Properties and morphological categories
Grammatical terminology
:Gender
Lithuanian nouns are classified into one of twoGrammatical number
The Lithuanian language has two mainCases of declined words
*Nouns
Lithuanian grammar makes a distinction between proper andNumber
Most nouns haveNoun modification by numeral
In Lithuanian the choice of form when aDeclension
Nouns in Lithuanian language have 12 declension paradigms, in scholar grammar corresponding to fiveTypology
In the table below the numbers of nouns, received by the statistical analysis of the data in the Dictionary of contemporary Lithuanian language (Dabartinės Lietuvių kalbos žodynas; the fourth issue, 2000), are given grouped by the patterns of declension and accentuation. The data does not include verbal abstracts ending in -imas, -ymas, -umas (for instance, metimas 'a throwing; a throw' from mesti 'to throw'), 18,700 in total (12,000 of the first accentuation paradigm, 6,000 of the second), because they can be made from any verb. There may be some inaccuracies due to some specific features, for instance, there are homonyms which differ only in an accent: síetas 1 – sieve (related to sijóti – to sieve), siẽtas 2 – tether, leash (related to siẽti – to tie, bond; saĩtas – bond; leash), and the possibility exists that in some of such cases the two words were taken as one. Words with a suffix -men-, are attributed to the third declensional pattern in these tables, but they are of the fifth, the singular (can be used for all, but is not usual for all) is -uo: for example, ãšmenys 3b – blade, sė́dmenys 3a – buttocks, nates, sėdmuõ , nẽšmenys 3b – silts, sediments carried by a water stream. The singular instrumental is -imi, like in the third declension, while for masculine words of the fifth declension the proper ending is chosen to be -iu; but -imi can also be chosen for the words of the fifth declension. : The numbers in the upper row mean accentuation types. For the third type the additional information is given in dictionaries. The mark 3 without the letter added, is for words, stressed in the next-to-last syllable. The letter after is for polysyllabic words and says what type of stress the syllable has in those cases where the stress falls on the stem (other cases receive it on the ending) and how distant from the ending the syllable stressed is. The letter ''a'' is for a start-firm (tvirtapradė priegaidė) accent and the letter ''b'' – for an end-firm (tvirtagalė priegaidė) and short stressed vowel. The single digit with a letter means that the stress falls on the third syllable from the ending; if the stress falls on the fourth syllable from the ending, the mark is 34a or 34b, there are also nouns having stress in the fifth (35a, 35b) and sixth (36b) syllable from the ending. Here are a few examples of nouns of the third accentuation pattern, the singular nominative and the plural dative and accusative cases: akmuõ, akmenìms, ãkmenis; áugalas, augaláms, áugalus; žándas, žandáms, žándus. The first declension also includes nouns stressed in a syllable more distant from the ending than the next-to-last, but their stress is steady throughout the cases and is always clear from the nominative singular. In the left column the nominative singular endings of words, grouped by declensional paradigms, are given: -as, -is, -ys, -ias (masculine gender) – the first; -a (-ia), -ė (feminine gender; some other) – II; -is (feminine, some other) – III; -us (-ius) (masculine) – IV; -uo (masculine; two feminine) – V. The palatalized variants of -as, -a, -us types, that is, -ias, -ia, -ius, are counted together with those having -j- before the inflectional ending: -j-as, -j-a, -j-us. The letters , , mean gender: – feminine, – masculine, – common (is understood as either of the genders). The column under the abbreviation alt. is for alternative forms, for instance, a word grobuonis 2, 3a – predator (of the third declension), can be accentuated in two types: (2) grobuõnis, grobuõnies, grobuõniui; (3a) grobuonìs, grobuoniẽs, gróbuoniui. : : : ;The first declension, -as, -is, -ys, -ias. *Names of -as type have vocative -ai instead of -e of common nouns: Jõnas – Jõnai, Tòmas – Tòmai. Common nouns sometimes have this ending, it is usual for a word tė́vas: tė́vai and tė́ve. *Words having -j- before the ending -as (vė́jas – wind, naudótojas – user) have two differences of declensional cases from other -as words; -j- is soft sound and the locative for these words is like in soft -is / -ys / -ias type (mẽdyje, kepsnyjè, kelyjè), but with a vowel changed where needed for an easier pronunciation: vė́jyje, but naudótojuje. Vocative is also different: vėjau, naudótojau (naudotoje would sound the same as naudótoja, which is feminine (nominative and vocative) form of the same word. The vocative is similar for -as and -ė words: ą́žuolas – oak : ą́žuole and ẽglė – spruce : ẽgle). This form is sometimes present in other cases: brólis : voc. bróli and brolaũ, vélnias : vélniau. Many of these -j- words are made with an actors (personal, not for things) suffix -ėjas , -ėja , -t-ojas , -t-oja : veĩkti 'to act, affect; operate' – veikė́jas 'actor, character'; naudóti 'to use' – naudótojas 'user'. *There are only a few -ias words, they are declined like -ys words, except some cases: nominative for kẽlias, nominative and vocative for elnias – elni, and vélnias – vélniau. *-is and -ys words differ in that -is words (with the short i sound) are stressed on the stem (I, II accentuation patterns) and -ys words (with the same sound, but long) are stressed on the ending (III, IV accentuation patterns). In the -is type almost half of the nouns have consonants t, d in the stem ending. These consonants change when palatalized: mẽdis – mẽdžio etc. (in the -as paradigm, on the other hand, there are no cases with palatalization: vardas – vardo etc.). In the -ys type about 12% of nouns have t, d as stem ending. ;The second, -a (-ia), -ė ( -ės) *a type; twelve nouns are of masculine gender: viršilà 2 – warrant-officer, sergeant, barzdylà 2 – bearded one (person) ( barzdỹlos; it can also be heard barzdýla 1, barzdýlos; this is either a mistake and outcome of nivellation of accents or a type of word formation without changing an accent, compare adjectives, for example, ausýlas , -a 'sharp-eard'), vaivadà – voivode (historical office) (it is attributed to be of the 2 accentuation type in vocabularies, but it is of 3 or 1 if used in language: vaivadà 3, vaĩvadai or vaĩvada 1), maršálka 1 – historical office: mareschalus, marshal. 