Lithuanian grammar

Lithuanian grammar is the study of rules governing the use of the Lithuanian language. Lithuanian grammar retains many archaic features from Proto-Indo European that have been lost in other Indo-European languages, and is consequently very complex.

Properties and morphological categories

Grammatical terminology

The following is a list of Lithuanian terms for properties and morphological categories, with their English translations or equivalents:

There are seven main cases – liñksniai:
vardininkas
kilmininkas
naudininkas
galininkas
įnagininkas    
vietininkas
šauksmininkas
nominative
genitive
dative
accusative
instrumental
locative (inessive)
vocative
the additional locative cases are:
iliatyvas
aliatyvas
adesyvas
illative
allative
adessive
Numbers – skaĩčiai:
vienaskaita    
daugiskaita
singular
plural
Degrees of comparison – láipsniai:
nelyginamasis
aukštesnysis
aukščiausiasis
absolute
comparative
superlative
Genders – gìminės:
vyriškoji
moteriškoji
masculine
feminine

Tenses – laikaĩ:
esamasis
būtasis kartinis
būtasis dažninis
būsimasis
present
past
past iterative
future
Moods – núosakos:
tiesioginė
netiesioginė
tariamoji
liepiamoji
indicative    
indirect
subjunctive
imperative
Voices – rū́šys:
veikiamoji
neveikiamoji
active
passive
Aspects – veikslaĩ:
įvykio
eigos
perfective
continuous, progressive

Parts of speech – kalbõs dãlys:

Daiktavardis Noun Dalelytė Particle
Būdvardis        Adjective Prielinksnis Preposition    
Veiksmažodis Verb            Jungtukas Conjunction
Skaitvardis Numeral Jaustukas Interjection
Įvardis Pronoun Ištiktukas    Verbal interjection
Prieveiksmis Adverb

Gender

Lithuanian nouns are classified into one of two genders:

Lithuanian adjectives, numerals, pronouns and participles are classified into one of three genders:

Since no noun can have a neutral gender, it is used with subjects of neutral or undefined gender:

Ji (fem.) yra graži (fem.) – She is beautiful. Mokytojas (masc.) bus pasirengęs (masc.) – The teacher will be ready. Skaityti (undefined) buvo įdomu (neuter) – Reading was interesting.

The gender of a pronoun kas – 'who? what?', personal pronouns / mes – 'I' / 'we', tu / jūs – 'you (singular) / you (plural)' and a reflexive pronoun savęs is indefinite, it means any of the genders. The word kas uses masculine inflections, the other pronouns have their own specific paradigm. The nouns of the indefinite gender have feminine form inflections.

The masculine gender is also the indeterminate gender as in many other Indo-European languages. This means that for an entire mixed group of objects belonging to masculine and feminine genders, the masculine gender is used.[1] The masculine as the indeterminate gender differs from the indefinite gender, which allows treatment of the word in two ways.

Note that there are many nouns that use masculine or feminine genders without any reason of biological gender, for instance, words that denote inanimate objects. The masculine or feminine usage of these words is stable (with few exceptions) and doesn't depend on the will of a speaker.

Lithuanian grammatical genders are similar to, for instance, Latin:

nominative   

genitive
vilkas
wolf
vilko
kalba
language
kalbos
prekė
commodity
prekės
pilis
castle
pilies
viršus
top
viršaus
akmuo
stone
akmens
girdė́tas, girdė́ta, girdė́ta
heard; gender sequence: m, f, n
girdė́to, girdė́tos
from girdė́ti – to hear (continuing, imperfective action)
ìšgirstas, išgirstà, ìšgirsta
heard
ìšgirsto, išgirstõs
from išgir̃sti – to hear (one-time, perfective action)
nominative   

genitive
lupus
wolf
lupī
lingua
language
linguae
rēs
thing
reī
turris
tower
turris
frūctus
fruit
frūctūs
acūmen n
sharp point
acūminis
audītus, audīta, audītum
heard, listened; from audīre – to hear, listen
audītī, audītae, audīta

Grammatical number

The Lithuanian language has two main numbers, singular and plural. It has also a dual, which is almost unused, except few words, that retain their dual forms (for example, du – two, abu – both), an indefinite number and super-plural words (dauginiai žodžiai in Lithuanian).

The singular number indicates that the denoted thing is one or indivisible (as in méilė – love, smė̃lis – sand, píenas – milk). The plural number, when it can be in contrast with the singular, indicates that there are many of the things denoted by the word. But sometimes, when a word doesn't have the singular number, being a plurale tantum noun, the plural form doesn't indicate real singularity or plurality of the denoted object(s).

Adjectives and numerals also have the singular - plural distinction. Their number depends on that of the noun they are attributed to.

The dual number indicates a pair of things. Historically, the dual number has been a full grammatical number, participating as the third element in singular - dual - plural distinction. During the last century, the dual was used more or less sporadically in Lithuanian, sometimes reaching the status of a full number for agreement purposes, meaning the dual of noun required dual agreement in its adjectives or the dual of the subject required the dual of the verb. But in many more cases the dual was reduced to a nominal category explicitly indicating a pair of things, but not requiring dual agreement of adjectives or verbs. Presently, the dual is mostly used as a declension paradigm for numbers du – two, abu – both (and a variant abudu – idem) and with personal pronouns aš – I, mùdu dual – we two (mẽs pl. – we) and tu sg. – you, jùdu dual – you two (jū̃s pl. – you).

dual plural
present past future imperative present past future imperative
eĩnava – we two are going; we two go ė̃jova eĩsiva eĩkiva – let us two go eĩname ė̃jome eĩsime eĩkime – let us go
eĩnata – you two are going; you two go ė̃jota eĩsita eĩkita – you two go eĩnate ė̃jote eĩsite eĩkite
singular
einù ėjaũ eĩsiu
einì ėjaĩ eĩsi eĩk – go

The indefinite number indicates that the same form of the word can be understood singular or plural, depending both on situation and on other words in the sentence. There are only few words that demonstrate indefinite number, and the indefinite number doesn't have its own forms in Lithuanian. These words are pronouns kas – 'who? what?', kažkas – 'something, somebody' and reflexive pronoun savęs. All of them use inflections of the singular.

The super-plural words are a few numbers and pronouns that indicate a counting not of separate things, but of groups of things.

keleri - 'several (groups of)'
abeji - 'both (groups of)'
(vieneri - 'one (group of)')
dveji - 'two (groups of)'
treji - 'three (groups of)'
ketveri - 'four (groups of)'
penkeri - 'five (groups of)'
šešeri - 'six (groups of)'
septyneri - 'seven (groups of)'
aštuoneri - 'eight (groups of)'
devyneri - 'nine (groups of)'

These words are also used with plurale tantum nouns instead of plural words (keli, abu, du, trys and so on), in which case they indicate not the plural of groups, but just the semantic plural or singular (a word vieneri – 'one' only) of the noun.

Cases of declined words

Main article: Lithuanian declension

Examples of the locative cases:

The later three locatives are adverb-forming cases.

Nouns

Lithuanian grammar makes a distinction between proper and common nouns. Only proper nouns are capitalized. Some nouns, for example sun and moon, can be both proper and common. There are no articles in Lithuanian.

The genders of nouns are masculine and feminine. A rough rule of thumb is that almost all masculine nouns in nominative case end in -s and most feminine – in -(i)a or . There are no strict rules governing the gender. For example, upė – river, is feminine, but upelis – rivulet, is masculine. There is no neuter gender ("it gender"), but there are a few words that can be applied to both genders equally. They mostly describe people, have negative connotations, and end in -a, for example vė́pla – dummy, el̃geta – beggar, naktìbalda – night-lumberer, a person who does not sleep at night, but mėmė̃ – gawk.

There are no separate declension paradigms for animate and inanimate nouns in Lithuanian.

Number

Most nouns have singular and plural numbers. There are some words that have only singular (e.g., pienas – milk, auksas – gold, gripas – flu, laimė – happiness) or only plural (e.g., lubos – ceiling, miltai – flour, kelnės – trousers) forms. Most such words are abstract (i.e., represent concepts like luck or love and not tangible things such as table or house), describe material or name a disease. However, in some instances, for example poetic language, it is possible to use singular nouns in plural form.

Noun modification by numeral

In Lithuanian, unlike in Romance / Germanic languages, and like Slavic languages but in a different way, the form of a count noun depends on final digits of the number.

Number ends with Form Example
1 (excluding 11) Singular 31 litas
2–9 (excluding 12–19) Plural 25 litai
0 or 11–19 Special case:
Singular + noun
in plural genitive
110 litų

111 litų

Note: Plural or singular without the case means that the word or words can be declined in any case in plural or singular respectively, but Plural genitive means, that the second word remains undeclined.

Declension

Main article: Lithuanian declension

Nouns in Lithuanian language have 12 declension paradigms, in scholar grammar corresponding to five declensions which are defined by the inflection in singular nominative and genitive cases. Only few borrowed words, like taksì – taxi, kupė – compartment (in a train), coupe, are not subject to declension rules.

