grammar sentences

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kman1
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grammar sentences

Postby kman1 » 2007-09-23, 2:24

I made the sentences below to get a feel of how different English tenses are expressed in Latvian. Please check what I've written for accuracy and please explain the ones I got wrong or didn't know.

1. I speak Spanish.
2. I used to play video games.
3. I ate a cookie 5 min. ago.
4. Last year he was ill.
5. When his parents built the house, he was ill.
6. At the beginning of this year he has been ill, now he is fine again.
7. He had broken a leg, therefore he couldn't come to school.
8. I’m reading a book now.
9. I was working while she was studying.
10. I was eating there (- let's say lunch) until I got to know that there were cockroaches in the kitchen. Then I left (immediately).

11. I had been lying there for 3 hrs. before I fell asleep.
12. You will have been eating for 10 min. when I finish.
13. He wants me to go home now.
14. I would buy more food but I’m full now.
15. You are baptized now. ‘passive’
16. You were baptized for 5 min. ‘passive’
17. The city was destroyed by the fire ‘passive’
18. I had been baptized 3 times by 2001.
19. I will have been baptized 6 times by 2002.
20. If he paid me more, I would stay. (2 possibilities for ‘if he paid me more’)*
21. We would have built the house, if we had had the money.*


In my Latvian translation, I only translated the verb portion of the sentences. that's the only part I'm concerned with. So remember when correcting what I wrote I only need the verbs NOT the whole sentence. (unless you feel translating the entire sentence would be better for everyone viewing the post)

1. runāju
2. rotaļaju
3. esmu ēstis
4. biju slimam
5. būvēja , biju slimam
6. ? , ir jauks
7. bija laustis , nē drīkstēta nākt
8. lasīju
9. strādāju , pētīja
10. ēsju
11. biju atgultiesis
12. būsi ēstis
13. gribē , iet
14. pirktu , bet esmu pilnība tagad
15. tiec kristīts
16. tiki kristīts
17. ir iznīcināts
18. biju kristīts
19. būs kristīts
20. maksot , atbalsot
21. esot būvējuši , esot būjuši

1. how do you know what the different parts of a word are since the dictionary only lists the inf. part of a word?? 2. what's the deal with the second part of verbs in the conjunctive mood?

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Re: grammar sentences

Postby Sol Invictus » 2007-09-23, 5:15

1. runāju
2. rotaļaju Spēlēju, rotaļājos is for playing with toys and it can only be used as reflexive verb
3. esmu ēstis ēdu, no need for perfect
4. biju slimam bija slims, you were using second person singular (that is - tu or you in english) and dative, you should have used third person singular (viņš = he) and nominative
5. būvēja , biju slimam you again use dative instead of nominative
6. ? , ir jauks That means nice not fine. We don't use fine acctualy :? That would be something like Gada sākumā viņš bija slims, tagad viņam atkal ir labi, but tagad viņš atkal ir vesels (now he's healthy again) would be better
7. bija laustis , nē drīkstēta nākt (sa)lauzis, nevārēja, nedrīkstēt is forbidden to
8. lasīju
9. strādāju , pētīja depends on what "studying" is supposed to mean. Pētīt is to research or examine, if you meant learning it is mācīties
10. ēsju ēdu
11. biju atgultiesis atgūlies, and you should use gulēju, because atgulties is rather the very act of lying down
12. būsi ēstis ēdis
13. gribē , iet grib, eju
14. pirktu , bet esmu pilnība tagad Es nopirktu vēl, bet esmu pārēdies
15. tiec kristīts
16. tiki kristīts
17. ir iznīcināts tika iznīcināta (ugunsgrēkā)
18. biju kristīts
19. būs kristīts būšu
20. maksot , atbalsot maksātu, paliktu, you are using to echo instead of stay
21. esot būvējuši , esot būjuši
būtu (uz)būvējuši, būtu bijis

1. how do you know what the different parts of a word are since the dictionary only lists the inf. part of a word??


there is limited nummber of prefixes and endings, infinitive ending is -t you replace it with the correct ending, however you should also learn about constant shift (how the sounds change around ending)
2. what's the deal with the second part of verbs in the conjunctive mood?