265 – of common gender: mušeikà 2 (1) – scrapper, bruiser, personà 2 – personage, nebrendilà 2 – immaturely behaving person (in language can also be heard nebrendýla 1, nebrendylà 2), nekláužada 1 – tinker (kid), namìsėda 1 – home-keeping, who sits at home. Two words have -i ending: martì 4 – daughter-in-law, patì 4 – wife (more like older). *ė type; four nouns are masculine: dė̃dė 2 – uncle, tė̃tė 2 (more used or equal variant is tė̃tis 2) – dad, dailìdė 2 – carpenter, woodworker and ciùcė 2 – doggy (in kid speech). 19 words are of common gender: garsenýbė 1 – renowned (person, thing), tauškalỹnė 2 – wind-bag, gasser, mėmė̃ 4 – gawk, spiegėlė̃ 3b – who shrieks too much (the latter word, for example, is not very likely to be heard, a word spieglỹs, -ė̃ 4 would probably occur). The t, d stems in -ė are present in the following percentage through the four accentuation paradigms: I – 15%, II – 35%, III – 23%, IV – 12%. ;The third, -is *There were 245 feminine and 24 masculine nouns in this class. 6 nouns have common gender: (the first three can also be attributed to masculine gender) palikuõnis 2, 34b 'progeny, offspring', grobuõnis 2, 3a 'predator', žiniuõnis 2, 4 'knower; witchdoctor', delsuonìs 3b 'who is dallying', giežuonìs 3b 'tiresome, sour (person)', vagìs 4 'thief'. Some other -uonis words are attributed to a masculine gender, for example, geluonìs 3b (2) – sting, deguõnis 2 (3b) (here in the table given as 3b, while 2 accentuation pattern is probably more used) – oxygen. A word vinìs , 4 'nail, spike' is also sometimes understood as of common gender. The singular dative is -iui for the common gender, like in masculine nouns. The biggest part of these words have -t- stem. The second accentuation pattern is the rarest, among its examples are: durys 2 'door', slistis 2 (4) 'simulation', gaištis 2, 4 'dallying' (the two latter can also be accentuated in the fourth paradigm), masculine: pirmuõnys – protozoa, deguõnis (3b) – oxygen. Words with a suffix -men-, for example, ãšmenys 3b – blade, sė́dmenys 3a – buttocks, nates, nẽšmenys 3b – silts, sediments carried by a water stream, are attributed to the third declensional pattern here, but they are of the fifth: the singular (can be used for all, but is not usual for all) is -uo: sėdmuõ – buttock. The singular instrumental is -imi, like in the third declension, while for masculine words of the fifth declension the proper ending is given to be -iu; but -imi can also be and is chosen for the words of the fifth declension. ;The fourth, -us, -ius *There are only 19 words with a non-palatalized ending, and more -j-us, and -ius words. ;The fifth, -uo, -ė ( -ers) *The number of words of this class is small. The words are of the third accentuation pattern; one word, šuõ – dog, is of the fourth and has -imì. One word, or maybe even some more, is of the first accentuation pattern, rė́muo – waterbrash (it can also be accentuated in the third pattern). About 45% of all nouns are feminine, 55% – masculine.Grouping by a syllable nucleus of a pre-desinential syllable
In the tables below the possibilities of syllable nucleus of the next-to-last syllable and their accent is shown. The different sound of a next-to-last syllable makes no grammatical distinction, for example, words nóras – wish and kū́nas – body, are of the same declensional and accentuation patterns. But there are a few certain differences in the accentuation features of the nucleus sounds of the next-to-last syllable. Most vowels and diphthongs can take either of the accents: a start-firm or an end-firm. Short a, e sounds, when they are in a stem of a word and stressed, lengthen and have always an end-firm accent; i, u are short and there is no accentual differentiation in their stress. Mixed diphthongs (a, e) + (l, m, n, r) have the first element lengthened when stressed in a start-firm accent, when in (i, u) + (l, m, n, r) and a diphthong ui the first element remains short in the same case. The words having ą, ę in a pre-desinential syllable are not included here because of the lack of declensional types. Some examples: rą̃stas 2 – balk, timber; žąsìs 4 – goose; ąsà 4 – handle; kę́sas 3 – hassock. The four different accentuation patterns are distinguished by two different colors in the rows of the table, their sequence is from the top to the bottom – I, II, III, IV. The words of each accentuation type are given in the following sequence of the declensional types: *The first declension (masculine) :*-as, :*-is (I–II accentuational pattern) / -ys (III–IV accentuational patterns) and a few -ias words. Their genitive singular is -io. *The second declension (feminine) :*-a (-ia) :*-ė *The third declension (mostly feminine, few masculine): -is; genitive singular is -ies *The fourth declension (masculine): -us (-ius) Some spaces of the tables are not filled, but this does not mean that there are no words which would fit. The sounds a, e (end-firm when stressed) and i, u (short) can not be start-firm and consequently the word having them in the next-to-last stressed syllable can not be of the first and the third accentuation pattern. Some of the declensional types include few words, for example there are only two words of the third accentuation pattern in the fifth declension: sūnùs and lietùs. The number of words (Dictionary of contemporary Lithuanian language / Dabartinės Lietuvių kalbos žodynas; the fourth issue, 2000) of the declensional patterns can be checked in the section above. After some of the words in the tables, a number is added. It indicates an alternative existent accentuation pattern and is given only for some of the words that have an alternative accentuation in the language. Notice that the type of accentuation of a word is shown by the place in the table and the number added means only an alternative accentuation type, which is not necessarily the main one. Some of the alternative accentuation patterns of a word are used equally often (then they are given not in brackets here), some are known from dialects, not preferred (then