MasterEnki wrote:Here's what I was trying to say:
akeho je Lenkin dom?
What is Lenka's home like?
akom je na zahrade?
What is it like in the garden?
What is Lenka's home like? = Aký je Lenkin dom? (nominative)
What is it like in the garden? = Ako je v záhrade? (=How is it in the garden? - adverb, no declension)
Now that I think of it, I don't know There are rules for finding a declension pattern for nouns and adjectives, but with verbs it seems more complicated. You could maybe try to conjugate the verb based on the one that sounds the most alike; for example, there is just one-letter difference between visieť (to hang) and vidieť (to see), and indeed they have the same forms (vidím, vidíš, vidí, vidíme, vidíte, vidia; visím, visíš, visí, visíme, visíte, visia). (But even then there may be irregularities, or words that have nothing in common with any of those mentioned in the link... Let's hope other people will share their thoughts.)MasterEnki wrote:How does one know what 'pattern' of Conjugation to follow for a verb?
The aspects may well be one of the most difficult parts of the language. I don't know if there is a way to algorithmically determine if a verb is perfective (dokonavé sloveso) or imperfective (nedokonavé sloveso). But you have a point here, very often the perfective form is obtained from the imperfective adding a prefix that looks like a preposition. As for the "allowed" combinations (this is no rule, just an observation made still half asleep in the morning, so it may be incorrectly generalised) - there are usually several prefixes you may add to get a meaningful verb, but each of the resulting verbs has a slightly different meaning, and is not necessarily the exact perfective form corresponding to the imperfective verb you originally had. Re-reading this sentence, even I got confused, so to take your example:MasterEnki wrote:I had a thought about Verbal Aspects:
Do all 'Perfective' Verbs have a 'preposition' in them (zahrat', urobit', etc.)?
If so, is there a rule in which ones must go with which 'Imperfective' Verb?
urobiť is the most appropriate perfective form of robiť ("finish doing" vs. "be doing"). porobiť is OK, too, although I would use it under slightly different circumstances - to indicate there was more than one thing that was done. HOWEVER, there are other perfectly meaningful combinations: zarobiť means "to earn money" (its own imperfective form being zarábať); nadrobiť* means "to do a part of the task in advance, so you have less to do later" (sorry, I don't know the English equivalent); odrobiť is to "work off"; prirobiť means to attach something to something else; and so on...MasterEnki wrote:Does robit' (to do) have to be urobit' (to do), can it be say zarobit'? or porobit', etc.?
While I can't provide you with rules for the possible prefix-verb combinations, I can claim that the prefixes tend to add a similar meaning (based on which you may try to choose the one you want to use in a particular situation). For example, pri- may mean a movement towards, as in prirobiť (=to attach; robiť = to do), pridať (=to add; dať = to give), priniesť (=to bring; niesť = to carry), pribehnúť (=to come running; bežať = to run), etc. Or, vy- may imply producing something: vyrobiť (=to produce, to make), vydať (=to surrender, to give out), vybehnúť (=to run out of), vyniesť (=to take out), and so on. (Would you like me to try and compile a longer list of these "meanings suggestions for prefixes"?)
*nadrobiť it is also a perfective form of drobiť (=crumble)