Give an example

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Re: grammar sentences

Postby kman1 » 2007-09-23, 19:07

2. what's the deal with the second part of verbs in the conjunctive mood?

Give an example[/quote]

Check out this page:

http://www.ailab.lv/ai1/lgram-ww/conjunct.htm

Under the section "Conjunctive debitive", you'll see the examples:
esot jālasa & būšot jālasa

I don't understand how verbs in the second part, "jālasa", position are formed. In the first part, "esot" and "būšot" are used everytime but what about the second part of this tense??

Btw, thanks for the corrections! :-)

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Re: grammar sentences

Postby Sol Invictus » 2007-09-23, 22:29

kman1 wrote:
2. what's the deal with the second part of verbs in the conjunctive mood?

Give an example


Check out this page:

http://www.ailab.lv/ai1/lgram-ww/conjunct.htm

Under the section "Conjunctive debitive", you'll see the examples:
esot jālasa & būšot jālasa

I don't understand how verbs in the second part, "jālasa", position are formed. In the first part, "esot" and "būšot" are used everytime but what about the second part of this tense??

Btw, thanks for the corrections! :-)

It is said on that page that this mood implies that speaker has some doubt about truth of his words. Yes, that is correct, but it might be easier to understand this way - This mood in Latvian is called atstāstījuma izteiksme - retelling mood - and that is what it is mostly about - retelling what someone else said. The speaker using this mood doesn't know if what he says is true or dosen't agree that it is true. The second word is not ruled by this mood - jā- is a prefix which means "must", therefore that verb uses debitive mood and uses form of third person singualr in all persons. Same applies to passive - the second word is used according to passive mood rules (and speaking of passive - there is a spelling mistake - there should be jūs tiekot vesti, not "vest").

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Postby kman1 » 2007-10-10, 9:36

Hi Sol invictus, I have some questions about the corrections you gave me.

2. a. why does ‘rotaļājos’ have ‘ā’ here? b. that’s weird to use a reflexive verb to play with something else like a toy…

3. a. «ēst» is irregular, right? how would I know that the imperfect stem of «ēst» is ‘-d’? Since the perfect tense isn’t used here, then the imperfect tense encompasses the simple past tense as well in Latvian?

4. a. ‘biju’ is 1st person sing. not 2nd person sing., right?

7. a. ‘(sa) lauzis’  what difference does the ‘sa’ make? b. so it’s just ‘lauzis’ and NOT ‘bija lauzis’ ? I thought that ‘lauzis’ was the past participle of ‘lauzt’… ‘lauzis’ by itself doesn’t make any sense does it? c. ‘varēt’ is 3rd conjugation? (is that why ‘varēt’ has a ‘j’ in the imperfect tense?) d. How do you know which conjugation a verb is? This is explained on this site a bit however it’s confusing and not very clear. http://www.ailab.lv/ai1/lgram-ww/verbs.htm
e. since the meaning I want is ‘learning’ then the correct word form is ‘mācīja’ instead of ‘pētīja’ ?

11. a. what is the dictionary form of ‘atgūlies’ ? so I could say ‘biju atgūlies’ or ‘gulēju’, right? b. ‘gulēju’  this can be used alone to represent the pluperfect progressive tense? Is this how the pluperfect progressive tense is formed in Latvian?

13. on this page in the present tense verb table, the endings that have ‘-’ means the form is: the infinitive minus the last consonant and last vowel.

14. a. ‘nopirkt’ & ‘pirkt’ = ‘to buy’ ? what is the difference between the two?

17. a. why is ‘-a’ added to ‘iznīcināt’ instead of ‘-s’? what form is ‘iznīcināta’ in here? (genitive, nom., etc. ?) b. ‘ugunsgrēks’ = ‘fire’ so by adding ‘ā’ the meaning changes to ‘by fire’ ? ( I thought by adding the ‘ā’ the nouns go into the locative case, thus the meaning would be ‘in the fire’ therefore meaning ‘destroyed in the fire’ and NOT ‘destroyed by the fire’..  is this correct? )

20. ‘maksātu’ & ‘paliktu’ are in the conditional tense here?