  Inflection in singular cases Examples Notes
Nominative Genitive Nominative Genitive Meaning
I -as, -is, -ys -o výras
mẽdis
traukinỹs
kẽlias
výro
mẽdžio
tráukinio
kẽlio
man, male; husband
tree
train
road
Main pattern for masculine nouns
II -a, -i¹, -ė -os, -ės žmonà
šviesà
várna
pradžià
sáulė
žmonõs
šviesõs
várnos
pradžiõs
sáulės
wife
light
crow
beginning
sun
Main pattern for feminine nouns; few masculine exceptions
III -is² -ies móteris³ f
pilìs f
avìs f
dantìs m
móteries
piliẽs
aviẽs
dantiẽs
woman, female
castle
sheep
tooth
Rarer, feminine nouns, fewer masculine
IV -us -aus žmogùs
sūnùs
medùs
skaĩčius
žmogaũs
sūnaũs
medaũs
skaĩčiaus
man (human being)
son
honey
number
Rare, masculine nouns
V -uo, -ė³ -en-s, -er-s f vanduõ
akmuõ
skaitmuõ
sesuõ
duktė̃
vandeñs
akmeñs
skaitmeñs
seser̃s
dukter̃s
water
stone
digit
sister
daughter
Rare, masculine nouns, four³ feminine; suffixed by -en- m and -er- f.
  1. There are only two nouns ending in -i: pati 'wife' and marti 'daughter-in-law'. Their declension is the same to the second adjective feminine declension and similar to a second feminine noun palatalized declension. The noun pati is the same to a pronoun pati 'herself; myself f; itself (for feminine nouns)'
  2. Exception: petys m – shoulder, peties, etc., after this declensional pattern. The third declension is very similar to the fifth declension.
  3. Duktė 'daughter' is the only word of the fifth declension, not having an ending uo. A word moteris 'woman, female' often has a genitive móters; the plural genitive of moteris is moterų (not palatalized -ių); it is the only normal form for the fifth declension and one of the two (the main is -ių) for the third. The more two words, obelis f – apple tree and dieveris m – (older) brother-in-law, are the same declensional case as moteris, but dieveris, being masculine possibly has a sg. inst. -iu. Dieveris is also the only -er- masculine case.

Typology

In the table below the numbers of nouns, received by the statistical analysis of the data in the Dictionary of contemporary Lithuanian language (Dabartinės Lietuvių kalbos žodynas; the fourth issue, 2000), are given grouped by the patterns of declension and accentuation.[2] The data does not include verbal abstracts ending in -imas, -ymas, -umas (for instance, metimas 'a throwing; a throw' from mesti 'to throw'); 18.7 thousand in numbers (12 thousand of the first accentuation paradigm, 6 thousand of the second), because they can be made from any verb. There may be some inaccuracies due to some specific features, for instance, there are homonyms, which differ only in an accent: síetas 1 – sieve (related to sijóti – to sieve), siẽtas 2 – tether, leash (related to siẽti – to tie, bond; saĩtas – bond; leash), and the possibility exists that in some of such cases the two words were taken as one.

Words with a suffix -m-en-, are attributed to the third declensional pattern in these tables, but they are of the fifth, the singular (can be used for all, but is not usual for all) nom. is -uo: for example, ãšmenys pl. 3b – blade, sė́dmenys pl. 3a – buttocks, nates, sėdmuõ sg., nẽšmenys pl. 3b – silts, sediments carried by a water stream. The singular instrumental is -imi, like in the third declension, while for masculine words of the fifth declension the proper ending is chosen to be -iu; but -imi can also be chosen for the words of the fifth declension.

1 2 3 3a 3b 34a 34b 4 alt. all
-as 1907 3499 90 35 393 48 5 340 94 6411
-j-as 921 16 4 944
-ias 1 2
-is 3085 2188 22 5295
-ys 16 192 581 48 25 282 102 1246
-a f 1571 635 19 58 369 16 1 405 26 3100
m 1 11 12
c 207 32 3 1 6 16 1 266
-j-a 1821 114 22 43 5 2005
-ia
f 2668 2895 14 30 125 14 1 202 59 6008
m 4 4
c 2 6 7 4 19
-is f 50 2 7 10 76 1 99 10 255
m 1 1 2 6 10 1 3 3 27
c 3 1 1 3 8
-us 7 2 10 19
-j-us 184 314 1 504
-ius 2
-uo 23 38 1 1 63

The numbers in the upper row mean accentuation types. For the third type the additional information is given in dictionaries. The mark 3 without the letter added, is for words, stressed in the next-to-last syllable. The letter written by is for polysyllabic words and says what type of stress the syllable has in those cases where the stress falls on the stem (other cases receive it on the ending) and how distant from the ending the syllable stressed is. The letter a is for a start-firm (tvirtapradė priegaidė) accent and the letter b – for an end-firm (tvirtagalė priegaidė) and short stressed vowel. The single digit with a letter means that the stress falls on the third syllable from the ending; if the stress falls on the fourth syllable from the ending, the mark is 34a or 34b, there are also nouns having stress in the fifth (35a, 35b) and sixth (36b) syllable from the ending. Here are a few examples of the nouns of the third accentuation pattern, the singular nominative and the plural dative and accusative cases: akmuõ, akmenìms, ãkmenis; áugalas, augaláms, áugalus; žándas, žandáms, žándus. The first declension also include nouns stressed in the more distant from the ending syllable than the next-to-last, but their stress is steady through the cases and is always clear from the nominative singular.

In the left column the nominative singular endings of words, grouped by declensional paradigms, are written: -as, -is, -ys, -ias (masculine gender) – the first; -a (-ia), -ė (feminine gender; some other) – II; -is (feminine, some other) – III; -us (-ius) (masculine) – IV; -uo (masculine; two feminine) – V. The palatalized variants of -as, -a, -us types, that is, -ias, -ia, -ius, are counted together with those having -j- before the inflectional ending: -j-as, -j-a, -j-us.

The letters f, m, c mean gender: f – feminine, m – masculine, c – common (is understood as either of the genders). The column under the abbreviation alt. is for alternative forms, for instance, a word grobuonis 2, 3a c – predator (of the third declension), can be accentuated in two types: (2) grobuõnis, grobuõnies, grobuõniui; (3a) grobuonìs, grobuoniẽs, gróbuoniui.

-as -j-as -is -ys -ias
1. výras - man, male, pienas - milk, skruostas - cheek vė́jas - wind, šilójas - heather, ling; veikė́jas - agent, actor, vartótojas - consumer brólis - brother, sotis - satiety, gruodis - December, kūjis - hammer, dilbis - forearm, jautis - bull, ox, pojūtis - sense, sensation   élnias - deer (also accented el̃nias 2)
2. sõdas - garden, metas - specific time (to do smth, for smth), padas - sole, metatarsus, ginklas - weapon, varžtas - screw, kuras - fuel galvijas - cow (cattle); yahoo, šalavijas - salvia, sage žõdis - word, skonis - taste, lygis - level, kelis - knee, medis - tree, valgis - dish, meal, karštis - heat  
3. stógas - roof, óras - weather, žándas - face part down from cheekbone, kalnas - mountain, beržas - birch, aidas - echo, augalas - plant     arklỹs - horse, pavyzdỹs - example, obuolỹs - apple (1) vélnias - devil
4. krãštas - region; edge, strazdas - trush, ledas - ice, penas - food, pabulum, sniegas - snow, vardas - name, kulnas - heel, laikas - time, dugnas - bottom (4) kraũjas - blood, pelėjaĩ pl. - molds (fungi), kapojaĩ pl. - chaffed fodder, klijaĩ pl. - glue   kepsnỹs - roast, fry, genỹs - woodpecker, vabzdỹs - insect (2) kẽlias - road, svẽčias - guest
-a (-ia)
1. vė́tra - windstorm, scud, pė́da 3 - foot, lova - bed, lūpa - lip, líepa - linden, July; duona - bread, spurga - doughnut, kaina - price, koja - leg, pérėja - crosswalk, vartótoja - user dróbė - linen, dìldė - rasp, kárvė - cow, pagálvė - pillow, vaivórykštė - rainbow, daržóvė - vegetable
2. rankà - hand, arm, putà - froth, vietà - place, valià - will, galià - power brãškė - strawberry, žẽmė - earth, prẽkė - commodity, piẽnė - sowthistle, vìrvė - rope, raidė (3, 4) - letter, ùpė - river, bìtė - bee, pùsė - side, half, striùkė - jacket
3. galvà - head, burnà - mouth, pėdà 1 - foot, apačià - bottom, underpart versmė̃ - fount, spring, varškė̃ - curd, aikštė̃ - square, plaza
4. vėsà - chill, dienà - day, lentà - board, wood cut, dainà - song, pradžià - beginning srovė̃ - stream, kėdė̃ - chair, dėžė̃ - box, vertė̃ - value, erdvė̃ - space, eilė̃ - queue, row
-is -uo -us -ius -j-us
1. nósis - nose, krósnis; masculine: (1) gẽležuonys pl. - adenitis equorum, strangle rė́muo 1 (also rėmuo 3a) - waterbrash there is one proper word: Jė́zus - Jesus (2) ámžius - age, stálčius - drawer (furniture); there is also one proper word: Vìlnius rytójus - tomorrow, kritèrijus - criterion
2. dùrys pl. - door, gaĩštis - dallying; masculine: (1) pirmuõnys pl. (also deguõnis - oxygen; deguonis 3b is a rarer variant)   (7) Tur̃gus - market place, cùkrus - sugar sõdžius - village, vaĩsius - fruit, bal̃džius - furniture maker pavõjus - danger
3. širdìs - heart, obelìs - apple tree, smegenys pl. - brain; masculine: (19) debesìs - cloud, žvėrìs - beast akmuõ - stone 3b, vanduõ - water 3a (2) sūnùs - son, lietùs - rain    
4. naktìs - night, žuvìs - fish, sritìs - area, district, vinìs - nail, spike, pirtìs -, šalìs, griñdys - floor, flooring; masculine: (3) dantìs - tooth, petỹs - shoulder, ropuonìs - reptile (used word is roplỹs 4) (1) šuõ - dog (10) medùs, alùs, viršùs, vidùs, piẽtūs pl. - dinner; the south    
The first declension, -as, -is, -ys, -ias.
The second, -a (-ia), -ė (gen. sg. -ės)
The third, -is
The fourth, -us, -ius
The fifth, -uo, -ė (gen. sg. -ers)

