Sveiki

[Sol Invictus]

Baltās lauvas bija baltos mazuļus

remember how this Sol Invictus girl told you twice that it is "balti mazuļi" ? And the begining is nominative plural, when we are talking about one lion and concept of having something is not expressed using nominative

[linguoboy]

You might as well just spin a roulette wheel until someone tells you to stop. That's apparently all he does.

Negativity again.

Well, then, how do you go about determining which endings to use?

remember how this Sol Invictus girl

Es nebūtu pārsteigts. Galu galā Latviešu valodā saule ir arī sievišķais!

[mak]

Beidziet viņu mocīt, labāk būtu paskaidrojuši

Baltās lauvas bija baltos mazuļus

The white lion had white cubs.
Baltajai lauvai bija balti mazuļi. or
Baltajam lauvam bija balti mazuļi.

In Latvian possession is expressed by having the subject in the dative, the object in the nominative and būt (to be) in the third person. This is really basic stuff. For example:

I have a pen.
Man ir pildspalva.
Man (dative of es) ir (third person of būt in the present) pildspalva (nominative of pildspalva).

To make it the past tense, you just use the verb in the past tense.

I had a pen.
Man bija pildspalva.

The subject is lauva (it's the lion who had cubs) and the object is mazuļi (the lion had cubs). So replace man with lauva in the dative.

Man bija pildspalva. I had a pen.
Lauvai bija pildspalva. The lion (feminine) had a pen.
Lauvam bija pildspalva. The lion (masculine) had a pen.

Now replace pildspalva with mazuļi. Mazuļi is in the nominative case (plural, but still nominative) so all you have to do is replace pildspalva with mazuļi.

Lauvai bija mazuļi. The lion (feminine) had cubs.
Lauvam bija mazuļi. The lion (masculine) had cubs.

Now let's add the adjectives. The white lion. You need to look for definite (because of the) feminine (because lauva is a feminine noun) singular (because there is one lion) adjective in the dative case (because lauvai is in the dative case and adjective has to agree in case): -ajai

Baltajai lauvai bija mazuļi. The white lion (feminine) had cubs.

Definite, singular, masculine (because the lion is now masculine), dative ending is -ajam

Baltajam lauvam bija mazuļi. The white lion (masculine) had cubs.

Now let's describe mazuļi. It should have an indefinite (there is no "the"), plural (many cubs), masculine (cub is mazulis which is a II declension noun which means it's masculine), nominative (because the object is in the nominative) ending: -i

Baltajai lauvai bija balti mazuļi. The white lion (feminine) had white cubs.
Baltajam lauvam bija balti mazuļi. The white lion (masculine) had white cubs.

[mak]

So a white sheep is balta aita and the shite sheep is baltā aita.

Wouldn't that be "sūdu aita"?

Ups, drukas kļūdiņa. Izlaboju.

Ar īpašības vārdu tā būtu sūdīgā aita, bet sūdu aita nav nepareizi.

[Sol Invictus]

You might as well just spin a roulette wheel until someone tells you to stop. That's apparently all he does.

Negativity again.

Well, then, how do you go about determining which endings to use?

remember how this Sol Invictus girl

Es nebūtu pārsteigts. Galu galā Latviešu valodā saule ir arī sievišķais!

You're surprised about what?

Un mak neviens viņu nemoca (man neienāca ātrumā prātā, ka tur ir datīvs), viņš pārāk daudz min (laikam, spriežot pēc viena no iepriekšcitētajiem tekstiem viņš izdomā pareizi un tad nez kāpēc nomaina) un neklausās ko viņam saka

Vispār kā ir pareizi atkarīgs no tā vai aita ir no sūdiem vai slikta

[linguoboy]

Beidziet viņu mocīt, labāk būtu paskaidrojuši

Es piepūlos! That's why I want to know more about his thought process. He knows the categories, he knows the endings, but when it comes time to associate one with another, he simply guesses. How do you tailor an explanation for someone who works like that?

[Unknown]

Mak, thanks for trying to clear any confusion for me. Now it's not that I don't want to translate what you want me to translate, but I personally made this thread for me to post things I want to write and for you to correct them if I have mistakes. I learn better that way. So everybody please, let's not hate eachother, let's be friends and try to respect eachother. I do apologize for not knowing better to use charts properly, so let us all surpass the trouble I caused, and let's pretend that nothing ever happened. Also I will copy all notes you guys gave me on a MW file for me to look in. One of the reasons why I was honestly able to become fluent in the languages I claim fluency in, was because of a lot of usage, but that's not important right now. The point is, Latvian seems to be a bit grammatically different for me than Lithuanian, but I tried my hardest. Also because it's evening in Canada right now, my thought process is awkward, and besides the fact that it's because of my autism, I don't feel comfortable explaining the other reasons right now. I will admit, my Latvian is very bad, but I believe I will get better over time. So everybody, please forgive me and let's move on.

PS: Sol Invictus, you're like the Simon Cowell of Latvian

[Sol Invictus]

Gah, if you don't even realize there is a difference between Latvian and Lithuanian, why do you expect me to be anything else? Didn't I already explain to you somewhere that it helps if it looks like you are actually trying to learn something from what you are told?