21. a. what tense are these two in  ‘būtu (uz)būvējuši’ & ‘būtu bijis’ ? How is this tense formed? b. why is ‘bijis’ used here instead of ‘bijuši’ ?

there is limited nummber of prefixes and endings, infinitive ending is -t you replace it with the correct ending, however you should also learn about constant shift (how the sounds change around ending)


do you have any links that explain consonant shifting?

Thanks!

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Postby Sol Invictus » 2007-10-10, 23:06

2. a. why does ‘rotaļājos’ have ‘ā’ here? b. that’s weird to use a reflexive verb to play with something else like a toy…

For no particular reason, I guess, why do you suppose it should be something else ? There simply is no such "rotaļāt", besides you would say "I play with toy" and usualy when "with" (ar) appears in Latvian, the verb is reflexive.

3. a. «ēst» is irregular, right? how would I know that the imperfect stem of «ēst» is ‘-d’? Since the perfect tense isn’t used here, then the imperfect tense encompasses the simple past tense as well in Latvian?

It belongs to first group of the first conjugation. As for the imperfect - most likely, yes
4. a. ‘biju’ is 1st person sing. not 2nd person sing., right?

Yes, sorry
7. a. ‘(sa) lauzis’  what difference does the ‘sa’ make?

It indicates that the thing is acctualy broken, it dosen't make much diffrence if it is about someone's leg, but if it is about stick, for example, saying "lauzis" may mean that one was breaking it, but not that it was acctualy broken.
b. so it’s just ‘lauzis’ and NOT ‘bija lauzis’ ? I thought that ‘lauzis’ was the past participle of ‘lauzt’… ‘lauzis’ by itself doesn’t make any sense does it?

No, although I had omited "bija", in this case you should use it, however in some cases it can be omited in speech.
c. ‘varēt’ is 3rd conjugation? (is that why ‘varēt’ has a ‘j’ in the imperfect tense?)

Yes
d. How do you know which conjugation a verb is? This is explained on this site a bit however it’s confusing and not very clear. http://www.ailab.lv/ai1/lgram-ww/verbs.htm

Verbs are divided into conjugations by suffixses and number of sylables in them. Perhaps try http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/ ... l-8-X.html it seems to explain some things mising on the ailab's site
e. since the meaning I want is ‘learning’ then the correct word form is ‘mācīja’ instead of ‘pētīja’ ?

Yes
11. a. what is the dictionary form of ‘atgūlies’ ?

Laid down
I could say ‘biju atgūlies’ or ‘gulēju’, right?

While such thing as "biju atgūlies" can exist, it can't be used in this particular case
b. ‘gulēju’  this can be used alone to represent the pluperfect progressive tense? Is this how the pluperfect progressive tense is formed in Latvian?

Pluperfect is past perfect. "Gulēju" is past simple, it sounds better in this case, perhaps becaus "before" already indicates that something happaned before another event, perfect is more often used with constructions with "when"
13. on this page in the present tense verb table, the endings that have ‘-’ means the form is: the infinitive minus the last consonant and last vowel.

Yes
14. a. ‘nopirkt’ & ‘pirkt’ = ‘to buy’ ? what is the difference between the two?

No- is prefix which means "from" or "to move away". In this case it could be said that it means that when one would have bought the product and it would have becamed their possession it would be "nopirkt", "pirkt" may refer to the moment of buying (The feel of completed action again - note that Latvian dosen't have continious tenses).

17. a. why is ‘-a’ added to ‘iznīcināt’ instead of ‘-s’? what form is ‘iznīcināta’ in here? (genitive, nom., etc. ?)

Because it corresponds to the noun conected with it - Pilsēta is feminine gender, and Nominative
b. ‘ugunsgrēks’ = ‘fire’ so by adding ‘ā’ the meaning changes to ‘by fire’ ? ( I thought by adding the ‘ā’ the nouns go into the locative case, thus the meaning would be ‘in the fire’ therefore meaning ‘destroyed in the fire’ and NOT ‘destroyed by the fire’..  is this correct? )

Passive is indicated by "tika", and it does use Locative. Latvian passive indicates that something happened against the will of the Subject not that it was done to Subject by something else. So altough it does indeed mean "destroyed in the fire", it is passive voice.
20. ‘maksātu’ & ‘paliktu’ are in the conditional tense here?