About 45% of all nouns are feminine, 55% – masculine.

Grouping by a syllable nucleus of a pre-desinential syllable

In the tables below the possibilities of syllable nucleus of the next-to-last syllable and their accent is shown. The different sound of a next-to-last syllable makes no grammatical distinction, for example, words nóras – wish and kū́nas – body, are of the same declensional and accentuation patterns. But there are a few certain differences in the accentuation features of the nucleus sounds of the next-to-last syllable. Most of the vocals and diphthongs can have either of the accents: a start-firm or an end-firm. Short a, e sounds, when they are in a stem of a word and stressed, lengthen and have always an end-firm accent; i, u are short and there is no accentual differentiation in their stress. Mixed diphthongs a, e + l, m, n, r have the first element lengthened when stressed in a start-firm accent, when in i, u + l, m, n, r and a diphthong ui the first element remains short in the same case. The words having ą, ę in a pre-desinential syllable are not included here because of the lack of declensional types. Some examples: rą̃stas 2 – balk, timber; žąsìs 4 – goose; ąsà 4 – handle; kę́sas 3 – hassock.

The four different accentuation patterns are distinguished by two different colors in the rows of the table, their sequence is from the top to the bottom – I, II, III, IV. The words of each accentuation type are given in the following sequence of the declensional types:

Some spaces of the tables are not filled, but this does not mean that there are no words which would fit. The sounds a, e (end-firm when stressed) and i, u (short) can not be start-firm and consequently the word having them in the next-to-last stressed syllable can not be of the first and the third accentuation pattern. Some of the declensional types include few words, for example there are only two words of the third accentuation pattern in the fifth declension: sūnùs and lietùs. The number of words (Dictionary of contemporary Lithuanian language / Dabartinės Lietuvių kalbos žodynas; the fourth issue, 2000) of the declensional patterns can be checked in the section above.

The numbers are written after some of the words in the tables. They mean an alternative existent accentuation pattern and are given only for some of the words, which have an alternative accentuation in a language. Notice that the type of accentuation of a word is shown by the place in the table and the number added means only an alternative accentuation type, which is not necessarily the main one. Some of the alternative accentuation patterns of a word are used equally (then they are given not in brackets here), some are known from dialects, not preferred (then they are given in brackets).

Here are some illustrations of the alternative accentuation: a word nykštỹs 3 is also commonly said nýkštis 1; zýlė 1 is also known as zylė̃ 3 in some dialects, but this form is used more narrowly and not shown here. Similarly, a word rýkštė 1 is also known as rykštė̃ 4; this is shown in the table. In a case of šálmas 3 – helmet, the variant šal̃mas 4 is also very common. The alternative forms are most usually present between the 1-3 and 2-4 accentuation patterns, same in the type of an accent. But there are also different cases, for example, rýkštė 1 and rykštė̃ 4. The fourth accentuation paradigm can be result of a shift of the third paradigm. The shift can happen following nivellation of the two accents, a loss of accentual contrast. In a case of nivellation of the start-firm and end-firm accents the distinction between the 3-4 and 1-2 loses its ground, because in a place of the stress the 1 with the 2, the 3 with the 4 acentuation groups differ only in a few cases.

Among the words given in the table, some are older, for example, ver̃pstė 2 – distaff, sker̃džius 2 – chief cowherd, butcher, and some other. Some words are borrowings: bánkas 1 – bank, tánkas 1 – tank, dùrpės - peat, turf and some other. Old borrowings: vỹnas 2 (4) – wine, blỹnas 2 – pancake, rõžė 2 – rose, rūtà 2 (4) – rue, slyvà 2 (4) – plum, vyšnià 2 (1) – cherry, and some other.