they are given in brackets). Here are some illustrations of the alternative accentuation: a word nykštỹs 3 is also commonly said nýkštis 1; zýlė 1 is also known as zylė̃ 3 in some dialects, but this form is used more narrowly and not shown here. Similarly, a word rýkštė 1 is also known as rykštė̃ 4; this is shown in the table. In the case of šálmas 3 – helmet, the variant šal̃mas 4 is also very common. The alternative forms are most usually present between the 1–3 and 2–4 accentuation patterns, same in the type of accent. But there are also different cases, for example, rýkštė 1 and rykštė̃ 4. The fourth accentuation paradigm can be the result of a shift of the third paradigm. The shift can happen following nivellation of the two accents, a loss of accentual contrast. In the case of nivellation of the start-firm and end-firm accents, the distinction between the 3–4 and 1–2 loses its ground, because in a place of the stress the 1 with the 2, the 3 with the 4 acentuation groups differ only in a few cases. Among the words given in the table, some are older, for example, ver̃pstė 2 – distaff, sker̃džius 2 – chief cowherd, butcher, and some other. Some words are borrowings: bánkas 1 – bank, tánkas 1 – tank, dùrpės – peat, turf and some other. Old borrowings: vỹnas 2 (4) – wine, blỹnas 2 – pancake, rõžė 2 – rose, rūtà 2 (4) – rue, slyvà 2 (4) – plum, vyšnià 2 (1) – cherry, and some other. : : : : :Adjectives
Formation
In the same case as in nouns the adjectives may be formed by adding a suffix, e.g., ''-inis'', ''-ingas'' (full in), ''-iškas'' (alike), ''-klus'' etc. A further noun is formed by changing the ending of the adjectives to ''-is'' (''-ys''), ''-ė''. The genitive case is many times used instead of the ''-inis'', e.g. ''medžio dirbinys'' - an artwork from wood, ''šokių muzikos gabalas'' - dance music piece (''šokinis'' would sound awkward). The dative may also used, e.g. ''užtiesalas lovai'' - a cloth for bed. The adjectival suffix ''-inis'' may easily become a noun (also ''-inys'' then), for example, ''kosmetinė rankinė (terba / tašė)'', ''psichochroninė ligoninė (įstaiga)''.Declension
In Lithuanian, adjectives have three declensions determined by the singular and plural nominative case inflections. Adjectives agree with nouns in number, gender, and case. Unlike nouns, which have two genders – masculine and feminine, adjectives have three (except -is, -ė adjectives), but the neuter adjectives (the third example in the table) have only one form and are not inflected. The neuter gender is formed simply by eliminating the last consonant -s from the masculine gender forms. : All the adjectives (except most -inis type adjectives) can have pronominal (definite) forms that cannot acquire the neuter form: : The pronominal adjectives historically have developed from the combination of the simple adjectives and the respective pronominal forms jis, ji (he, she), that is, gẽras + jìs = geràsis; an example in locative case (feminine gender): gražiosè + josè = gražiósiose. They have their own separate declension paradigms. Pronominal adjectives have a variety of purposes in modern Lithuanian. One of them is the definitiveness, that is, these adjectives can sometimes act like an equivalent of the definite article in English: ''Suvalgiau raudoną obuolį'' – ''I've eaten a red apple''; ''Suvalgiau raudonąjį obuolį'' – ''I've eaten the red apple''. But they are rarely used this way, as demonstrative pronouns serve better for this purpose. Pronominal adjectives often indicate something unique, thus they are usually used with proper names: Juodoji jūra, Vytautas Didysis, Naujoji Zelandija. Another use (and a very common) is scientific terminology: kvapusis mairūnas, dėmėtoji pelėda, standusis diskas etc. In almost all of these cases, a simple adjective can be used, but it will mean a completely different thing: ''juoda jūra'' (instead of ''Juodoji jūra'') means any sea that is black (not necessarily the particular sea in Eastern Europe); ''dėmėta pelėda'' (instead of ''dėmėtoji pelėda'') means any owl that has dots on its plumage (not necessarily an owl of the ''Strix occidentalis'' species) etc. *Most of the first type adjectives of the third declension are with the suffix -in-. These are easily made from other parts of speech by adding the suffix -in-. When made from verbs, they are mostly made from a past passive participle: vìrti – to boil, vìrtas – boiled, virtìnis – which is boiled, made by boiling. Consequently, the suffix is -t-in- for such adjectives. Such variants of verbal derivation easily become nouns (declined in noun declension paradigm), in this case it is a noun virtìnis – dumpling (with mushrooms; curd; etc.; but dumplings with meat are called koldūnai). * Two adjectives of the third declension have long -ys: dešinỹs – right, kairỹs – left; plural nominative is dešinì, kairì; plural dative: dešiníems, kairíems. A short form of dìdelis, dìdelė is dìdis, didì (similar to pats, pati). Dešinys, kairys, didis have neuter gender of the u pattern: dešinu, kairu, didu. Pronominal forms: didỹsis, didžióji, dešinỹsis, dešinióji. An adjective didelis, didelė hasn't pronominal forms. The word didis has more mingled forms: nominative is sometimes didus; genitive : didžio / didaus; accusative: didį (/ didų); plural didūs; other forms are of the regular pattern. *Some other forms having variations in a standard language: pė́sčias, pėsčià, pė́sčia – pedestrian, afoot; pėsčiàsis, pėsčióji and pėstỹsis, pėsčióji (adjectival and substantival meanings). In the following examples ofDegrees of comparison
The Lithuanian language has five degrees of comparison. The three main degrees are the same as in English language. Note that there are no irregular adjectives and all adjectives have the samePronouns
Lithuanian has no grammatical category of animacy. Pronouns (including personal ones ''jis, ji, jie, jos'' (he, she, they)) replace any noun, regardless if it is not animate (people, animals, objects etc.). ''Whom did you see?'' and ''What did you see?'' both translate as ''Ką tu matei?''; ''Something is there'' and ''Somebody is there'' both translate as ''Ten kažkas yra''.Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns ''aš'' (I), ''tu'' (you) ''jis'' (he, it), ''ji'' (she, it) are declined as follows: :Reflexive pronoun