Yes
21. a. what tense are these two in  ‘būtu (uz)būvējuši’ & ‘būtu bijis’ ? How is this tense formed?

Perfect in conditional mood, būt in conditional mood + past active participle
b. why is ‘bijis’ used here instead of ‘bijuši’ ?

Because for some reason I translated it to myself as "būtu bijis vairāk naudas" (had more money) I don't know for sure why in this case it is "bijis", I guess it has something to do with the adverb "vairāk". Anyway if adverb is omited, it would be "būtu bijusi nauda" not "bijuši", because it refers to money
do you have any links that explain consonant shifting?

The ailab's site allready does explain it - it refers to it as "Palatalization"

Also maybe you'll find something useful here: http://courses.washington.edu/latvian/

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Postby kman1 » 2007-10-25, 9:28

3. a. «ēst» is irregular, right? how would I know that the imperfect stem of «ēst» is ‘-d’? Since the perfect tense isn’t used here, then the imperfect tense encompasses the simple past tense as well in Latvian?


It belongs to first group of the first conjugation. As for the imperfect - most likely, yes


3. so ‘ēst’ is irregular, then? If not, then how do you know that the imperfect stem is ‘d’? (‘ēst’ -> ‘edu’) Do all 1st conjugation verbs add ‘d’ in the imperfect tense like ‘ēst’ ?

No, although I had omited "bija", in this case you should use it, however in some cases it can be omited in speech.


7. b. Will you please list an example where ‘bija’ can be omitted?

11. a. what is the dictionary form of ‘atgūlies’ ?


Laid down


11. I mean what is the dictionary (infinitive) form of ‘atgūlies’ NOT what’s the meaning.

No- is prefix which means "from" or "to move away". In this case it could be said that it means that when one would have bought the product and it would have becamed their possession it would be "nopirkt", "pirkt" may refer to the moment of buying (The feel of completed action again - note that Latvian dosen't have continious tenses).


14. Will you list an example that clearly indicates the difference between when to use ‘nopirkt’ and ‘pirkt’?

Because for some reason I translated it to myself as "būtu bijis vairāk naudas" (had more money) I don't know for sure why in this case it is "bijis", I guess it has something to do with the adverb "vairāk". Anyway if adverb is omited, it would be "būtu bijusi nauda" not "bijuši", because it refers to money


21. ‘būtu bijis vairāk naudas’ <- here ‘bijis’ matches with ‘naudas’, right? (so ‘naudas’ is masc. sing. nom. correct? why?)
"būtu bijusi nauda" <- here ‘bijusi’ matches with ‘nauda’, right? (here ‘nauda’ is fem. sing. nom. right? why?)


http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/ ... l-8-X.html <- This course you recommended does a good job of explaining verb conjugation classes but it makes a HUGE mistake. It assumes that the reader knows the infinitive stem, the present stem, and the past (preterit) stem the verb. This site doesn’t even mention a place where such a dictionary can be found. The online dictionary that I use doesn’t list the present/past stem of the verb therefore that page is useless without a dictionary that lists the present/past stem of verbs. Do you know of a dictionary that lists present/past stems in addition to the infinitive stem?

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Postby Sol Invictus » 2007-10-27, 0:00

3. a. «ēst» is irregular, right? how would I know that the imperfect stem of «ēst» is ‘-d’? Since the perfect tense isn’t used here, then the imperfect tense encompasses the simple past tense as well in Latvian?


It belongs to first group of the first conjugation. As for the imperfect - most likely, yes


3. so ‘ēst’ is irregular, then? If not, then how do you know that the imperfect stem is ‘d’? (‘ēst’ -> ‘edu’) Do all 1st conjugation verbs add ‘d’ in the imperfect tense like ‘ēst’ ?

No, irregular verbs are būt, iet, dot. According to these spelling rules spelling of first conjugation words reflects historical sound changes (which means that maybe there was d in infintive, but it has changed to s), it says that if rott of the verb ends with s, t or d then before infinitive ending there is s (I suppose it means that s, t or d changes to s, the infinitive ending is either -t or -ties)

No, although I had omited "bija", in this case you should use it, however in some cases it can be omited in speech.


