Lithuanian Basics: Lesson 23

We have learnt that ja drops the j before applying the general A. Well, there is another ending ia which sounds very similar to ja. (Remember, that Lithuanians pronounce j more or less like in yet and i like In interesting.) Logically, the ending ia drops i. Some examples.

The Lithuanian word for he waits is laukia.

Actually, laukia is an ally of nori! Thus laukia turns tai into to as well.

While in English you wait for something, in Lithuanian you simply wait something (or, simply put: you await something).

So, how would you say:

?He waits for it.|Jis to laukia.

Remember, you said “he awaits it” and it’s not “tai” but “to” because laukia is an ally of nori.

So, ia drops i (just like ja drops its j). How would you then say:

?To wait|Laukti

Talk formally:

?You will wait it.|Jūs to lauksite.

Now you can menace your friends in Lithuanian if somebody is late and wants you to wait:

?I will not wait.|Aš nelauksiu.

Anyway, today, we are talking about verbs which end in ia and ally with nori. There is another word just like that (and it allies with nori as well!). See…

The Lithuanian word for asks is klausia.

However, this word is only good for asking questions (not for asking favors – there is another word for it). Regardless of that, it’s used a lot, this word. And it allies with nori as well.

How would you say:

?He is asking it but I don’t know it.|Jis to klausia, bet aš to nežinau.

Remember, it’s to in the first part because klausia allies with nori (and laukia as we now know).

How do you think you would say to ask then:

?To ask|Klausti

?He doesn’t want to wait, he wants to ask.|Jis nenori laukti, jis nori klausti.

So, what would you think he will ask would be? Well, let’s look at it. It would become klausti – ti + si= klaussi. Ehm. Two s? That makes no difference in pronunciation but that doesn’t look good. As you remember from the past, Lithuanian does not like repeating letters in the end of words!

Thus, it drops one s and becomes klausi. Then it’s he so it drops the i as well and it’s klaus. So…

?He will ask it.|Jis to klaus.

Haha, think of asking Santa Claus where the North Pole is to remember the word he will ask.

Anyway, you can now make the other future forms as well (you make them from klausi, remember?). Try:

?I will not ask it.|Aš to neklausiu.

?You (formal) will ask.|Jūs klausite.

?You (formal) are asking.|Jūs klausiate.

?You (informal) are waiting but you (informal) will not ask.|Tu lauki, bet tu neklausi.

Here here. Let’s take it easy and learn one more little deviation from the general A now. This one is more prominent. Do you remember the Lithuanian word for understands:

?She understands.|Ji supranta.

If you remember, we had some more words with this ending in the past (you probably don’t remember them now but we don’t need to). Well, here is the thing:

Magic occurs and nt becomes s before forming the infinitive.

So, let’s try that. You have supranta for he understands and you want to make it into to understand. Apply the magic: nt becomes s and you get suprasa. Then you follow the general A: suprasti. Eureka! We have the form.

?I want to understand Lithuanian.|Aš noriu suprasti lietuviškai.

The future of suprasti forms just like with laukti or klausti – we don’t need two s so one drops. Try to form the future:

?They will understand.|Jie supras.

?I will not understand it.|Aš to nesuprasiu.

?I can speak Lithuanian but I cannot understand.|Aš galiu kalbėti lietuviškai, bet aš negaliu suprasti.

Wow, now we know how to form the future and we know a lot of these patterns which do not exactly follow the general A. Of course, there still are some left but we know enough for now. We, in fact, know so much that we need to take a break and learn how to connect sentences better. We will learn a couple of new important sentence connectors (like because) and have some practice of what we have learnt so far in the next lesson.

Oh oh, just before we go. One optimistic phrase:

?I will understand and speak Lithuanian.|Aš suprasiu ir kalbėsiu lietuviškai.

Safe to go now.

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