Latvian Language: Lesson 8

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Vocabulary

Vocabulary notes

(b) man, mani: these are oblique first person singular pronoun forms. The term "oblique" means that they are not nominative; the nominative form of this pronoun is, of course, es "I". For a fuller discussion of these pronoun forms, please see the Grammar section below.

(c) nekur: please note that this word is stressed on the second syllable. This is normal for adverbs with the prefix ne-. For example, other adverbs which are stressed on the second syllable include nekad 'never', nekā 'no way', and nekādi 'in no way'

(d) pilsēta: Latvian doesn't really have a way to distinguish betwen a "city" and a "town"; the word pilsēta is used for both. Historically it is a compound of pils "castle" and sēta "yard". Presumably this is because it was the area around fortified castles which developed into towns, and eventually cities.

(e) zināt: this verb, translated as "to know", typically only applies to information, not to people. Thus, it may NOT be used to translate a sentence like "Do you know Linda?" For this a different verb should be used: pazīt "to know (someone), to recognize (someone/something)". As well, zināt would not normally be used to describe an ability or skill. In other words, if you want to translate a sentence like "Do you know how to cook?" it is more appropriate to use the verb prast "to know (how to do something)".

Pronunciation and spelling

This lesson also introduces some vocabulary items which use the "open" e pronunciation. The word pilsēta "city, town" is pronounced with an open e. (If you wish to review the difference between an "open" and a "close" e, please see the section on Vowel pronunciations in Latvian Language Lesson 6.)

The noun pilsēta is very straightforward since it is always pronounced with an open e. The verb redzēt is more problematic, since it is sometimes pronounced with close e's and sometimes with an open one. Here is a chart that shows you when each pronunciation occurs:

As you can see, only the infinitive redzēt and the 2nd person singular form redzi are pronounced with close e's. All the others are pronounced with open e's. (If you want a review of the situations where open e occurs, as opposed to close e, please see the appendix entitled Two Latvian e's.)

Grammar

Verb conjugations

As you can see, there is no difference in the ending used for the first person singular: it is always -u). Nor is there a difference in the second person singular ending: it is always -i. The difference lies in the third person form—which may or may not have a suffix -a—and the first and second person plural forms—which may have either a long -ā or a short -a as a part of the verb ending.

What is going on here? Is it that Latvians just can't make up their minds?!? No, indeed: what you are seeing is two different patterns of verb conjugation. OK, so what do I mean by the term "conjugation"? Take a look at the explanation in this section → Conjugation Classes.

OK. You're back. Now you know that there are many different ways to conjugate a verb in Latvian. Latvian grammarians have traditionally assigned all Latvian verbs to one of three different classes, but each class may also have sub-classes that differ from each other. Starting to sound complicated, isn't it? Don't worry, I'll get you through this. Here we go:

So far, all of the regular verbs that I have introduced belong to the third conjugation class. However, this class has subclasses that use a couple of different patterns for the suffixes. Here is what they look like:

(Please note that the character ∅ (slashed zero) is used by linguists to stand for the absence of something; in other words, it means that there is no suffix whatsoever.)

The difference between the two patterns could be described by the presence or absence of an extra a. In other words, conjugation class 3(a) has an a in certain circumstances which conjugation class 3(b) doesn't. Keeping this in mind, compare the way that a class 3(a) verb like darīt works with the way that a class 3(b) verb like redzēt works:

If you think of a long ā as made up of two short a's, then this works out very well: imagine, for example, that darām is derived from dar + a + am, or dara comes from dar + a +∅.