7. b. Will you please list an example where ‘bija’ can be omitted?
Mostly it is omited when it is clear that it is talked about past, the action is complete i.e. there is no reason to further indicate that by using bija, if several verbs concern one subject it usually is enough if it is clear about one of those.
For example Viņš dzimis x, uzaudzis y, nomiris q (He was born in x, grew up in y, died in q)
11. a. what is the dictionary form of ‘atgūlies’ ?


Laid down


11. I mean what is the dictionary (infinitive) form of ‘atgūlies’ NOT what’s the meaning.

atgulties

No- is prefix which means "from" or "to move away". In this case it could be said that it means that when one would have bought the product and it would have becamed their possession it would be "nopirkt", "pirkt" may refer to the moment of buying (The feel of completed action again - note that Latvian dosen't have continious tenses).


14. Will you list an example that clearly indicates the difference between when to use ‘nopirkt’ and ‘pirkt’?

It is better to use nopirkt in conditionals. Also nopirkt indicates that the item was acctualy purchased (not just that someone was about to buy something or buying something, but that he bought it)

Because for some reason I translated it to myself as "būtu bijis vairāk naudas" (had more money) I don't know for sure why in this case it is "bijis", I guess it has something to do with the adverb "vairāk". Anyway if adverb is omited, it would be "būtu bijusi nauda" not "bijuši", because it refers to money


21. ‘būtu bijis vairāk naudas’ <- here ‘bijis’ matches with ‘naudas’, right? (so ‘naudas’ is masc. sing. nom. correct? why?)
"būtu bijusi nauda" <- here ‘bijusi’ matches with ‘nauda’, right? (here ‘nauda’ is fem. sing. nom. right? why?)

No, naudas is genitive (literal translation: If I had more of money). It could also have been Plural nominative, however Nauda mostly is used in singular only, masculine dosen't end with -as

http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/litol-8-X.html <- This course you recommended does a good job of explaining verb conjugation classes but it makes a HUGE mistake. It assumes that the reader knows the infinitive stem, the present stem, and the past (preterit) stem the verb. This site doesn’t even mention a place where such a dictionary can be found. The online dictionary that I use doesn’t list the present/past stem of the verb therefore that page is useless without a dictionary that lists the present/past stem of verbs. Do you know of a dictionary that lists present/past stems in addition to the infinitive stem?

I can't find such thing on web, this book has such a list in it

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Postby kman1 » 2007-10-27, 5:41

No, irregular verbs are būt, iet, dot. According to these spelling rules spelling of first conjugation words reflects historical sound changes (which means that maybe there was d in infintive, but it has changed to s), it says that if rott of the verb ends with s, t or d then before infinitive ending there is s (I suppose it means that s, t or d changes to s, the infinitive ending is either -t or -ties)


It seems you may have misunderstood what I was asking about. My question is ‘how would know that “ēst” ends in (d) in the imperfect tense?’ What you’re explaining is something different. I just want to know why does ‘ēst’ change to ‘ēd-’ in the imperfect tense instead of ‘ēs-’. The ‘s’ changes to a ‘d’, but why?

atgulties


11. where did the ‘t’ at the end go?

No, naudas is genitive (literal translation: If I had more of money). It could also have been Plural nominative, however Nauda mostly is used in singular only, masculine dosen't end with -as


21. a. is ‘naudas’ is genitive then why doesn’t ‘bijis’ match with it? ‘bijis’ is masc. sing. nom. b. also ‘bijusi’ doesn’t match with ‘nauda’, why?

I can't find such thing on web


There has to be a online dictionary with that information in it somewhere...

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Postby Sol Invictus » 2007-10-27, 23:32

kman1 wrote:
No, irregular verbs are būt, iet, dot. According to these spelling rules spelling of first conjugation words reflects historical sound changes (which means that maybe there was d in infintive, but it has changed to s), it says that if rott of the verb ends with s, t or d then before infinitive ending there is s (I suppose it means that s, t or d changes to s, the infinitive ending is either -t or -ties)


It seems you may have misunderstood what I was asking about. My question is ‘how would know that “ēst” ends in (d) in the imperfect tense?’ What you’re explaining is something different. I just want to know why does ‘ēst’ change to ‘ēd-’ in the imperfect tense instead of ‘ēs-’. The ‘s’ changes to a ‘d’, but why?