o ė y ū i.e. uo
nóras - wish
plótas - area, stretch
sóstas - throne, stool
vė́jas - wind výras - man, male
týrai pl. - large empty stretches
sývai pl. - liquid part of smth.
kū́nas - body
liū́nas - bog
píenas (pl 1, 3) - milk
svíestas (3) - butter
púodas - pot
šúoras - gust, air-blast
skrúostas - cheek
brólis - brother
sótis - satiety
klónis - dene, hollow
mólis - clay
pavė́sis - cooler place
in a shade
blýksnis - flash
nýkštis 3 - thumb
sū́ris - cheese
kū́jis - hammer
kū́gis - cone (geometry)
kíetis - artemisia (plants) šúolis - jump
slúoksnis - layer
súopis - buzzard
rúonis - seal (animal)
úošvis - father-in-law
kója - leg
lóva - bed
vė́tra - windstorm, scud
lė́šos pl - fund, means
pė́da 3 - foot
gýsla - thread, vas
ýda - defect, vice
lū́pa - lip
kū́dra - pond, mere
líepa - linden
píeva - meadow
síena - wall
úoga - berry
dúona - bread
kúosa - jackdaw
dróbė - linen, cloth
rópė - turnip
zýlė - tit (birds)
rýkštė (4) - rod, switch
lýsvė - bed (agriculture)
kíelė (3) - wagtail úošvė - mother-in-law
nósis - nose
krósnis - stove, furnace
tóšis - upper layer
of birch bark
klė́tis - barn, granary nýtys pl. - harness for
warp
lū́šis - lynx
rū́šis (3) - sort; species
kliū́tis (4) - obstacle; hurdle
íetis - spear, javelin
sõdas - garden
skrõblas - hornbeam
dė̃klas - encasement
kė̃nis - fir (abies)
sklỹpas 4 - plot, parcel
vỹnas - wine
blỹnas - pancake
bū̃das - mode; nature luõtas (1) - dugout, cockleshell
žõdis - word
skõnis - taste
lõbis - treasure
vė̃sis - cool
bė̃giai - metal, railing
smė̃lis - sand
lỹgis - level
skỹstis - liquid, fluid; liquidity
bū̃vis - state, existence
dū̃ris - prick
smū̃gis - punch; thwack
rū̃gštis - sourness
kiẽtis - hardness
viẽnis - oneness
miẽžis - barley
sriẽgis - screw thread
guõlis - lying place;
bearing (mechanical)
kopà - dune vyšnià - cherry
slyvà - plum
rūtà - rue (plant) vietà - place
rõžė - rose nė̃gė - lamprey (fish) lū̃gnė - nuphar piẽnė - sowthistle
(krū̃tis) 4 - breast (womans')
sõdžius - village
rõjus - paradise
skỹrius - departament; chapter spiẽčius - close cluster, swarm
(often for insects)
stógas - roof
kótas - shaft, handle
óras - air; weather
krė́slas 1 - easy chair
pė́das - sheaf
rýtas - morning grū́das - grain stíebas - stipe
dríežas - lizzard
lúobas - thick peel
úodas - mosquito
lokỹs - bear vėžỹs (4) - crayfish nykštỹs (1) - thumb
pėdà 1 - foot skiedrà (4) - sliver, shingle (kuopà) 1 - company (military)
brėkšmė̃ - dusk, break
(around suset or before sunrise)
rūgštìs (1) - acid
(rūšìs) 1 - sort; species
sūnùs - son lietùs - rain
lõpas - patch rū̃kas - fog sniẽgas - snow
kiẽmas - yard
šiẽnas - hay
kuõlas - stake, picket
lovỹs - trough, chamfer
korỹs - honeycomb
vėžlỹs - turtle ryšỹs - link, bond
plyšỹs - interstice, opening
būrỹs - squad; huddle
rūsỹs - cellar, vault
kvietỹs 3 - wheat
žmonà - wife
tvorà - fence
vorà - queue, file
vėsà - cool
bėdà - trouble, grief
mėsà - meat
bylà - lawsuit, cause
tylà - silence
pūgà - blizzard
stūmà - repulsion (physics)
dienà - day
šviesà - light
liepsnà - flame
puotà - feast; beanfeast
uolà - rock
srovė̃ - current, stream gėlė̃ - flower
kėdė̃ - chair
dėžė̃ - box
skylė̃ - hole, slot žūklė̃ - fishing miẽlės pl - yeast
rievė̃ - notch, groove
duobė̃ (3) - pit, hollow
uoslė̃ - smell; scent
lytìs - sex, gender
vytìs - switch, rod
krūtìs (2) - breast (womans')
griūtìs - avalanche, fall
žmogùs - man (human) piẽtūs pl. - dinner; south
au ai ei a e i u
šáukštas - spoon káimas - village, countryside véidas - face
jáutis - bull, ox stáibis 2 - dial. shin; forearm
for birds: tarsus
sáuja - palmfull káina - price
sáulė - sun
kriáušė - pear
váišė - regale
láimė - luck, happines
báimė - fear
méilė - love
gaũbtas - hood
skliaũtas 4 - vault (architecture)
aũlas 4 - bootleg; sheatheable thing
saĩtas 4 - bond; leash
žaĩzdras 4 - forge, hearth
pleĩštas 1 - wedge, shim
reĩdas - raid
pãdas - sole, metatarsus
žãbas - switch, stick
lãbas - good, welfare
mẽtas - specific time
(to do smth.; of smth.)
sprìgtas - flip, flick bùtas - flat
kùras - fuel
paũkštis - bird
plaũtis - lung
kriaũšis (4m, 4f) - steep slope
raĩštis - band, tie
kaĩštis - spile, plug
peĩlis - knife vãris - copper kẽlis - knee
mẽdis - tree
sẽnis - old
balà - puddle girià - forest (large) putà - froth
raũdė - rudd
kiaũlė - pig
(kriaũšė) - steep slope
raĩdė 4 - letter
skaĩdrė (4) - slide, transparency
kreĩvė (4) - curve, graph brãškė - strawberry žẽmė - earth, ground
prẽkė - commodity, item
kẽkė - raceme, cluster
bìtė - bee ùpė - river
pùsė - half, side
striùkė - jacket
gaĩštis 4 - dallying, waste of time slìstis (4) - simulation dùrys pl - door
vaĩsius - fruit; growth
skaĩčius - number; digit
cùkrus - sugar
šiáudas - straw
máuras - slime, algae
dáiktas - thing (material)
láiškas - letter (message)
áidas - echo
méistras - master (artist); craftsman
aikštė̃ - square, field
sraũtas - flow, torrent
laukas - field; outside
džiaugsmas - joy
kraũjas - blood
maĩstas - food
žaĩbas - thunder
žaĩslas - toy
laĩkas - time
laĩdas - cable, lead
veĩksmas - act, action krãštas - edge; country
smãkras - chin
kãras - war
lẽdas - ice
pẽnas - pabulum
kẽras - plant sinuous
ramification
klijaĩ pl. - glue dùgnas - floor, bottom
šaulỹs - rifleman, shooter
straublỹs - trunk, proboscis
(kriaušỹs 2m 4f) - steep slope
gaidỹs - rooster dagỹs - thistle
vabzdỹs - insect
kepsnỹs - roast, fry
krepšỹs - basket, bag
genỹs - woodpecker
kẽlias - road
svẽčias - guest
drugỹs - butterfly, moth; shake, shiver
briaunà - edge, brow
klausà - hearing (sense)
dainà - song
gaivà - fresh
šeimà - family girà - kvass
šaulė̃ - shooter
raukšlė̃ - pucker
raidė̃ 2 - slide, transparency eilė̃ - row katė̃ - cat skruzdė̃ - ant
ausìs - ear
šlaunìs - thigh
(kriaušìs 2m 4m) - steep slope
gaištìs 2 - dallying, waste of time naktìs - night
šalìs - country
sritìs - area
vinìs - nail, spike
ugnìs - fire
pusnìs - snowdrift
žuvìs - fish
alùs - beer medùs - honey vidùs - inside
midùs - mead (drink)
al el am em an en
káltas - chisel, boaster kéltas - ferryboat
méldas - bulrush
bánkas - bank
tánkas - tank
lénkas - Pole
sámtis - ladle (spoon)
málka - firewood billet
dálba - pole, stick
gélda - trough, tub bámba - navel
támsta - address to a person (formal)
lémpa - lamp
kálvė - smithery, forge kélnės pl. - trousers
pélkė - swamp
pémpė - lapwing néndrė - reed
ménkė - cod
váltis - boat pántis - tether
ántis - duck
ánkštis - pod, pulse
péntis - thick side of a sharp implement
stálčius - drawer (furniture) ámžius - age
bal̃dai pl. - furniture gañdras 4 - stork beñdras - confederate,
companion; accomplice
val̃gis - meal, dish, food
al̃ksnis - alder
dal̃gis - scythe
kam̃štis - plug, cork
sam̃tis - ladling (action)
skrañdis - stomach
añtis - slash of garment at the bosom; place inside it to the girdle
añkštis - lack of space
sleñkstis - threshold
valkà - draught (air) rankà - hand; arm
pal̃vė - flat place in terrene side behind shore dunes šveñtė - feast, celebration
skleñdė 4 - latch
beñdrė - see bendras
bal̃džius - furniture maker (person)
kálnas - mountain
šálmas 4 - helmet
délnas - palm, flat of a hand
kélmas - stump, stool
kémsas - hassock žándas - face side below a cheekbone
lángas - window
galvà - head
bal̃nas - saddle
val̃ksmas - haul of a fishing net;
track of lumber dragging
pel̃nas - profit kam̃pas - angle; corner lañkas - bow (weapon)
gañdas - hearsay, rumour
krañtas (dial. 2, 1) - waterside, shore
žaltỹs (3) - grass snake; colubrid kamblỹs - stipe; squat ending
dramblys - elephant
kremblỹs - gnarly tree
kalbà - language
spalvà - colour
algà - salary
valkà - puddle
lankà - meadow, hollow
dangà - covering
bandà - herd; loaf (food)
lentà - board; wood cut
kaltė̃ - guilt; fault templė̃ - elastic string (of a bow etc.) tankmė̃ - thicket sklendė̃ (2) - valve; latch
dantìs - tooth
dangùs - sky
ar er ir ur
tárpas - gap
tvártas - cattle-shed
žárdas (3 2) - rack from poles
ìrklas - oar, paddle dùrklas - dagger
žvìrblis - sparrow
vìržis - heather, ling
žìrnis - pea
gùrkšnis - swallow, gulp
kùrmis - mole (animal)
várna - crow
žárna 3 - bowel; hose
stìrna - roe, hind
gìrna - millstone
spùrga - doughnut
kárvė - cow šnérvė 4 - nostril
kérpė - lichen
šérpė - burr, tear off
dùrpės - peat
kártis - long slender pole kìrkšnis 3 (4) - groin
svìrtis (4, 3, 2) - lever; shaduf
var̃žtas - screw
var̃tai pl. - gate
kar̃tas - time (instance
or occurrence)
ner̃štas - spawning
sver̃tas - lever; fig. leverage
skir̃pstas - field elm Tur̃tas - wealth, property
pur̃slas 4 (1) - spatter, spray
kar̃štis - heat
kar̃šis - bream
ver̃šis - calf tvir̃tis - strength of material, toughness
virkščià - stem of some
gramineous plants (pea, potato)
pirkià (4) - dial. house, cottage (traditional)
gar̃dė - barrier wood cut
in a side of a horse carriage
ver̃pstė - distaff vir̃vė - rope
der̃lius - yield, harvest
sker̃džius - chief cowherd; butcher
Tur̃gus - market, mart
dárbas - work bérnas - boy, lad;
(older) hind, hired hand
béržas - birch
šérnas (4) - wild boar
spìrgas - crackling (food)
žìrgas (4) - riding horse
spùrgas - hop cone; bud; catkin
ùrvas - cave; burrow
arklỹs - horse
burnà - mouth
varškė̃ - curd versmė̃ - fount, spring
širdìs - heart
kirkšnìs 1 (4) - groin
var̃das - name
gar̃sas - sound
kar̃klas 2 - willow, osier
gar̃das - animal stall
šer̃kšnas - hoarfrost, rime
ver̃slas - trade, enterprice, business
ver̃ksmas - cry
vir̃bas - rod, switch
dir̃žas - belt (clothing); strap
pir̃štas - finger
pur̃vas - mud, dirt
siurblỹs - pump; (dulkių siurblys) vacuum cleaner
čiurlỹs - swift
varžà - resistance; impedance (physics)
barzdà - beard
skerlà - sliver, shiver purkšnà - mizzle, spraying
tarmė̃ - dialect
dermė̃ - tone, fitness
varlė̃ - frog
vertė̃ - value
erdvė̃ - space
veržlė̃ - nut (hardware)
tartìs - pronunciation, utterance šerdìs (3 1) - core pirtìs - steambath
viršùs - top
il ul im um in un
tìltas - bridge
miltai pl. - flour
tùntas 4 - swarm, flock
dìlbis - forearm
ìltis - fang
mùlkis - ninny, gull, noodle
stùlgis - (older) dagger
kùlšis - haunch, thigh (mostly used for chicken meat)
kùmštis - fist vìngis (2) - winding, curve
lìnkis - bend, curvature
smìlga - bentgrass
vìlna - wool
tìmpa - elastic string
drìmba 2 - ponderous person (derisive)
vìnkšna - elm (ulmus laevis)
spìnta - cabinet (furniture)
kìnka - rare side of a leg about a knee level
plùnksna - feather
dìldė - rasp tùlpė - tulip
dùlkė - particle of dust, mote
bùlvė - potato
dùmplės pl. - bellows pìnklės pl. (2) - trap, gin
skìltis (3) - segment
of a fruit, vegetable;
section in a recurring
print
pìntis - amadou
dul̃ksmas 4 - dust rise stum̃bras - wisent
dum̃blas 4 - silt
iñdas - dishware, utensil
tiñklas - net
giñklas - weapon
skil̃vis - gizzard kum̃pis - ham skliñdis - pancake
liñksnis - (case) inflection, case (grammar)
suñkis - gravitation
rinkà - market sunkà - strained juice
gul̃bė - swan drum̃zlė 4 - sediment bliñdė (4) - great willow
vil̃nis 4 - wave
skiltìs 1 - (see 1)
vil̃kas - wolf
pil̃vas - belly
stul̃pas - pole, shaft, pillar
kul̃nas - heel
pul̃kas - regiment; swarm
rim̃bas - knout; whip gum̃bas - knag; lumb tuñtas 1 - swarm, flock
skilvỹs 2 - gizzard stulgỹs - great snipe krumplỹs (2) - knuckle; cog
dulksnà - drizzle sunkà 2 - strained juice
drumzlė̃ 2 - sediment
vilnìs 2 - wave kulkšnìs (1) - ankle