TheVerbs
Every Lithuanian verb belongs to one of three different conjugations: *The first conjugation is the most commonly found in Lithuanian, encompassing those verbs whose infinite form ends in -oti, -auti, -uoti or a consonant followed by -ti (e.g. dirbti). This conjugation also has the highest occurrence of irregularity of all the Lithuanian verb cases. *The second conjugation refers to those verbs whose infinitive form ends in -ėti. There are hardly any instances of irregularity for this conjugation. An exception: verbs that have -ėja in the Present Tense (like didėti / didėja / didėjo 'to increase') belong to the first conjugation. *The third conjugation consists of those verbs whose infinitive form ends in -yti. An exception: verbs that have -ija in the Present Tense (like rūdyti / rūdija / rūdijo 'to rust') belong to the first conjugation. In Lithuanian every single verbal form can be derived from three stems: infinitive, 3rd person present tense and 3rd person past tense. Lithuanian verbs belong to one of the following stem types: *primary (verbs without suffixes: ''pykti, pyksta, pyko'' ʽto be angry’). This group encompasses most of the verbs with irregular or unpredictable forms; *mixed (verbs with suffixes in certain forms: ''mylėti, myli, mylėjo'' ʽto love’); *suffixal (verbs with suffixes in all forms: ''didėti, didėja, didėjo'' ʽto increase’). The 3rd person of every conjugatable verbal form in Lithuanian has no distinction between numbers: all the singular, dual and plural forms have merged into one single form. ''Declinable'' forms (such as compound tenses and passive structures), however, must match according to gender and number. This is a shared feature with its closest relative, theActive voice
The active voice in Lithuanian has four moods: *Indicative *Indirect *Imperative *ConditionalIndicative mood
In the active voice, the indicative mood contains 4 simple and 7 compound tenses. In each tense five examples are given: three belonging to each conjugation group (dirbti, norėti, skaityti), one reflexive (praustis) and būti – the only auxiliary verb in Lithuanian.= Present tense
= This is the basic tense in Lithuanian which describes present or ongoing actions or, sometimes, actions without definite tense. Its forms and stress patterns are always derived from the 3rd person of the Present tense. : E.g. dirbu = 'I work', (tu) nori = 'You want', skaitome = 'We read' (present tense). The auxiliary verb bū́ti has two conjugations in the Present tense: an irregular one (based on ''es-''/''yr-'' stems) and a regular one (based on the ''būn-'' / ''būv-'' stem). The difference is that the stem bū̃n-/bū̃v- has an iterative meaning (to be frequently): ''Mokiniaĩ yrà pasiruõšę'' – ''The pupils are ready''; ''Mokiniaĩ bū̃na pasiruõšę'' – ''The pupils are often ready''. The 3rd person form ''ẽsti'' is semantically equivalent to ''bū̃na'' or ''bū̃va'', but is rarely used in modern Lithuanian. The ''bū̃v-'' stem is very rare in modern Lithuanian. In the ''-i'' conjugation type, the 1st person of singular loses the final stem vowel ''-i'', but the last stem consonant becomes palatalized (the sound �is absent in ''nóriu'' ̪ôːrʲʊ the letter ''i'' merely denotes palatalization). If the stem ends with a consonant ''-d'', it becomes ''-dž'': ''girdėti'' to hear → ''girdi'' he hears → ''girdžiu'' I hear. The accentuation of all persons always corresponds to the accentuation of the 3rd person. The only exception is when its accented syllable is penultimate (excluding the reflexive formant -si) and has a short vowel (bìjo – he is afraid) or a rising tone (skaĩto – he reads, praũsiasi – he washes himself): in that case the 1st and the 2nd persons of singular move the stress to the ending: bijaũ, bijaĩ; skaitaũ, skaitaĩ; prausiúosi, prausíesi.= Past tense
= This is the basic tense in Lithuanian which describes past actions (ongoing or complete). Its forms and stress patterns are always derived from the 3rd person of the Past tense. : E.g. dirbau = 'I worked', norėjai = 'You wanted', skaitėme = 'We read' (past tense) In the ''-ė'' conjugation type, the last stem consonant becomes palatalized. If the stem ends with a consonant ''-t'' or ''-d'', in the 1st person of singular it becomes ''-č'' or ''-dž'' respectively: ''kęsti'' to suffer → ''kentė'' he suffered → ''kenčiau'' I suffered; ''melsti'' to beg → ''meldė'' he begged → ''meldžiau'' I begged. The accentuation of all persons always corresponds to the accentuation of the 3rd person. The only exception is when its accented syllable is penultimate (excluding the reflexive formant -si) and has a short vowel (bùvo – he was) or a rising tone (skaĩtė – he read, praũsėsi – he washed himself): in that case the 1st and the 2nd persons of singular move the stress to the ending: buvaũ, buvaĩ; skaičiaũ, skaiteĩ; prausiaũsi, prauseĩsi.= Past iterative tense
= The basic meaning of this tense translates as "used to" in English. Its construction is simple: * Remove the infinitive ending -ti (the stress pattern is always the same as the infinitive). * Add the suffix -dav- to the stem. * Finally, add the corresponding ending of the past tense for the first conjugation. : E.g. dirbdavau = 'I used to work', norėdavai = 'You used to want', skaitydavome = 'We used to read'= Future tense
= This tense basically describes what will happen in the future. It is relatively simple to form: * Remove the -ti ending from the infinitive form of the verb. * Add the -s- suffix which is used to form the Future Tense. Note, that ...š or ...ž + -s- assimilates to š without the final ''s'' (the infinitive vežti 'to transport' gives vešiu, veši, veš etc. in the Future Tense). In case the stem itself ends with a final ...s, it is eliminated as well: kąsti (to bite) → kąs. * Add the appropriate ending. * All the persons in this tense are completely regular (and retain the stress position and intonation of the infinitive), except for the 3rd one. The latter of this tense changes depending on several rules: :*If the 3rd person's form is stressed in the final or the only syllable with a falling tone (without the inclusion of the reflexive formant -is), it is systematically replaced with a rising tone (kalbė́ti (to speak) → kalbė̃s, pramogáuti (to entertain oneself) → pramogaũs; aukótis (to sacrifice oneself) → aukõsis (the reflexive formant does not count)). This rule does not apply to cases when there the last syllable is not stressed (sáugoti (to protect) → sáugos). :*Primary verbs acquire a short vowel i or u (instead of long y or ū) when the infinitive and the present tense has a long vowel, but the past tense has a short vowel: (lýti (to rain): lỹja, lìjo → lìs; pū́ti (to rot): pū̃va, pùvo → pùs, most importantly: bū́ti (to be): bū̃na, bùvo → bùs). : E.g. dirbsiu = 'I shall work', norėsi = 'You will want', skaitysime = 'We shall read'= Compound tenses
