Why can we say "cantam" in Catalan but not in English?
Have you ever noticed that, when we speak in Catalan, we often don't need the pronoun 'we' to say what we do? Deim "cantam" and that's it. However, in English, it's impossible: you have to add we, and only then do you get we sing. This seemingly minimal difference opens the door to a set of grammatical strategies that languages have developed to solve the same need: to say who does what.
In Catalan, and in Romance languages in general, the verb carries so much information that it's unnecessary to say the subject. When we say "we work," we already know it's us. Our system is so automated that we're not aware of it, but every Catalan verb carries, on its own, information about who the subject is. However, if we change languages, things can be different. English speakers, for example, always need the pronoun: 'we work'Without that element, the sentence would be incomplete. The verb is the same for almost all persons, and only the third person of the present tense adds an 's': 'he/she works' (literally, 'he/she works'). That's why the pronoun is obligatory.
Catalan, Spanish, and Italian belong to a group of languages that allow the subject to be omitted. Linguists call them null-subject languages, because the verb is rich enough to mark the person and we don't need pronouns to distinguishturn, For example, 'habla' means 'habla' or 'hablas'. However, this function is not exclusive to Romance languages. Many languages around the world have verbs that carry information about the person doing the action and even the person receiving it.
The person doing the action and the person receiving it
Lakota, a Sioux language in the United States, is a good example. In this language, the verb can simultaneously indicate who performs the action and who receives it. A single word contains the information that in Catalan requires a whole sentence to express. Basque goes even further: it can mark subject, direct object, and indirect object with just the auxiliary. When someone says "dizut", actually says who (does) what to whom: 'say- indicates the direct object (what), '-zu'- the indirect object (to whom) and -'t' the subject (who). All of this is found within a single verb form, which represents a capacity for synthesis that would make anyone accustomed to writing under space restrictions, such as Twitter users or newspaper columnists, envious.
If we return to the Romance languages, French offers us a curious history. In the Middle Ages, it was also a null-subject language, like Catalan. However, over time, the verb endings eroded and became so similar (especially orally) that they were no longer sufficiently clear. The system had to be compensated for with the systematic use of pronouns. Today, without the pronoun before it, no sentence is possible: 'I speak and not 'speak' alone. It's a good example of how grammar changes over the centuries and how a language can change its strategy in a relatively short time.
Portuguese is also an interesting case. In Portugal, a system close to that of Catalan is still preserved, with well-differentiated verbs and subjects that can be easily eliminated. In Brazil, prosody and some internal changes have favored the systematic use of pronouns, and today it is much more common to hear 'I speak that a simple 'phallus'.
Similar to present-day French, in Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian, pronouns are also always obligatory. The verb is practically immobile: one form works for all persons. In Norwegian, the verb 'ir' is conjugated 'jeg går' ('I'm coming'), 'du går' ('you go'), deben 'går' ('he goes'). Note that the verb doesn't change, and the only thing that tells us who is doing the action is the pronoun. This rigidity forces us to maintain a much stricter order in the sentence and reinforces the role of pronouns as essential pieces for the grammar to work.
All these differences have practical consequences for learners. A Spanish speaker learning Catalan adapts without difficulty: the system is almost identical. However, for an English speaker, it's a new world. They must get used to the fact that the verb changes depending on the person and that, therefore, the pronoun can be dispensed with. Conversely, Catalan speakers learning English must be careful not to miss the subject. Sentences like 'am studying' rather 'And I am studying' These are common errors that reflect the influence of the system itself.
Linguists classify languages according to the type of verb agreement they use. Catalan and English are cases of simple agreement: the verb agrees with the subject. But there are languages with double agreement, such as Lakota, in which the verb reflects both subject and object, and even with triple agreement, such as Basque, in which the auxiliary indicates the subject, direct object, and indirect object. All this demonstrates to what extent the same communicative need can be resolved with very different strategies.
Different strategies
When faced with this diversity, it's easy to fall into comparisons of difficulty or complexity. Some say that Catalan is complicated because of its verbal irregularities, or that English is easier because it barely inflects. However, the truth is that each language is complex in its own way. As we've said on other occasions, there are no easy languages or difficult languages, or simple languages or complex languages. What happens is simply that each uses a different strategy to solve the same challenge: communicating who does what and to whom.
Ultimately, the difference between saying "we sing" either "we sing" It's not a hierarchy of difficulty or richness, but simply a different way of dividing the workload between the verb and the pronoun. Each language chooses its own, and this is what makes learning more than one interesting: it forces us to discover that what we saw as "natural" is actually just one option among many.