Adjectives

Declension

Main article: Lithuanian declension

In Lithuanian language adjectives have three declensions determined by the singular and plural nominative case inflections. Adjectives are matched with nouns in terms of numbers, genders, and cases. Unlike nouns, which have two genders – masculine and feminine, adjectives have three (except -is, -ė adjectives), but the neuter adjectives (the third example in the table) have only one form, are not inflected. The neuter gender is formed simply by eliminating the last consonant -s from the masculine gender forms.

Declension Singular nom. inflection Plural nom. inflection Examples
Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine
I -(i)as -(i)a -i -(i)os šáltas, šaltà, (šálta) – cold; šlápias, šlapià, (šlápia) – wet, soppy;
II -us -i -ūs -ios gražùs, gražì, (gražù) – pretty, beautiful; malonùs, malonì, (malonù) – pleasant;
III -is -iai -ės varìnis, varìnė – copper; laukìnis, laukìnė – wild;
-is -i -ės dìdelis, dìdelė – big; dešinỹs, dešinė̃ – right; kairỹs, kairė̃ – left.

All the adjectives (except most -inis type adjectives) can have pronominal (definite) forms that cannot acquire the neuter form:

Declension Singular nom. inflection Plural nom. inflection Examples
Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine
I -(i)asis -(i)oji -ieji -(i)osios šaltàsis, šaltóji – the cold; šlapiàsis, šlapióji – the wet;
II -usis -ioji -ieji -iosios gražùsis, gražióji – the pretty, the beautiful; malonùsis, malonióji – the pleasant;
III -is -iai -ės
-ysis -ioji -ieji -iosios didỹsis, didžióji – the big, the great; dešinỹsis, dešinióji – the right; kairỹsis, kairióji – the left.

The pronominal adjectives historically have developed from the combination of the simple adjectives and the respective pronominal forms jis, ji (he, she), that is, gẽras + jìs = geràsis; an example in locative case (feminine gender): gražiosè + josè = gražiósiose. They have their own separate declension paradigms.

Pronominal adjectives have a variety of purposes in modern Lithuanian. One of them is the definitiveness, that is, these adjectives can sometimes act like an equivalent of the definite article in English: Suvalgiau raudoną obuolįI’ve eaten a red apple; Suvalgiau raudoną obuolįI’ve eaten the red apple. But they are rarely used this way, as demonstrative pronouns serve better for this purpose. Pronominal adjectives often indicate something unique, thus they are usually used with proper names: Juodoji jūra, Vytautas Didysis, Naujoji Zelandija. Another use (and a very common) is scientific terminology: kvapusis mairūnas, dėmėtoji pelėda, standusis diskas etc. In almost all of these cases, a simple adjective can be used, but it will mean a completely different thing: juoda jūra (instead of Juodoji jūra) means any sea that is black (not necessarily the particular sea in Eastern Europe); dėmėta pelėda (instead of dėmėtoji pelėda) means any owl that has dots on its plumage (not necessarily an owl of the Strix occidentalis species) etc.

  • Most of the first type adjectives of the third declension are with the suffix -in-. These are easily made from other parts of speech by adding the suffix -in-. When made from verbs, they are mostly made from a past passive participle: vìrti – to boil, vìrtas – boiled, virtìnis – which is boiled, made by boiling. Consequently, the suffix is -t-in- for such adjectives. Such variants of verbal derivation easily become nouns (declined in noun declension paradigm), in this case it is a noun virtìnis – dumpling (with mushrooms; curd; etc.; but dumplings with meat are called koldūnai).
  • Two adjectives of the third declension have long -ys: dešinỹs – right, kairỹs – left; plural nominative is dešinì, kairì; plural dative: dešiníems, kairíems. A short form of dìdelis, dìdelė is dìdis, didì (similar to pats, pati). Dešinys, kairys, didis have neuter gender of the u pattern: dešinu, kairu, didu. Pronominal forms: didỹsis, didžióji, dešinỹsis, dešinióji. An adjective didelis, didelė hasn't pronominal forms. The word didis has more mingled forms: nominative is sometimes didus; genitive masc.: didžio / didaus; accusative: didį (/ didų); plural masc. nom. didūs; other forms are of the regular pattern.
  • Some other forms having variations in a standard language: pė́sčias, pėsčià, pė́sčia – pedestrian, afoot; pėsčiàsis, pėsčióji and pėstỹsis, pėsčióji (adjectival and substantival meanings).

In the following examples of noun and adjective matching, gatvė – street and kelias – road are matched with tiesus – straight:

This does not apply in case of the neuter gender adjectives because nouns do not have neuter gender. Such adjectives are used in combination with other parts of speech having no gender (infinitive, some pronouns) or in zero subject sentences and tend to describe a general environment. For example, rūsyje buvo vėsu (zero subject sentence) – it was cool in the cellar; gera tave matyti (the gender neutral infinitive (matyti) is the subject) – it's good to see you. Moreover, adjectives in neuter can be used as an object (and in some cases – as a subject) as well (a rough equivalent of English "that what is" + adjective): jis matė šilta ir šalta – he saw [that what is] cold and hot (he went through fire and water). Adjectives that end in -is do not have the neuter gender. Most of the time neuter gender adjectives are written just like feminine adjectives. However, vocally, neuter gender is distinct by different stressing. Also neuter gender does not have any numbers or cases, and it is mostly used for predicatives. Usage in the role of object (like in "jis matė šilta ir šalta") is rare.

Degrees of comparison

The Lithuanian language has five degrees of comparison. The three main degrees are the same as in English language. Note that there are no irregular adjectives and all adjectives have the same suffixes. All such adjectives still need to match the nouns in terms of case, number, and gender. Neuter gender comparative degree is the same as adjective comparative degree.

Language Gender absolute comparative superlative
Lithuanian Masculine Gẽras Gerėlèsnis Gerèsnis Geriáusias Pàts/visų̃ geriáusias
Feminine Gerà Gerėlèsnė Gerèsnė Geriáusia Patì/visų̃ geriáusia
Neuter Gẽra Gerėliaũ Geriaũ Geriáusia Visų̃ geriáusia
English Good A tiny bit better Better Best The very best
Lithuanian Masculine Gražùs Gražėlèsnis Gražèsnis Gražiáusias Pats/visų gražiáusias
Feminine Gražì Gražėlèsnė Gražèsnė Gražiáusia Patì/visų̃ gražiáusia
Neuter Gražù Gražėliaũ Gražiaũ Gražiáusia Visų̃ gražiáusia
English Beautiful A tiny bit more beautiful More beautiful Most beautiful The most beautiful

Adjectives of different degrees can also have their pronominal forms:

Language Gender absolute comparative superlative
Lithuanian Masculine Geràsis Geresnỹsis Geriáusiasis
Feminine Geróji Geresnióji Geriáusioji
Neuter
English The good The better The very best
Lithuanian Masculine Gražùsis Gražesnỹsis Gražiáusiasis
Feminine Gražióji Gražesnióji Gražiáusioji
Neuter
English The beautiful The more beautiful The most beautiful

Pronouns

Lithuanian has no grammatical category of animacy. Pronouns (including personal ones jis, ji, jie, jos (he, she, they)) replace any noun, regardless if it is not animate (people, animals, objects etc.). Whom did you see? and What did you see? both translate as tu matei?; Something is there and Somebody is there both translate as Ten kažkas yra.