= Compound tenses are periphrastic structures having temporal meanings usually relative to actions indicated by other verbs. Two groups of such tenses exist in modern Lithuanian: Perfect and Inchoative. All of them require an auxiliary verb būti (to be) in its respective form and an active voice participle.Perfect tenses There are four perfect tenses in Lithuanian (present, past, past iterative and future) which are all formed using the verb būti in its respective tense and person as well as the active past simple participle in its respective number and gender: : These tenses (except for present perfect) correspond roughly to equivalent English perfect tenses (I had read / I will have read). They are used in various contexts for very different meanings, but they usually indicate an action that happened before another action said with another verb, noun or similar: ''Tos knygos neėmiau, nes jau ją buvau skaitęs'' – ''I didn't take that book because I had already read it''; ''Po kelionės vaikai bus labai pasiilgę tėvų'' – ''After the trip the children will have badly missed their parents''. They are also used for a generalized meaning not associated with a specific event (equivalent of English "Have you ever done it?"): ''Ar esi buvęs Paryžiuje?'' – ''Have you ever been to Paris ny time in your life''; ''Esu skaitęs, kad vaistai nuo peršalimo nepadeda'' – ''I read ome time agothat pharmaceuticals are useless against common cold''. Compare phrases: ''Ar buvai Paryžiuje?'' – ''Were you in Paris hat day''; ''Skaičiau, kad vaistai nuo peršalimo nepadeda'' – ''I read hat day, at a specific moment in my lifethat pharmaceuticals are useless against common cold''. The perfect tenses are a common feature of the Lithuanian language and are often used in all types of spoken and written speech.
Inchoative tenses There are three inchoative tenses in Lithuanian (past, past iterative and future) which are all formed using the verb būti in its respective tense and person, as well as the active present simple participle in its respective number and gender, complemented with the prefix be-. Note the absence of the present inchoative tense. : These tenses mostly indicate an action that was interrupted by another action said with another verb. They correspond roughly to English "...was about to do something, when": ''Tėvas buvo beskaitąs laikraštį, bet kažkas paskambino'' – ''The father was about to read a newspaper, but someone called''. They can also indicate an action that have started and is still going on during another action (equivalent of English continuous tenses), but they are almost never used in such a way: ''Kai grįši namo, motina bus bemieganti'' – ''When you will get back home, the mother will be sleeping''. Inchoative tenses are not a part of common Lithuanian speech, their use is limited to literary language and even there only past inchoative tense is ever used.
Indirect mood
The indirect mood in Lithuanian has all and the same tenses (including compound tenses) as the indicative mood, but is not conjugated. Instead of being composed of a conjugatable verb, they are made of pure active participle in nominative case, thus they must match the gender and number of the subject. : The indirect mood of passive voice is also used. It is composed of an auxiliary active participle formed from the verb ''būti'' 'to be' and passive participle which is the main one. So, indirect mood of passive voice can only be compound. Both present and past passive participles are used. The indirect mood of passive voice has the following tenses: present (''esąs skaitomas''), present perfect (''esąs skaitytas''), past (''buvęs skaitomas''), past perfect (''buvęs skaitytas''), past iterative (''būdavęs skaitomas''), past iterative perfect (''būdavęs skaitytas''), future (''būsiąs skaitomas''), future perfect (''būsiąs skaitytas''). The indirect mood, sometimes called "participle speech", has multiple uses, but primarily denote actions not experienced directly by the speaker and bearing a high degree of uncertainty: ''Čia kažkada stovėjusi tvirtovė'' – 'm not really sure, it seems likesome time ago there stood a fortress here. Another widely known use of the indirect mood is describing actions in fictional literature (especially folklore) (could be considered as an equivalent of French Passé simple, except that in Lithuanian it is not limited to the past): ''Kartą gyvenęs kalvis, kuris turėjęs du sūnus'' – Once there lived a smith who had two sons. In modern Lithuanian this mood is not very widely used, because other ways of expressing uncertainty and fictional events exist.Imperative mood
TheConditional mood
The conditional mood has three forms or tenses (simple, perfect and inchoative). It is very regular to form: *Remove the infinitive suffix -ti (the stress pattern is always the same as the infinitive). *Add the respective suffix and ending. : :*1The longer form with the ending -ei is used very rarely in modern Lithuanian. :*2In modern colloquial speech the shorter forms actually retain the -mė- syllable, but remove the final -e (except for reflexive verbs): dirbtumėm, skaitytumėt. :*3A shorter form without -mė- does exist, but is used very rarely. This mood is actively used in modern Lithuanian and one of its functions corresponds to the English conditional mood. The conditional mood is used to describe a hypothetical action that could take place if certain conditions were met (hence the name) or a desired action in present or in future: ''Panaikinus muitus, sumažėtų prekių kainos'' – Having eliminated customs duties, prices would go down. Conditional mood is used in conditional (''if'') sentences; this usage requires conditional mood in subordinate and main clauses if both actions are perceived as hypothetical: ''Visi laimėtų, jeigu priimtumėte šį pasiūlymą.'' – There would be a win-win situation for everyone if you accepted this offer. Another very important function of conditional mood is the expression of purpose in final clauses (corresponds toPassive voice