[Unknown]

Gah, if you don't even realize there is a difference between Latvian and Lithuanian, why do you expect me to be anything else? Didn't I already explain to you somewhere that it helps if it looks like you are actually trying to learn something from what you are told?

Well I tried my best to follow you guys but I don't know what was wrong with me

Anyways let's start over, and I'll just write things in Latvian and you guys can correct them if there are any mistakes.

Es domāju, ka es jūtos labāk tagad. Likās, ka es gribēju uzmest. Es nezinu kāpēc...
I think I feel better now. I felt like I wanted to throw up. I don't know why...

[mak]

OK, laiks pakritizēt tavu latviešu valodu

Beidziet viņu mocīt, labāk būtu paskaidrojuši

Es piepūlos!

Tu gribēji teikt "I'm trying!"? Tad labāk ir teikt "Es cenšos!" ("Es pūlos!" iespējams arī ir pareizi, bet man kaut kā tas skan greizi). Neesmu gan drošs, bet man liekas, ka piepūlēties nozīmē to make an effort.

Galu galā Latviešu valodā saule ir arī sievišķais!

Valodas latviešu valodā neraksta ar lielo burtu.

Lai gan "sievišķais" ir gramatiski pareizi, tomēr es īsti nesapratu, kas ar to tika domāts. Ko tu gribēji teikt ar "sievišķais"?

Ja bija domāts, the sun is feminine, tad
saule ir sieviešu dzimtē
saule ir sieviešu dzimtes vārds
vai arī (bet skan dīvaini)
saule ir sievišķa
saule ir sievišķīga

Nepārprotami viņš vēl neaptver atšķirību starp "dzimtes" un "deklinācijas"'.

Nesaprot vai neizprot, manuprāt, iederas šeit daudz labāk. "dzimtes" un "deklinācijas" vajadzētu tomēr izlocīt (ja nepieciešams šos vārdus izcelt, tad tiek lietots treknraksts vai pasvītrojums).

*sejadelnā*

Seja delnā Divi vārdi.

[Sol Invictus]

Es domāju, ka es jūtos labāk tagad. Likās, ka es gribēju uzmest. Es nezinu kāpēc...
I think I feel better now. I felt like I wanted to throw up. I don't know why...

Es domāju, ka man tagad ir labāk. Iepriekš man likās, ka es vemšu. Nezinu kapēc...

The problem with your approach is that you translate word by word from English. The result looks stylistically bad - it is something a Latvian wouldn't write. Please at least try simple sentences, like the ones about lions

[Unknown]

Ok thanks.

Tagad, es esmu noguris, bet man tagad ir labāk. Es neesmu robots. Kanāda ir sniega tagad, kā Igaunijā.

[linguoboy]

Neesmu gan drošs, bet man liekas, ka piepūlēties nozīmē to make an effort.

Patiesībā tas ir tas, ko gribēju teikt. Tas ir stiprāks nekā trying.

Nepārprotami viņš vēl neaptver atšķirību starp "dzimtes" un "deklinācijas"'.

Nesaprot vai neizprot, manuprāt, iederas šeit daudz labāk. "dzimtes" un "deklinācijas" vajadzētu tomēr izlocīt (ja nepieciešams šos vārdus izcelt, tad tiek lietots treknraksts vai pasvītrojums).

Nesaprotu to, ko tu ar to griba teikt. Esmu tos izlocījis. Akuzatīvā galotnes ir tādas pašas galotnes kā nominatīvā.

[mak]

Atšķirība starp dzimti un deklināciju. (vsk)
Atšķirība starp dzimtēm un deklinācijām. (dsk)

[ciuppo2000]

Cesare!

We are all good and bright people and everybody is trying to help you according to his own capabilities and knowledge.

Being autistic gives you some advantages and, unfortunately, also some disadvantages. One of the advantages is that you can store an incredibly amount of lexical information in your mind and this fact gives you the possibility to learn languages faster, but you have some problems in ''handling'' the ''computational module of a language'', that is, in few words, its grammar...

Something that for us is relatively easy to do and/or to understand, for you is relatively hard and, conversely, something that for us is incredibly hard to do and/or to understand, for you is incredibly easy...

The fact that you are ''fluent'' in so many languages makes you more a ''circus freak'' than a ... person to admire and according to my humble opinion you should try to use your incredible mental faculties in a better way...

ciuppo2000

[ciuppo2000]

...un tagad ļaujiet man arī būt ... mazliet piekasīgam...

LAUVA ĒD AITU = the lion eats the sheep

AITU ĒD LAUVA = the sheep is eaten by the lion.

pietro

[mak]

Aitu ēd lauva ir tas pats, kas lauva ēd aitu, tikai lauva ar aitu ir samainīti vietām. Tāpēc abus var tulkot arī kā the lion eats a sheep.

[letgo]

I just want to say thanks to all of you who, despite the difficulties, made the effort to write all of those comprehensive explanations. They're very interesting for many of us, not only the thread starter. You people are great (and by the way this thread is also a little funny )

[valisj]

Man ir vismaz prieks, ka ir kāds, kas cenšas šo valodu iemācīties! Cesar, tā tik turpini, gan jau tev tā deklinēšana aizies normāli. Pats jau latviešu valodu tagad retāk lietoju, bet palīdzēt joprojām spēju

[Ludwig Whitby]

Wow, didn't know we had so many Latvian speakers here. Cool.