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns (I), tu (you) jis (he, it), ji (she, it) are declined as follows:

Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative Instrumental Locative
Singular 1st person manęs man mane manimi manyje
2nd person tu tavęs tau tave tavimi tavyje
3rd person Masculine jis jo jam juo jame
Feminine ji jos jai ja joje
Reflexive pronoun savęs sau save savimi savyje
Plural 1st person mes mūsų mums mus mumis mumyse
2nd person jūs jūsų jums jus jumis jumyse
3rd person Masculine jie jiems juos jais juose
Feminine jos joms jas jomis jose

Reflexive pronoun

The reflexive pronoun savęs is declined like tu (savęs - sau - save ...), but it doesn't have the singular nominative and plural cases.

Verbs

Every Lithuanian verb belongs to one of three different conjugations:

As is many other Indo-European languages (e. g. English, Latvian), every single verbal form can be derived from three stems: infinitive, 3rd person present tense and 3rd person past tense.

Lithuanian verbs belong to one of the following stem types:

The 3rd person of every conjugatable verbal form in Lithuanian has no distinction between numbers: all the singular, dual and plural forms have merged into one single form. Declinable forms (such as compound tenses and passive structures), however, must match according to gender and number. This is a shared commonality with its closest relative, the Latvian language.

Active voice

The active voice in Lithuanian has four moods:

Indicative mood

In the active voice, the indicative mood contains 4 simple and 7 compound tenses.

In each tense five examples are given: three belonging to each conjugation group (dirbti, norėti, skaityti), one reflexive (praustis) and būti – the only auxiliary verb in Lithuanian.

Present tense

This is the basic tense in Lithuanian which describes present or ongoing actions or, sometimes, actions without definite tense. Its forms and stress patterns are always derived from the 3rd person of the Present tense.

  dìrbti = to work norė́ti = to want skaitýti = to read praũstis = to wash oneself bū́ti = to be (es- stem) bū́ti = to be (būn- stem)
I dìrbu nóriu skait prausiúosi esù būnù
You (singular) dìrbi nóri skait prausíesi esì būnì
He/She/It dìrba nóri skaĩto praũsiasi yrà / ẽsti bū̃na
We dìrbame nórime skaĩtome praũsiamės ẽsame bū̃name
You (plural) dìrbate nórite skaĩtote praũsiatės ẽsate bū̃nate
They dìrba nóri skaĩto praũsiasi yrà / ẽsti bū̃na

E.g. dirbu = 'I work', (tu) nori = 'You want', skaitome = 'We read' (present tense).

The auxiliary verb bū́ti has two conjugations in the Present tense: an irregular one (based on es-/yr- stems) and a regular one (based on a the būn- stem). The difference is that the stem bū̃n- has an iterative meaning (to be frequently): Mokiniaĩ yrà pasiruõšęThe pupils are ready; Mokiniaĩ bū̃na pasiruõšęThe pupils are often ready. The 3rd person form ẽsti is semantically equivalent to bū̃na, but is rarely used in modern Lithuanian.

The accentuation of all persons always corresponds to the accentuation of the 3rd person. The only exception is when its accented syllable is penultimate (excluding the reflexive formant -si) and has a short vowel (bìjo – he is afraid) or a rising tone (skaĩto – he reads, praũsiasi – he washes himself): in that case the 1st and the 2nd persons of singular move the stress to the ending: bijaũ, bijaĩ; skaitaũ, skaitaĩ; prausiúosi, prausíesi.

Past tense

This is the basic tense in Lithuanian which describes past actions (ongoing or complete). Its forms and stress patterns are always derived from the 3rd person of the Past tense.

  dìrbti = to work norė́ti = to want skaitýti = to read praũstis = to wash oneself bū́ti = to be
I dìrbau norė́jau skaičiaũ prausiaũsi buv
You (singular) dìrbai norė́jai skait prauseĩsi buv
He/She/It dìrbo norė́jo skaĩtė praũsėsi bùvo
We dìrbome norė́jome skaĩtėme praũsėmės bùvome
You (plural) dìrbote norė́jote skaĩtėte praũsėtės bùvote
They dìrbo norė́jo skaĩtė praũsėsi bùvo

E.g. dirbau = 'I worked', norėjai = 'You wanted', skaitėme = 'We read' (past tense)

The accentuation of all persons always corresponds to the accentuation of the 3rd person. The only exception is when its accented syllable is penultimate (excluding the reflexive formant -si) and has a short vowel (bùvo – he was) or a rising tone (skaĩtė – he read, praũsėsi – he washed himself): in that case the 1st and the 2nd persons of singular move the stress to the ending: buvaũ, buvaĩ; skaičiaũ, skaiteĩ; prausiaũsi, prauseĩsi.

Past iterative tense (frequentative)

The basic meaning of this tense translates as "used to" in English. Its construction is simple:

  dìrbti = to work norė́ti = to want skaitýti = to read praũstis = to wash oneself bū́ti = to be
I dìrbdavau norė́davau skaitýdavau praũsdavausi bū́davau
You (singular) dìrbdavai norė́davai skaitýdavai praũsdavaisi bū́davai
He/She/It dìrbdavo norė́davo skaitýdavo praũsdavosi bū́davo
We dìrbdavome norė́davome skaitýdavome praũsdavomės bū́davome
You (plural) dìrbdavote norė́davote skaitýdavote praũsdavotės bū́davote
They dìrbdavo norė́davo skaitýdavo praũsdavosi bū́davo

E.g. dirbdavau = 'I used to work', norėdavai = 'You used to want', skaitydavome = 'We used to read'

Future tense

This tense basically describes what will happen in the future. It is relatively simple to form:

a) If the 3rd person’s form is stressed in the final or the only syllable with a falling tone (without the inclusion of the reflexive formant -is), it is systematically replaced with a rising tone (kalbė́ti (to speak) → kalbė̃s, pramogáuti (to entertain oneself) → pramogaũs; aukótis (to sacrifice oneself) → aukõsis (the reflexive formant does not count)). This rule does not apply to cases when there the last syllable is not stressed (sáugoti (to protect) → sáugos).

b) Primary verbs acquire a short vowel i or u (instead of long y or ū) when the infinitive and the present tense has a long vowel, but the past tense has a short vowel: (lýti (to rain): lỹja, lìjolìs; pū́ti (to rot): pū̃va, pùvopùs, most importantly: bū́ti (to be): bū̃na, bùvobùs).

  dìrbti = to work norė́ti = to want skaitýti = to read praũstis = to wash oneself bū́ti = to be
I dìrbsiu norė́siu skaitýsiu praũsiuosi bū́siu
You (singular) dìrbsi norė́si skaitýsi praũsiesi bū́si
He/She/It dir̃bs norė̃s skaitỹs praũsis s
We dìrbsime norė́sime skaitýsime praũsimės bū́sime
You (plural) dìrbsite norė́site skaitýsite praũsitės bū́site
They dir̃bs norė̃s skaitỹs praũsis s

E.g. dirbsiu = 'I shall work', norėsi = 'You will want', skaitysime = 'We shall read'

Compound tenses

Compound tenses are periphrastic structures having temporal meanings usually relative to actions indicated by other verbs. Two groups of such tenses exist in modern Lithuanian: Perfective and Inchoative. All of them require an auxiliary verb būti (to be) in its respective form and an active voice participle.

Perfective tenses

There are four perfective tenses in Lithuanian (present, past, past iterative and future) which are all formed using the verb būti in its respective tense and person as well as the active past simple participle in its respective number and gender:

  Present perfect Past perfect Past iterative perfect Future perfect
I esu skaĩtęs / skaĩčiusi buvau skaitęs / skaičiusi būdavau skaitęs / skaičiusi būsiu skaitęs / skaičiusi
You (singular) esi skaitęs / skaičiusi buvai skaitęs / skaičiusi būdavai skaitęs / skaičiusi būsi skaitęs / skaičiusi
He/She/It yra skaitęs / skaičiusi buvo skaitęs / skaičiusi būdavo skaitęs / skaičiusi bus skaitęs / skaičiusi
We esame skaĩtę / skaĩčiusios buvome skaitę / skaičiusios būdavome skaitę / skaičiusios būsime skaitę / skaičiusios
You (plural) esate skaitę / skaičiusios buvote skaitę / skaičiusios būdavote skaitę / skaičiusios būsite skaitę / skaičiusios
They yra skaitę / skaičiusios buvo skaitę / skaičiusios būdavo skaitę / skaičiusios bus skaitę / skaičiusios

These tenses (except for present perfect) correspond roughly to equvalent English perfect tenses (I had read / I will have read). They are used in various contexts for very different meanings, but they usually indicate an action that happened before another action said with another verb, noun or similar: Tos knygos neėmiau, nes jau ją buvau skaitęsI didn’t take that book because I had already read it; Po kelionės vaikai bus labai pasiilgę tėvųAfter the trip the children will have badly missed their parents.

