” In normal conversation, however, include only the information that matters: Vinc de Tarragona answers D’on vens?

Pujar and baixar: route, destination, or vehicle

These two verbs change their construction according to the role of the following place:

Meaning	Catalan pattern	Example
cover an upward/downward route	pujar/baixar + noun phrase	Baixem el carrer.
move to a higher destination	pujar a + place	Pugem al terrat.
board a vehicle	pujar a + vehicle	Puja a l’autobús.
get off a vehicle	baixar de + vehicle	Baixa del metro.
come down from a place	baixar de + place	Baixen de la muntanya.

A noun phrase is simply a noun together with any article or description attached to it, such as les escales “the stairs” or aquest carrer “this street.”

Means of transport

Use en for many vehicles and a peu for walking:

• anar en metro — to go by metro
• venir en tren — to come by train
• tornar en cotxe — to return by car
• anar a peu — to go on foot

A sentence can contain destination and means together: Vaig a la feina en metro. The phrase with a answers “where to?”; the phrase with en answers “how?”

Examples in Context

Catalan	English	Note
Vaig a la feina en metro.	I go to work by metro.	a marks the destination; en marks transport.
Vens a casa meva aquesta nit?	Are you coming to my place tonight?	Movement toward the speaker’s place.
Ve de Girona, però ara viu a Vic.	He/She comes from Girona, but now lives in Vic.	de marks origin.
Sortim de l’hotel a les set.	We leave the hotel at seven.	de l’ has no contraction beyond the apostrophe.
Hem sortit de casa a les vuit.	We left home at eight.	Compound past; no article with casa “home.”
Entreu al museu per aquesta porta.	Enter the museum through this door.	al = a + el.
Puja les escales i gira a la dreta.	Go up the stairs and turn right.	The route follows pujar directly.
Els excursionistes pugen al cim.	The hikers go up to the summit.	a marks the higher destination.
Baixem del tren a la pròxima parada.	We get off the train at the next stop.	de marks the vehicle being left.
Baixa aquest carrer fins al semàfor.	Go down this street as far as the traffic light.	The street is the route.
Quan tornes a Barcelona?	When are you returning to Barcelona?	tornar a + destination.
Després de la reunió, torno a casa a peu.	After the meeting, I return home on foot.	Destination plus means of travel.

Common Mistakes

Leaving out the destination preposition

• Wrong: Vaig Barcelona demà.
• Right: Vaig a Barcelona demà.
• Why: Anar needs a before a destination. English also has “to,” but it is easy to drop the short Catalan word when speaking quickly.

Using de for a destination

• Wrong: Tornem del poble demà. when you mean “We return to the village tomorrow.”
• Right: Tornem al poble demà.
• Why: al marks the destination. Tornem del poble means that the village is the place you are returning from.

Forgetting contractions

• Wrong: Entro a el restaurant.
• Right: Entro al restaurant.
• Why: a + el must contract to al. In the same way, de + el becomes del.

Adding a before a route

• Wrong: Puja a les escales! when the meaning is “Go up the stairs.”
• Right: Puja les escales!
• Why: The stairs are the route being climbed, so they follow pujar directly. Pujar a les escales would frame the stairs as a destination and is not the ordinary instruction intended here.

Confusing boarding and getting off

• Wrong: Baixem a l’autobús a la plaça. when you mean “We get off the bus in the square.”
• Right: Baixem de l’autobús a la plaça.
• Why: Use pujar a to board and baixar de to get off.

Translating “enter” word for word

• Wrong: Entrem l’habitació.
• Right: Entrem a l’habitació.
• Why: Unlike English “enter,” Catalan entrar normally introduces the place with a preposition.

Usage Notes

Entrar a is the clearest general beginner pattern, especially before a definite place: entrar a la botiga, entrar al despatx. You may also encounter entrar en, particularly before an indefinite phrase such as entrar en una sala and in some regional or stylistic usage. Both patterns exist; do not let this variation obscure the dependable everyday model entrar a + destination.

Commands use the imperative (the verb form used to tell or invite someone to do something): Entra!, Puja!, Baixa! For more than one person addressed informally, common forms include Entreu!, Pugeu!, and Baixeu! Tone matters as much as grammar; adding si us plau makes a direction more polite.

Catalan can leave the destination understood when it is already obvious: Ara vinc may mean “I’m coming now,” and Ja me’n vaig means “I’m leaving now.” The latter contains the weak pronoun en and belongs to a wider pronominal pattern; at A2, learn it as a common fixed expression rather than trying to build the whole pronoun system from it.

Beyond the Basics: Tense and Meaning

You do not need to master every point here at A2, but these forms appear often.

Catalan commonly makes a past tense with a present-looking form of anar plus an infinitive. This creates an important visual contrast:

Form	Meaning
Vaig a Girona.	I go / I am going to Girona.
Vaig anar a Girona.	I went to Girona.
Vam sortir de casa.	We left home.
Van tornar tard.	They returned late.

In vaig anar, the first vaig is an auxiliary (a helping verb), and anar carries the main meaning. Do not interpret the pair literally as “I go to go.” You will also encounter the compound past with haver plus a past participle (a verb form used with a helping verb): he vingut “I have come,” hem sortit “we have left,” and han tornat “they have returned.”

Tornar a also has a second pattern: before an infinitive, it means “to do again,” not movement back to a place.

• Torno a Barcelona. — I return to Barcelona.
• Torno a llegir el missatge. — I read the message again.

Finally, motion verbs often combine with route and boundary expressions: per for movement through or along (caminar pel parc), fins a for an endpoint (anar fins a l’estació), and cap a for an approximate direction (anar cap al nord). These expressions add precision without changing the central destination/origin system.

Practice Tips

1. Build two-way pairs. Choose five places and say one sentence toward each place and one away from it: Vaig al mercat / Vinc del mercat. This trains both the verb and the contraction.
2. Narrate a real journey. Describe leaving home, boarding transport, getting off, entering a building, and returning: Surto de casa, pujo a l’autobús... Real sequences make the prepositions easier to remember.
3. Label the role, not the English word. When checking a sentence, ask “destination, origin, route, or vehicle?” Then choose a, de, no preposition, or the relevant boarding pattern.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Present Tense: -ar Verbs — provides the basic person-and-ending system used by regular verbs such as entrar and tornar.