In Lithuanian, passive voice is always analytical and structured differently from the active voice. Passive voice has no perfect tense and noParticiples
Lithuanian retains a rich system of participles, fourteen in total. In contrast English contains just two: the present participle ("the eating cow") and the past participle ("the eaten cow"). Adjectival participles decline as adjectives, while adverbial participles are not declineAdjectival participles
Adjectival participles have all the adjectival characteristics: three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), pronominal forms, mostly identical declension and sometimes even degrees of comparison. Their primary function is to describe a nominal part of speech (usually a noun), like any adjective would in their position, hence they are matched by gender, case and number with the noun they are describing. They can be active or passive. In the following tables only nominative case forms are given. The verb used is baĩgti (to finish). Active (non pronominal forms): :: Active (pronominal counterparts): : :*1This form only exists for verbs with prefixes (except for be-). *One of the main functions of active participles is to describe a characteristic of a noun related to some ongoing, past or future action in which the said noun is the agent: ''migruojantys paukščiai'' – migrating birds, ''nepatyręs vairuotojas'' – inexperienced driver, ''pablogėsiančios darbo sąlygos'' – working conditions that will worsen. Only present, past simple and future active participles can fulfill this function. *Another function of active participles is to describe a secondary action performed by the sentence subject before the main action: ''Atidariusi langą mergina grožėjosi tekančia saule.'' – Having opened the window, the girl admired the sunrise. This function is limited to the past simple participle and is one of its most common uses. If there is a need to describe a secondary action performed by the sentence subject at the same time as the main action, the ''pusdalyvis'' must be used instead (present active participle does not have this function): ''Atidarydama langą mergina grožėjosi tekančia saule.'' – While opening the window, the girl admired the sunrise. See "Adverbial participles" for further explanation. *The third, a somewhat rarer, function is to explain (precise) another verb by indicating a secondary action of which the subject is the agent: ''Kaltinamasis prisipažįsta padaręs nusikaltimą ir labai dėl to gailisi.'' – The defendant confesses having committed the crime and sincerely regrets it. If the subject is not the agent expressed in the nominative case of a noun or a pronoun, an adverbial participle must be used instead. Passive (non pronominal forms): : Passive (pronominal counterparts): : :*2This form only exists for transitive verbs with prefixes (except for be-). In Lithuanian reflexive verbs can be transitive: ''susipinti plaukus'' – to plait one's hair o oneself Passive voice present participles and the necessity participles can acquire degrees of comparison if their meaning allows it: mėgti (to like) → liked (favourite), mėgstamesnis (more liked), mėgstamiausias (most liked/favorite); būti (to be) → būtinas (necessary), būtinesnis (more necessary), būtiniausias (the most necessary). The necessity participles are used to describe something that has to be done: ''Įsidėmėtinos rašybos atvejis'' – A spelling case one has to pay special attention to. ''Abejotina, ar mums pavyks'' – It is to be doubted if we succeed. Mostly limited to official styles, but certain participles are actively used in colloquial speech as well, some of them being considered more adjectives than verbs: ''Jis suimtas už pasibaisėtiną elgesį su gyvūnais'' – He was arrested for an appalling behaviour with animals. (Pasibaisėtinas = one that has to be detested). Main passive participles mainly denote actions that have impact upon nouns they describe: ''statomas namas'' – a house that is being built, ''iškeltas klausimas'' – a question that has been raised, ''vykdysimas įsakymas'' – an order that will be obeyed. Future passive participles are rare in modern speech. Present passive participles very often have an active meaning, especially if the verb is intransitive, and are one of the terminology building tools: ''kuliamoji mašina'' – aAdverbial participles
As the name suggests, adverbial participles have the characteristics of an adverb and are used to describe the verb instead of the subject. There are three types of such participles: ''padalyvis'' ("sub-participle"), ''pusdalyvis'' ("half-participle") and ''būdinys'' ("descriptive participle"). These forms are not conjugatable, although the ''pusdalyvis'' has feminine and masculine genders for both singular and plural. These forms do not have equivalents in English or other languages (except Latvian), the given translations of these names are ''ad hoc''. : *The primary function of the ''padalyvis'' is to indicate an action that is happening at the same time (present ''padalyvis'') or before (past ''padalyvis'') the event said with the main verb, of which the sentence subject is not the agent: ''Lauko darbus mes dirbome saulei šviečiant'' (present ''padalyvis'') – We were doing the field works the sun shining; ''Skaniai pavalgius malonu pamiegoti'' (past ''padalyvis'') – ''Having eaten a delicious meal, it is pleasant to take a nap''. *The primary function of the ''pusdalyvis'' is to indicate a simultaneous, but secondary action done by the sentence subject in nominative case (it must be matched according to gender and number with the said subject): ''Lauko darbus mes dirbome dainuodami'' – We were doing the field works while singing. In this case the present ''padalyvis'' participle can be used as well: ''Lauko darbus mes dirbome dainuojant'', but this time the sentence will mean: We were doing the field works while someone else was singing. A secondary action done previously by the sentence subject can be expressed with adjectival past simple participle: ''Lauko darbus mes dirbome padainavę'' – We were doing the field works having sung. When used with the preposition ''prieš'' (''before''), ''pusdalyvis'' and ''padalyvis'' denote a secondary action in future: ''Lauko darbus mes dirbome prieš dainuodami''. – We were doing the field works before singing. ''Lauko darbus mes dirbome prieš dainuojant''. – We were doing the field works before someone else started to sing. This table shows the participle usage in temporalGrammatical aspect