They are also used for a generalized meaning not associated with a specific event (equivalent of English "Have you ever done it?"): Ar esi buvęs Paryžiuje?Have you ever been to Paris [any time in your life]?; Esu skaitęs, kad vaistai nuo peršalimo nepadedaI read [some time ago] that pharmaceuticals are useless against common cold.

Compare phrases: Ar buvai Paryžiuje?Were you in Paris [that day]?; Skaičiau, kad vaistai nuo peršalimo nepadedaI read [that day, at a specific moment in my life] that pharmaceuticals are useless against common cold.

The perfect tenses are a common feature of the Lithuanian language and are often used in all types of spoken and written speech.

Inchoative tenses

There are three inchoative tenses in Lithuanian (past, past iterative and future) which are all formed using the verb būti in its respective tense and person, as well as the active present simple participle in its respective number and gender, complemented with the prefix be-. Note the absence of the present inchoative tense.

  Past inchoative Past iterative inchoative Future inchoative
I buvau beskaitąs / beskaitanti būdavau beskaitąs / beskaitanti būsiu beskaitąs / beskaitanti
You (singular) buvai beskaitąs / beskaitanti būdavai beskaitąs / beskaitanti būsi beskaitąs / beskaitanti
He/She/It buvo beskaitąs / beskaitanti būdavo beskaitąs / beskaitanti bus beskaitąs / beskaitanti
We buvome beskaitą / beskaitančios būdavome beskaitą / beskaitančios būsime beskaitą / beskaitančios
You (plural) buvote beskaitą / beskaitančios būdavote beskaitą / beskaitančios būsite beskaitą / beskaitančios
They buvo beskaitą / beskaitančios būdavo beskaitą / beskaitančios bus beskaitą / beskaitančios

These tenses mostly indicate an action that was interrupted by another action said with another verb. They correspond roughly to English "...was about to do something, when": Tėvas buvo beskaitąs laikraštį, bet kažkas paskambinoThe father was about to read a newspaper, but someone called.

They can also indicate an action that have started and is still going on during another action (equivalent of English continuous tenses), but they are almost never used in such a way: Kai grįši namo, motina bus bemiegantiWhen you will get back home, the mother will be sleeping.

Inchoative tenses are not a part of common Lithuanian speech, their use is limited to literary language and even there only past inchoative tense is ever used.

Indirect mood

The indirect mood in Lithuanian has all and the same tenses (including compound tenses) as the indicative mood, but is not conjugated. Instead of being composed of a conjugatable verb, they are made of pure active participle in nominative case, thus they must match the gender and number of the subject.

  Singluar Plural
Present skaitą̃s, skaĩtanti skaitą̃, skaitančios
Past skaĩtęs, skaĩčiusi skaĩtę, skaĩčiusios
Past iterative skaitýdavęs, skaitýdavusi skaitýdavę, skaitýdavusios
Future skaitýsiąs, skaitýsianti skaitýsią, skaitýsiančios
Present perfect esą̃s skaĩtęs, ẽsanti skaĩčiusi esą̃ skaĩtę, ẽsančios skaĩčiusios
Past perfect bùvęs skaitęs, bùvusi skaĩčiusi bùvę skaitę, bùvusios skaĩčiusios
Past iterative perfect bū́davęs skaĩtęs, bū́davusi skaĩčiusi bū́davę skaĩtę, bū́davusios skaĩčiusios
Future perfect bū́siąs skaĩtęs, bū́sianti skaĩčiusi bū́sią skaĩtę, bū́siančios skaĩčiusios
Past inchoative bùvęs beskaitą̃s, bùvusi beskaĩtanti bùvę beskaitą̃, bùvusios beskaĩtančios
Past iterative inchoative bū́davęs beskaitą̃s, bū́davusi beskaĩtanti bū́davę beskaitą̃, bū́davusios beskaĩtančios
Future inchoative bū́siąs beskaitą̃s, bū́sianti beskaĩtanti bū́sią beskaitą̃, bū́siančios beskaĩtančios

The indirect mood, sometimes called "participle speech", has multiple uses, but primarily denote actions not experienced directly by the speaker and bearing a high degree of uncertainty: Čia kažkada stovėjusi tvirtovė – [I’m not really sure, it seems like] some time ago there stood a fortress here.

Another widely known use of the indirect mood is describing actions in fictional literature (especially folklore) (could be considered as an equivalent of French Passé simple, except that in Lithuanian it is not limited to the past): Kartą gyvenęs kalvis, kuris turėjęs du sūnus – Once there lived a smith who had two sons.

In modern Lithuanian this mood is not very widely used, because other ways of expressing uncertainty and fictional events exist.

Imperative mood

The imperative mood has three forms or tenses (simple, perfect and inchoative). The simple form of the 2nd person of singular, the 1st and the 2nd persons of plural is very regular:

The 3rd person imperative is sometimes called "optative mood" and has numerous equivalent forms:

  dìrbti = to work norė́ti = to want skaitýti = to read praũstis = to wash oneself bū́ti = to be
I
You (singular) dìrbk(i) norė́k(i) skaitýk(i) praũskis k(i)
He/She/It tedirbiẽ / tedìrba tenoriẽ / tenóri teskaĩtai / teskaĩto tesiprausiẽ / tesipraũsia teesiẽ / tebūniẽ / tebùs
We dìrbkime norė́kime skaitýkime praũskimės bū́kime
You (plural) dìrbkite norė́kite skaitýkite praũskitės bū́kite
They tedirbiẽ / tedìrba tenoriẽ / tenóri teskaĩtai / teskaĩto tesiprausiẽ / tesipraũsia teesiẽ / tebūniẽ / tebùs

The imperative mood is used to describe an action that the speaker wants another person to do: Duok pinigų! – Give me some money! Iš pradžių įleiskime svečius.Let us at first invite the guests in. This mood is actively used in modern Lithuanian.

The 2nd person of singular has its ending -i only in poetry / fictional literature. The usage of this ending is usually an indication of poetic style.

The perfect and inchoative forms are composed of the auxiliary verb būti in its simple imperative form and of an active participle of the main verb, matched according to gender and number of the person:

  Perfect Inchoative
I
You (singular) būk skaitęs / skaičiusi būk beskaitąs / beskaitainti
He/She/It tebūnie skaitęs / skaičiusi tebūnie beskaitąs / beskaitainti
We būkime skaitę / skaičiusios būkime beskaitą / beskaitainčios
You (plural) būkite skaitę / skaičiusios būkite beskaitą / beskaitainčios
They tebūnie skaitę / skaičiusios tebūnie beskaitą / beskaitančios

Imperative perfect means an instruction of the speaker that has to be completed before some other event: Pirmadienį jau būkite apsisprendę – Please have already made your decision until Monday. This form is actively used in modern Lithuanian.

Imperative inchoative means an instruction of the speaker that has to be started before some other event and continued afterwards: Kai grįšiu, būkite bedirbą – When I’ll come back, please be working. This form is obsolete.

Conditional mood

The conditional mood has three forms or tenses (simple, perfect and inchoative). It is very regular to form:

  dìrbti = to work norė́ti = to want skaitýti = to read praũstis = to wash oneself bū́ti = to be
I dìrbčiau norė́čiau skaitýčiau praũsčiausi bū́čiau
You (singular)¹ dìrbtum(ei) norė́tum(ei) skaitýtum(ei) praũstumeisi bū́tum(ei)
He/She/It dìrb norė́ skaitý praũstųsi bū́
We³ dìrbtu(mė)me norė́tu(mė)me skaitýtu(mė)me praũstu(mė)mės bū́tu(mė)me
You (plural)²,³ dìrbtu(mė)te norė́tu(mė)te skaitýtu(mė)te praũstu(mė)tės bū́tu(mė)te
They dìrb norė́ skaitý praũstųsi bū́

¹The longer form with the ending -ei is used very rarely in modern Lithuanian.

²A shorter form without -mė- does exist, but is used very rarely.

³In modern colloquial speech the shorter forms actually retain the -mė- syllable, but remove the final -e (except for reflexive verbs): dirbtumėm, skaitytumėt.

This mood is actively used in modern Lithuanian and one of its functions corresponds to the English conditional mood. The conditional mood is used to describe a hypothetical action that could take place if certain conditions were met (hence the name) or a desired action in present or in future: Panaikinus muitus, sumažėtų prekių kainos – Having eliminated customs duties, prices would go down. Conditional mood is used in conditional (if) sentences; this usage requires conditional mood in subordinate and main clauses if both actions are perceived as hypothetical: Visi laimėtų, jeigu priimtumėte šį pasiūlymą. – There would be a win-win situation for everyone if you accepted this offer.

Another very important function of conditional mood is the expression of purpose in final clauses (corresponds to Subjunctive mood in Romance languages): Dirbu viršvalandžius, kad uždirbčiau daugiau. – I work extra hours so that I earn more.

The third function of conditional mood is the expression of politeness: Siūlyčiau panagrinėti šią temą kitu kampu.I would like to suggest to examine this topic from a different angle.