Assuming this makes sense to you, there is still one problem: when to add the extra a and when not to. One thing that helps is the infinitive form, which typically ends in a vowel plus -t. In verbs of the third conjugation, this last vowel can be ā, ē, or ī. This vowel is called a thematic vowel. It has no meaning as such, but it does act as a marker to indicate which subclass a verb belongs to. Third conjugation class verbs with a thematic vowel ī are classified as belonging to subclass 3(a), while those with an ē or ā are in subclass 3(b). Here are the third conjugation verbs you have learned so far:

Verbs belonging to 3(a): darīt "to do", lasīt "to read", mācīt "to teach", prasīt "to ask"
Verbs belonging to 3(b): redzēt "to see", zināt "to know"

So, if you see a verb ending in -īt, you know to add the extra a; if it ends in ē or ī, you leave the a off. OK? Right!

Negation

If you want to add qualifying words, they should also be negative. English grammarians stress that "two negatives make a positive". This is NOT the case in Latvian. You can pile as many negative words into one sentence as you desire. Take a look at the following example sentence:

Anna nekad nekur neiet. "Anna never goes anywhere"

In Latvian this literally says: "Anna never nowhere not-goes". The multiple negatives don't cancel each other out; they just reinforce one another. So, remember, in Latvian you can have fun piling one negative on top of another. Enjoy!

First person singular pronoun forms

Obviously there is no vocative form for "I", because you don't address yourself using a first person pronoun. (In other words, if you want to talk to yourself you use your own name, or the second person pronoun, typically with some epithet, like "You dummy!").

Please note that if you want to say something like "my jacket" or "my newspaper", you use the adjective mans. As with any other adjective, it agrees in gender and case with the noun it is modifying. Examples: mana jaka "my jacket", mans laikraksts "my newspaper".

Third person singular pronouns

These forms are really no surprise: basically they use the same endings that are also used for masculine and feminine adjectives (for a review of this, please see → Latvian Adjective Agreement).

Prepositions ar and uz

for me (not "for I"), with him (not "for he"), on her (not "on she"), to them (not "to they")

Similarly, Latvian pronouns which are governed by a preposition do not occur in the nominative case. Rather, they too occur in an oblique case. Take a look at the following examples:

ar mani "with me" (not ar es), ar viņu "with him/her" (not ar viņš or ar viņa)

As these examples show, the pronoun occurs in the accusative (direct object) case. However, this also applies to nouns governed by these prepositions. Take a look at these examples:

ar galdu "with a table", uz pilsētu "to town"

So remember: in Latvian, when a preposition governs a noun, that noun will also have to be in an oblique case (just like a pronoun is). So far I have only shown you examples of two prepositions—ar and uz—both of which require their complements to be in the accusative case. Other prepositions may have other requirements.

In fact, the preposition uz only requires the accusative case when it implies movement towards something. Whenever the preposition uz implies a stationary location (i.e. "to be on top of"), it requires a different case. I'll deal with this in another lesson, but if you want to look ahead, please see the section on the The Preposition uz.

(Please note, however, that the accusative case is used only if the noun or pronoun is singular. When a plural noun or pronoun is governed by a preposition, it will always occur in the dative case. This will be discussed in more detail in a later lesson.)

Irregular verb iet

All of these forms are pronounced with a close "e", and, as noted in the vocabulary notes, this verb implies motion only on foot. Since these forms are quite irregular, you should do your best to memorize them, as this is probably the second most commonly used verb in Latvian.

Exercises

Please translate the following sentences into Latvian:

1. Why do you want my jacket?
2. They want to go to the play.
3. Gunārs! Do you know what Rita is doing?
4. We don't want to write a book.
5. Please don't send me a package.

1. Viņa ir pilsētā.
2. Noteikti prasi viņam vai Lindai patīk dārzs.
3. Viņi neredz mani.

1. Vai (tas) ir (viņa) jaka? Is that her jacket?
2. Vai tu tici (es)? Do you believe in me?
3. Roberts (gribēt) iet uz (launags). Robert wants to go to lunch.
4. Kur jūs (iet)? Where are you going?
5. Vai tu (iet) ar (es)? Are you going with me?

Ready for Lesson 9? Please click here → Latvian Language Lesson 9