No, I was explaining that d changes to s, which means that most likely you won't be able to detect this change using infinitive

atgulties


11. where did the ‘t’ at the end go?

As I said when answering to another question in my previous post there is also -ties, it is a reflexive

No, naudas is genitive (literal translation: If I had more of money). It could also have been Plural nominative, however Nauda mostly is used in singular only, masculine dosen't end with -as


21. a. is ‘naudas’ is genitive then why doesn’t ‘bijis’ match with it? ‘bijis’ is masc. sing. nom. b. also ‘bijusi’ doesn’t match with ‘nauda’, why?

I said that bijis most likely refers to vairāk, bijusi does match nauda :? it is f. singular, maybe you're mistaking it for bijuši ?

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Postby エヴァルダス » 2007-10-31, 2:00

Oh... I didn't notice kman started a similar discussion here too.

I can see your confusion about the difference of "lauzt" and "salauzt", "pirkt" and "nopirkt", but it is absolutely the same as in Lithuanian. In Latvian "aspects" are called "darbības veidi". "Imperfective" is "nepabeigtais" and "perfective" is "pabeigtais". Rules of changing the aspect are very similar as in Lithuanian, except that in Latvian reflexive verbs are handled differently. Oh, and prefixes usually are different than in Lithuanian.

If you understood my explanation in Lithuanian forum, you'll surely get this as it's the same principle.

3. so ‘ēst’ is irregular, then? If not, then how do you know that the imperfect stem is ‘d’? (‘ēst’ -> ‘edu’) Do all 1st conjugation verbs add ‘d’ in the imperfect tense like ‘ēst’ ?


When you learn a flexional language, you just have to forget the category of irregular verbs. The concept of irregular verbs in Baltic or Slavonic languages has nothing to do with the one that exists in Western languages. Those three so-called "irregular" verbs Sol Invictus mentioned were defined using different criteria compared to English.

Like in Lithuanian with bisyllabic verbs, all Latvian monosyllabic verbs are irregular: you have to learn their three basic forms by heart. "Ēst" is one of them (the same verb "ėsti" in Lithuanian is actually too).

21. a. is ‘naudas’ is genitive then why doesn’t ‘bijis’ match with it? ‘bijis’ is masc. sing. nom. b. also ‘bijusi’ doesn’t match with ‘nauda’, why?


„Būtu bijis vairāk naudas“ – this is complicated to explain. I am not an expert in Latvian grammar, but I am in Lithuanian.

In Lithuanian, we have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.

„Bijis“ must match „vairāk“ and not „naudas“, because „naudas“ is completely dependent on „vairāk“. „Vairāk“ has no gender, so it's neuter, and when you have to concord a participle to it, you choose neuter in Lithuanian (bijis in Lith.: masculine – buvęs, feminine – buvusi, neuter – buvę).

The trick is, neuter disappeared in Latvian. Instead, you use singular masculine in such cases.

b. ‘gulēju’  this can be used alone to represent the pluperfect progressive tense? Is this how the pluperfect progressive tense is formed in Latvian?


Technically, there no progressive tenses in neither Latvian or Lithuanian.

This course you recommended does a good job of explaining verb conjugation classes but it makes a HUGE mistake. It assumes that the reader knows the infinitive stem, the present stem, and the past (preterit) stem the verb. This site doesn’t even mention a place where such a dictionary can be found.


I'm holding in my hands a Latvian-Lithuanian dictionary where EVERY single verb or noun contains all the information necessary for conjugation or declension of Latvian words.

I also have a huge Lithuanian-Latvian dictionary where every single Lithuanian word is accented and presents all the necessary data for conjugation or declension.

You need a dictionary, not a vocabulary. Every serious Latvian dictionary must contain this information. If you don't have any, get one.

By the way, dictionary of modern Lithuanian is accessible online.

Būtu tāpat jauki, ja pie latviešu valodas vārdnīcas visi tāpat varētu pieiet internetā...

