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Introduction to Lithuanian Topic- Participles:
Lesson 3

By Linas

Welcome back!

So we had galvoti-galvoja-galvojo, turėti-turi-turėjo, and valgyti-valgo-valgė. Think, have, eat.

We also learnt that the by-participle is added by adding nt instead of ing, and there’s a small glitch with the ont turning to an ant.

We also learnt that geriau was better.

Excellent so far!

Let’s just try to get one more example in for repetition. Do you remember the word for to go (usually with the meaning: to walk):

to go

Answer: eiti
Not correct. Please try again.

What about:

he walks

Answer: eina
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Right! So we can use that and say it is better to think while walking.

it is better to think while walking

Answer: geriau galvoti einant
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All good, and all impersonal.

How do we make it personal?

Well, one simple way would be to add the pronouns for me, for you, etc. That actually works. For example, how would you say:

for me it is better to think while walking

Answer: man geriau galvoti einant
Not correct. Please try again.

Or:

for you it is better to think while eating

Answer: tau geriau galvoti valgant
Not correct. Please try again.

Let’s see if you can get this tricky one (hint: the word order in Lithuanian is the same as before and you just add one very short word):

is it better for you to think while eating?

Answer: ar tau geriau galvoti valgant?
Not correct. Please try again.

Just like you say for you you could say for somebody else. For that, you would use the dative case (naudininkas) in Lithuanian.

So for example the dative of your father (thus in English: for your father) is tavo tėvui.

How would you ask:

is it, for your father, better to eat while driving?

Answer: ar tavo tėvui geriau vairuoti valgant?
Not correct. Please try again.

Cool! So we have learned one way to make the by-adjective personal. We will go back to this.

But for now, let’s talk about something else. We can also take this by-participle and make it into an object (have it refer to a person: either he or she).

How do we do it? Simple: just add the ending!

To have the by-participle (padalyvis) refer to a person, you just add the appropriate ending to it: is for masculine and i for feminine.

That’s it! That’s dalyvis (participle) for you.

I guess it loses it’s by-nature and becomes more concrete.

So if he has is turi, the while having (the by-participle) would be turint, and the one who is having (participle) would be turintis (masculine) or turinti (feminine).

The participle dalyvis form essentially means one who is X (one who is having, one who is doing).

You can use this dalyvis as an adjective.

So for example, if the word for person is žmogus (it is masculine) then how would you say:

a thinking person

Answer: galvojantis žmogus
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Good!

A girl would be mergaitė, how would you say:

a girl who is eating

Answer: valganti mergaitė
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Simply:

one who is having

Answer: turintis
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one who is not having

Answer: neturintis
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While it is somewhat unusual, it is technically possible to use these present participles with the past and future.

So, for example, you could I will be eating by saying it as I will-be one-who-is-eating (use the masculine for now). How would you say that:

I will be eating.

Answer: Aš būsiu valgantis.
Not correct. Please try again.

This is possible to say, although you could just as well (and usually would) say simply aš valgysiu.

How would you use a participle to say (this will be three words, which more literally mean she is one-who-is-walking):

she is walking

Answer: ji yra einanti
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Yes!

There is another thing to keep in mind about the dalyvis:

Lithuanians sometimes just shorten the anti or inti in the masculine form of participles and make them ą or į instead. Just for the masculine.

I guess you could call it the anti-anti movement.

So, for example, instead of einantis you could say einąs.

How would you say this for turintis:

one who is having

Answer: turįs
Not correct. Please try again.

What about (using the ą form):

one who is thinking

Answer: galvojąs
Not correct. Please try again.

Both "galvojantis" and "galvojąs" are equally okay. Depends on whether you want to speak short or long.

Other than that, that’s it about dalyvis. It basically just turns a by-participle into a participle by tying it to a personhood (either he or she).

We’ll learn more in the next lesson.