By Linas
We’re back. First, a warm-up.
Have you noticed one thing, though? All these he-form words (turi, gali, nori, girdi, myli) end in the letter i. Well, that’s not a coincidence: they all fall in the same group. You see, in Lithuanian, the category a verb (i.e. the same as in English, a word which to and I can both be put in front of) belongs to is decided by the words’ final letter for the he form. So far, we have been dealing with i verbs. Now, let’s meet the o category:
The Lithuanian word for does is daro.
How do you say:
What about:
In fact, the forms for we are the same? Do you remember how you make words into the we form? Try this.
Right, you add me, so what about:
What about the jūs form?
Attention, though: the word daro is not used the same way the English word do and does is. For example, in English you could say: we do not have but in Lithuanian you would say mes neturime and you wouldn’t use daro in this sentence. This word in Lithuanian is reserved just for actually doing things.
Let’s learn one more word. This time about seeing.
The Lithuanian words for sees is mato.
Think “Every time I open my eyes I see Matthew” to remember that sees word is mato.
Oh, by the way, I side note: these words just like the other words we have learnt so far are stressed on the beginning. So, it’s mato and daro. Anyway, just so you know.
How do you say:
Finally, what about:
Now, let’s talk about the other two forms for the word mato (aš and tu). Aš at first. But, first, do you remember how to make the aš form of an i word.
That’s right: you simply add an u to the he form.
Now, I am not completely sure, but I think it might have been the same in ancient Lithuanian. So, you would as well add an u. So, for example, he does is daro and you make it into I do so it would be aš darou.
Now, try to say that a few times. Darou darou darou … darau if you do it, you notice that it is pronounced just like if it was darau (by the way: au is pronounced just like in the English word low. So, by saying o and u fast together you eventually get to saying au. So, Lithuanians thought, why not change that o to an a altogether.
In o-ending words for aš, o changes to a before adding u.
So, again, it’s just too simple: o changes to a. That’s it. Try it.
Okay, that’s what happens to aš. What happens to tu?
Well, we have already mentioned once:
Tu loves the ending i.
So, for example, in jis daro we don’t have the ending i for tu. So, we simply add it. What do we get? Tu daroi. And then the same thing happens as with aš – o changes to a. So, it becomes tu darai.
The letter o changes to a in the tu form as well.
So, how do you say:
Just so you know, ai is pronounced just like in the English word time.
It’s so easy it’s not even funny, is it?
Try.
So, if you have to take something from this, is that o changes to a.
Okay, and I have left the best for the ending. Let’s learn how to make daro into to do. Do you remember how you change it from turi (he has) into to have ?
So, you change i into ėti. That’s nice.
For o words, you change o into yti.
So, it’s almost the same. The ti stays (in fact, all Lithuanian verbs have ti at the end). So, now we can say a lot of awesome things.
Imagine a temporarily blind man regaining sight. What would he first say?
Yeah, exactly. We have learned how to deal with o verbs. That’s it. Let’s take a break.