Sol Invictus
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Postby Sol Invictus » 2007-10-31, 14:49

エヴァルダス wrote:You need a dictionary, not a vocabulary. Every serious Latvian dictionary must contain this information. If you don't have any, get one.

By the way, dictionary of modern Lithuanian is accessible online.

Būtu tāpat jauki, ja pie latviešu valodas vārdnīcas visi tāpat varētu pieiet internetā...
English-Latvian dictionaries don't contain such information (perhaps they are aimed at Latvians). There is a Latvian online dictionary, however it too has only infinitive for most of the verbs.
P.S. エヴァルダス, :? you sort of said "randomly walk up to" you should rather have said something like "ja arī latviešu valodas vārdnīca būtu visiem pieejama"

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Postby Zorba » 2007-10-31, 15:24

I did buy a "Latviesu valodas pareizrakstība" in Latvia which had all the declension forms for the main verb types included.

There is more language learning material for Latvian than many other languages of its size, because there is a market in Latvian Russians learning the Russian. But it tends to be Latvian - Russian based rather than Latvian - English.

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Postby エヴァルダス » 2007-10-31, 20:45

English-Latvian dictionaries don't contain such information (perhaps they are aimed at Latvians).


I checked Letonika.lv, they don't. But the good news is... They do it in the Lithuanian version! The Latvian-Lithuanian section contains everything you need to know! This is your salvation, Kman.

They even give the basic Lithuanian forms in Lithuanian-Latvian dictionary. Although they are aware how important stress is in Lithuanian (for some unknown reason they give the accentuation group for Lithuanian nouns), they decided not to put accent marks. Not putting accentuation marks in Lithuanian dictionaries is a mortal sin.

Bet... Tā kā man viss, kas vajadzīgs tulkot uz un no latviešu valodas, ir mājās, un man tāpat ir citas grāmatas, kur varu uzzināt, kā akcentēt lietuviskus vārdus, kaut kā pārdzīvošu.

P.S. エヴァルダス, Confused you sort of said "randomly walk up to" you should rather have said something like "ja arī latviešu valodas vārdnīca būtu visiem pieejama"


Paldies... Tas bija burtisks tulkojums no lietuviešu valodas.

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Postby renata starniti » 2007-11-01, 11:58

sveicinātai, bralukie latvieši :wink:

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Postby kman1 » 2007-11-02, 3:14

No, I was explaining that d changes to s, which means that most likely you won't be able to detect this change using infinitive.


So, I guess the only way I would know is if I have a good dictionary that list the three main forms of the verb, right?

By the way, dictionary of modern Lithuanian is accessible online.


Finding the three main forms in Lithuanian is NOT a problem. The online Lithuanian dictionary that I use list the three main forms for Lithuanian verbs. It is:
http://www.autoinfa.lt/webdic/

They do it in the Lithuanian version! The Latvian-Lithuanian section contains everything you need to know! This is your salvation, Kman.


a. This dictionary list the three main forms for Latvian verbs? (All I need is a dictionary with the three main forms for Latvian verbs not Lithuanian verbs since I have another source that I listed above.) b. Since the dictionary is Latvian-Lithuanian-Latvian and I’m a native English speaker how will I find the three main forms of the Latvian verb that I’m looking for??

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Postby エヴァルダス » 2007-11-02, 13:55

This dictionary list the three main forms for Latvian verbs?


Even more: they put all the persons for the present tense so that you don't have to appy those complicated rules for monosyllabic verbs.

Since the dictionary is Latvian-Lithuanian-Latvian and I’m a native English speaker how will I find the three main forms of the Latvian verb that I’m looking for??


What about using the search (Meklēt) funkction? Just type „ēst“ in your search field and this is what you get:

ēst (ēdu, ēd, ēd, ēda, ēdīs)

ēdu, ēd, ēd are three singular persons of the present tense; ēda is the third person of the past tense; ēdīs is the third person of the future tense.

And even if your mother tongue is English, I don't really see any difference at all. You are already learning both languages, I can't see what could be a problem.

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Postby mak » 2007-11-02, 18:22

Try http://ailab.lv/Vardnica/

I tried to explain to Alcadras how to use this dictionary a while ago


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