Introduction to Lithuanian:
Lesson 15

You now know the ultimate rule and you can talk about speaking or understanding. However, it is important that the words we had been talking about have been words ending in a (kalba, supranta in the he/she form).

This is not the only possible ending, though:

Lithuanian for he can is jis gali.

That word could mean he can, he may or he is able to.

As you see, this word gali ends in i and not in a! Let’s learn another i word so that we have some company:

Lithuanian for she has is ji turi.

Think she has a turtle to remember this highly useful word. Not only does it mean has (as in she has a turtle) but it could also mean has to (as in she has to walk her dog).

These i-ending words have a lot of advantages.

For example, all i-ending words are good in a way that in order to have their infinitive form (that is, the to form of the verb) you only have to change i to ėti.

So, you change the last letter (which happens to be i) to ėti to make them to infinitives.

Let's also learn that:

The word for wants (as in: she wants) is nori.

Try this out now:

to have

Answer: turėti
Not correct. Please try again.

to be able to

Answer: galėti
Not correct. Please try again.

She is able to want.

Answer: Ji gali norėti.
Not correct. Please try again.