All Lithuanian verbs can be characterized by their aspect which can be either perfective or imperfective. Nevertheless, this important dichotomy is semantical, rather than expressed by purely grammatical means.Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatika. Vilnius, 1997, page 288–289 Formally distinguishing an imperfective verb from its perfective counterpart is not possible, since those forms are not mutually exclusive or interdependent. Moreover, certain grammatical categories (like past iterative tense) automatically negate any perfectiveness a certain verb might have in infinitive or in other tenses. The opposite is true as well: a different tense (like an inchoative or perfect tense) of an otherwise imperfective verb automatically grants a perfective meaning. Contrary to modern Slavonic languages, each and every Lithuanian verb, in spite of its aspect, has all tenses and forms described in previous chapters of this article. Nevertheless, certain very general rules can be laid down to detect the aspect of a verb in Lithuanian. The imperfective aspect of a verb means the continuity of an action or a repetitiveness of a completed action. The imperfective aspect can sometimes be implied by: *The absence of a prefix for certain verbs: dìrbti – to be working, šaũkti – to be shouting, krìsti – to be falling. *The presence of a suffix (except for ''-er(ė)ti'', ''-el(ė)ti'') combined with the absence of a prefix for certain verbs: maldáuti – to be begging, mė́tyti – to be throwing ultiple times šokinė́ti – to be jumping onstantly, multiple times *The impossibility for certain verbs to be used without a prefix: užgaulióti – to be bullying, pãsakoti – to be telling a story. *The complete or partial change of meaning for certain prefixed verbs: priklausýti – to be in possession (from klausýti – to listen), pakę̃sti – to tolerate (from kę̃sti – to suffer), atsidúoti – to be stinking (from dúoti – to give). *For some prefixed verbs that merely indicate the ability to do something: panèšti – to be able to carry, nusėdė́ti – to be able to sit. The perfective aspect of a verb means the completeness of an action. The perfective aspect can sometimes be implied by: *The presence of a prefix for certain verbs: padìrbti – to work for a certain amount of time, pašaũkti – to call, nukrìsti – to fall. There are very few perfective prefixed verbs that would distinguish themselves from their imperfective unprefixed counterparts only by their perfective meaning, since any prefix almost always has a semantical nuance. *The presence of the suffix ''-er(ė)ti'' or ''-el(ė)ti'': dìrsterėti – to take a glimpse, kúoktelėti – to become insane. In other cases the aspect is contextual. This might sometimes be implied by: *The absence of a suffix and a prefix for certain verbs: :– mèsti – to throw: ::''Vakar mečiau darbą'' – I quit my job yesterday. (perfective) ::''Visas senas knygas jis metė į šiukšlių dėžę'' – He was throwing all the old books to the trash bin. (imperfective) :– grį̃žti – to come back: ::''Grįžęs namo, virtuvėje rasi sriubos.'' – Having come back home, you'll find some soup in the kitchen. (perfective) ::''Grįžtu namo, kol saulė dar nenusileido'' – I'm going home as the sun is not yet down. (imperfective) *A specific tense in some other cases: :– laimė́ti – to win: ::''Kol kas mūsų komanda laimi'' – For the meantime our team is winning. (present tense, imperfective) ::''mūsų komanda laimėjo dideliu skirtumu'' – Our team aswon by a big difference. (past simple tense, perfective)Verb prefixes
General usage notes
Prefixes are added to verbs to make new verbs that have different color of the primary verb's meaning. The new verb and the primary verb are considered different words, taking different positions in vocabularies. However their meanings are related, often showing similarity to being forms of a single verb. In many instances a prefixed verb has no apparent semantical relationship with the primary verb. Prefixes have mostly restrictive sense, so they restrict the meaning of the primary not prefixed verb to certain direction, amount or limit of time. * ap- round (direction, perfective), about, around * ''api-'' is a variant of ''ap-'' before ''b'' or ''p'' * at- off; from, from somewhere (direction; place, perfective); at (with 'moving towards' verbs) * ''ati-'' is a variant of ''at-'' before ''d'' or ''t'' * į- in (direction, perfective), into, be able to (imperfective) * iš- out (direction, perfective), ex- * nu- away (direction), from the start place (action with some direction, perfective); down * pa- sub-, under (direction, perfective); definite, terminating on continuous (< after), a bit, slightly, some time (time or amount, imperfective), till end (for single actions, cf ''su-'', time or amount, perfective) ** ima - 'it takes' ** pa-ima - 'it takes and finishes it' ** ėmė - 'it was taking', 'it has been taking', 'it had been taking' ** pa-ėmė - 'it took' *par- back, similar to English (*The same rule is applied, when ''ne-'', ''be-'', ''nebe-'', ''te-'' or ''tebe-'' is added:''nẽšasi'' but ''nusìneša'', ''atsìneša'' ''laikýtis'' but ''susilaikýti'', ''pasilaikýti'' ''teiráutis'' but ''pasiteiráuti''
''nẽšasi'' but ''nesìneša'', ''nebesìneša'', also ''nenusìneša'', ''neatsìneša'', ''tebeatsìneša'' ''laikýtis'', but ''nesilaikýti'', also ''nesusilaikýti'', ''nepasilaikýti'' ''teiráutis'' but ''nesiteiráuti'', also ''nepasiteiráuti''
Stress retraction
Certain Lithuanian verbs have the ability to move their stress to the last prefixed element they acquire. General stress retraction principles are laid down below. All prefixes (including ''ne-'' type, but not including the prefix ''per-'') acquire the stress only in: *past simple tense forms of primary (monosyllabic stem) verbs. This always happens when the 3rd person has an ''-ė'' ending, its stress would normally fall on its penultimate syllable and this syllable has a short vowel or a rising tone: :''baũsti'' (to punish, monosyllabic stem verb) → ''baũdė'' (stress on the penultimate, rising tone) → ''nùbaudė'', ''nebenùbaudė'' etc. :''vìrti'' (to boil, monosyllabic stem verb) → ''vìrė'' (stress on the penultimate, short vowel) → ''ìšvirė'', ''nebeišsìvirė'' etc. :''kláusti'' (to ask, monosyllabic stem verb) → ''kláusė'' (stress on the penultimate, falling tone, the rule does not apply) → ''pakláusė'' :''darýti'' (to ask, suffixal verb, the rule does not apply) → ''dãrė'' (stress on the penultimate, rising tone) → ''padãrė'' *Some present tense forms (primary or mixed stem), but only if the stress of the 3rd person falls on its penultimate syllable, this syllable is not a suffix and has a short vowel or a rising tone: :''kalbė́ti'' (to speak, suffixal verb) → ''kal̃ba'' (stress on the penultimate, no suffix, rising tone) → ''sùkalba'', ''tebesìkalba'' etc. :''sukti'' (to turn, primary verb) → ''sùka'' (stress on the penultimate, no suffix, short vowel) → ''pàsuka'', ''nèsuka'' etc. *Past simple accent retraction is regular, present tense accent retraction is sporadic. If a particular verb retracts its accent in one tense, it does not mean that the other tense will follow suit. *The accent retraction does not depend on a particular prefix (except for ''per-'') and will systematically happen with every other prefixed structure (a prefix, a ''ne-'' type prefix or a reflexive formant). It means that even if dictionaries never include ''ne-'' type prefixes, the stress retraction can be deduced from other prefixed forms that dictionaries do include: :''plaũkti'' (to swim) → ''išplaũkti'' (to swim out) → ''išplaũkia'' (no retraction, hence: ''neišplaũkia'', ''teišplaũkia'' etc.) :''riñkti'' (to gather) → ''suriñkti'' (to gather them all) → ''sùrenka'' (retraction does happen, hence: ''nèrenka'', ''tèrenka'' etc.) *The latter rule has two exceptions: :''turė́ti'' (to have) → ''suturė́ti'' (to restrain) → ''sùturi'' (retraction does happen, but not for ''ne-'' type prefixes of the non-prefixed verbs: ''netùri'', ''tetùri'' etc.) :''galė́ti'' (to be able) → ''išgalė́ti'' (to afford) → ''ìšgali'' (retraction does happen, but not for ''ne-'' type prefixes of the non-prefixed verbs: ''negãli'', ''begãli'' etc.) *The prefix ''pér-'' always has the falling tone and takes the stress in all parts of speech of that word, ignoring all the other accentuation rules: ''pérduoti'' – to transmit, ''nebepérsivalgymas'' – the inability to overeat.Stem classes
The below given tables are not a full collection of types of conjugation, there can be types in language not included here. Consonants d, t become s before t in any case in language. In verbs this occurs before a desinence -ti of the infinitive, desinence with -t- of the past passive participle.Non-suffixed
:Suffixed
:Syntax
Word order
Lithuanian has an SVO (subject–verb–object) as the main word order: :Adjunct(s)(temporal, locative, causal) + Subject + Adjunct(s)(other) + Verb + Object(s) + Infinitive + other parts. At the same time Lithuanian as a highly declined language is often considered to have the free word order. This idea is partially true, and a sentence such as "Today I saw a beautiful girl at the movies" could be said or written in many ways: :Aš mačiau gražią mergaitę kine šiandien. :Šiandien aš mačiau gražią mergaitę kine. :Gražią mergaitę mačiau aš kine šiandien. :Gražią mergaitę aš šiandien mačiau kine. :Kine šiandien aš mačiau gražią mergaitę. :Kine gražią mergaitę aš mačiau šiandien. However, word order isn't a subject of intonation only. Different word orders often have different meanings in Lithuanian. There are also some strict rules and some tendencies in using different word placing. For example, a word that provides new information ( rheme, or comment) has a tendency to be postponed after other words, but not always to the end of the sentence. Adjectives precede nouns like they do in English, but order of adjectives in an adjective group is different from English. If the main word order is followed, a temporal, locative or causal adjunct is put at the beginning of the sentence, while adjuncts of other types go directly before the verb and its objects (see the SVO rule above). The word order in Lithuanian can also be described using concepts of theme and rheme. Looking from this point of view, the structure of a sentence is following: : Initial complementary words or clauses + theme + middle words or clauses + rheme + final complementary words or clauses The middle words or clauses are more significant words or word groups other than the theme or the rheme, but complementary words or clauses (both the initial and the final) are less significant or secondary. Local, causal or temporalPrepositions
Prepositions tell us where an object is or what direction it is going. Some cases of nouns, such as the genitive, accusative and instrumental, take prepositions. Some cases never take prepositions (such as locative and nominative). Certain prepositions are used with certain cases. Below is a list of some common prepositions used in Lithuanian.Used with genitive form of noun
* iš – from, out of * ant – on * iki – until * po – after, past, succeeding * prie – near, at * už – behind * nuo – away fromUsed with instrumental form of noun
* po – under * su – with * sulig – up to * ties – by, overUsed with accusative form of noun
* į – in * pas – to, at * per – across, by, over, through, during, via * pro – through, past, by * apie – aboutConjunctions
Conjunctions are used to link together clauses in a sentence, for example "I thought it would be a nice day but it was raining." Some common conjunctions in Lithuanian are: * ir – and * bet – but * ar – used to start a question, but can also mean "or" * jei – if * kad – that (not the demonstrative pronoun) * kol – until/till * arba – or/but * nes – because * tačiau – howeverSee also
* Lithuanian phonology *References
External links
Bibliography
* * ''Lithuanian Grammar'', edited by Vytautas Ambrazas. Institute of the Lithuanian Language, 1997