The perfect and inchoative forms are composed of the auxiliary verb būti in its simple conditional form and of an active participle of the main verb, matched according to gender and number of the person:

  Perfect Inchoative
I būčiau skaitęs / skaičiusi būčiau beskaitąs / beskaitainti
You (singular) būtum skaitęs / skaičiusi būtum beskaitąs / beskaitainti
He/She/It būtų skaitęs / skaičiusi būtų beskaitąs / beskaitainti
We būtume skaitę / skaičiusios būtume beskaitą / beskaitainčios
You (plural) būtumėte skaitę / skaičiusios būtumėte beskaitą / beskaitainčios
They būtų skaitę / skaičiusios būtų beskaitą / beskaitančios

Conditional perfect is actively used in modern Lithuanian. It means a hypothetical action in the past that would have taken place if certain conditions had been met (corresponds to the semantically equivalent form in English): Vadovas būtų pritaręs renginiui, bet niekas nerodė iniciatyvos. – The leader would have approved the event, but nobody showed initiative.

Inchoative conditional means an action that could have started in the past and continued until present if certain conditions were met: Jei jis būtų paklaũsęs mano patarimo, šiandien būtų besimáudąs turtuose. – If he had listened to my advice, today he would be rolling in money. This form is obsolete.

Passive voice

In Lithuanian passive voice is always analytical and structured differently than the active voice. Passive voice has no perfect and no inchoative tenses, because similar semantic relationships can be expressed by the present / past passive participle dichotomy.

Passive voice is always composed of the auxiliary verb būti in its respective tense / person and either a present passive participle or a past passive participle that must match the gender and number of the subject. Sometimes the necessity participle can be used as well. In order to avoid redundancy, the following table only includes the third (masculine) person of singular.

    Present passive Past passive
Indicative mood Present yra baigiamas yra baigtas
Past bùvo baĩgiamas buvo baigtas¹
Past iterative bū́davo baigiamas būdavo baigtas
Future bùs baigiamas bus baigtas
Indirect mood Present esą̃s baigiamas esąs baigtas
Past bùvęs baigiamas buvęs baigtas¹
Past iterative bū́davęs baigiamas būdavęs baigtas
Future bū̃siąs baigiamas būsiąs baigtas
Imperative mood tebūnie baigiamas tebūnie baigtas
Conditional mood būtų baigiamas būtų baigtas

¹This form for all persons can expressed using the passive (invariable) neuter gender participle bū́ta instead of the active participle bùvęs, usually for intransitive verbs: Prieš tai mes buvome [buvę] apsilankę muziejuje → Prieš tai mūsų būta apsilankyta muziejuje. – Before that we had gone to a museum → Before that it had been gone by us to a museum. This structure is rarely used in modern Lithuanian.

The subject of the active voice is converted to the passive voice using its possessive genitive form (hence aš, tu (I, you) converts not into manęs, tavęs, but mano, tavo): Vaikus pagimdei tu, bet užauginau → Vaikai buvo tavo pagimdyti, bet mano užauginti.You gave birth to the children, but I raised them → The children were given birth by you, but raised by me.

Passive voice structures with present participle are the passive equivalents of active voice simple tenses: Mokslininkai atranda tolimas planetas → Tolimos planetos yra mokslininkų atrandamos – Scientists discover distant planets → Distant planets are being discovered by scientists. Kaime bijodavo vilkų → Kaime būdavo bijoma vilkų – Village [people] used to fear wolves → Wolves used to be feared by village [people].

Passive voice structures with past participle are the passive equivalents of active voice perfect tenses: Siuntinį paštas bus pristatęs iki Kalėdų → Siuntys bus pašto pristatytas iki Kalėdų – The post office will have delivered the parcel until Christmas → The parcel will have been delivered by the post office until Christmas. Už tokį poelgį tave būtų pagerbę → Už tokį poelgį būtum pagerbtas – One would have praised you for such a behaviour → You would have been praised for such a behaviour.

Because of the flexibility offered by the neuter gender, in Lithuanian most active voice structures can be converted into passive voice, including intransitive, reflexive and even impersonal verbs. A transitive example (some or most of the English translations are literal, do not make sense in English and are shown only to give an idea):

Generally in modern Lithuanian absence of the subject has a very limited use (except for impersonal verbs). In cases where an active voice structure would have no subject or there is no need for it (except for impersonal verbs), a passive voice equivalent is used: Čia nerūko! → Čia nerūkoma! – [Nobody] smokes here! → No smoking here! (The subject would be too broad). Skubiai išnuomoja dviejų kambarių butą. → Skubiai išnuomojamas dviejų kambarių butas. [Someone] is urgently renting a two-room apartment. → A two-room apartment is urgently for rent. (The subject is not necessary).

The opposite case is true as well. If a passive voice structure has an agent expressed in the genitive case, an active voice structure is preferred: Pilietinė visuomenė turi būti skatinama vyriausybės. → (more common) Vyriausybė turi skatinti pilietinę visuomenę. – A civil society should be promoted by the government. → The government should promote a civil society.

Participles

Lithuanian retains a rich system of participles, fourteen in total. In contrast English contains just two: the present participle ("the eating cow") and the past participle ("the eaten cow").

Adjectival participles decline as adjectives, while adverbial participles are not declined..

In Lithuanian participles are very important part of every type of speech. All of them have their own function, but not all are used equally often.

Adjectival participles

Adjectival participles have all the adjectival characteristics: three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), pronominal forms, mostly identical declension and sometimes even degrees of comparison. Their primary function is to describe a nominal part of speech (usually a noun), like any adjective would in their position, hence they are matched by gender, case and number with the noun they are describing.

They can be active or passive. In the following tables only nominative case forms are given.

The verb used is baĩgti (to finish).

Active (non pronominal forms):

Simple Reflexive
MasculineFeminineNeuterMasculineFeminineNeuter
Present/imperfective baigią̃s / baĩgiantisbaĩgiantibaigią̃besibaigią̃s / besibaĩgiantis / baĩgiąsisbesibaĩgianti / baĩgiantisbesibaigią̃ / baigią̃si
Past/perfective baĩgęsbaĩgusibaĩgębaĩgęsisbaĩgusisbaĩgęsi
Habitual/frequentative past baĩgdavęsbaĩgdavusibaĩgdavębaĩgdavęsisbaĩgdavusisbaĩgdavęsi
Future baigsią̃s / baĩgsiantisbaĩgsiantibaigsią̃baĩgsiąsisbaĩgsiantisbaĩgsiąsi

Active (pronominal counterparts):

Simple Reflexive
MasculineFeminineNeuterMasculineFeminineNeuter
Present/imperfective baigiantỹsisbaigiančiójibesibaigiantỹsisbesibaigiančióji
Past/perfective baigusỹsisbaigusióji(pa)sibaigusỹsis¹(pa)sibaigusióji¹
Habitual/frequentative past
Future baigsiantỹsisbaigsiančióji(pa)sibaigsiantỹsis¹(pa)sibaigsiančióji¹

¹This form only exists for verbs with prefixes (except for be-).

Passive (non pronominal forms):

Simple Reflexive
MasculineFeminineNeuterMasculineFeminineNeuter
Present/imperfective baĩgiamasbaigiamàbaĩgiama(už)sibaĩgiamas²(už)sibaigiamà²baĩgiamasi
Past/perfective baĩgtasbaigtàbaĩgta(už)sìbaigtas²(už)sibaigtà²baĩgtasi
Habitual/frequentative past
Future baĩgsimasbaigsimàbaĩgsima(už)sibaĩgsimas²(už)sibaigsimà²baĩgsimasi
Necessity baĩgtinasbaigtinàbaĩgtina(už)sibaĩgtinas²(už)sibaigtinà²baĩgtinasi

Passive (pronominal counterparts):

Simple Reflexive
MasculineFeminineNeuterMasculineFeminineNeuter
Present/imperfective baigiamàsisbaigiamóji(už)sibaigiamàsis²(už)sibaigiamóji²
Past/perfective baigtàsisbaigtóji(už)sibaigtàsis²(už)sibaigtóji²
Habitual/frequentative past
Future baigsimàsisbaigsimóji(už)sibaigsimàsis²(už)sibaigsimóji²
Necessity baigtinàsisbaigtinóji(už)sibaigtinàsis²(už)sibaigtinóji²

²This form only exists for transitive verbs with prefixes (except for be-). In Lithuanian reflexive verbs can be transitive: susipinti plaukus – to plait one’s hair [to oneself].

Passive voice present participles and the necessity participles can acquire degrees of comparison if their meaning allows it: mėgti (to like) → mėgstamas (favourite), mėgstamesnis (more favourite), mėgstamiausias (the most favourite); būti (to be) → būtinas (necessary), būtinesnis (more necessary), būtiniausias (the most necessary).

The necessity participles are used to describe something that has to be done: Įsidėmėtinos rašybos atvejis – A spelling case one has to pay special attention to. Abejotina, ar mums pavyksIt is to be doubted if we succeed. Mostly limited to official styles, but certain participles are actively used in colloquial speech as well, some of them being considered more adjectives than verbs: Jis suimtas už pasibaisėtiną elgesį su gyvūnais – He was arrested for an appalling behaviour with animals. (Pasibaisėtinas = one that has to be detested).

Main passive participles mainly denote actions that have impact upon nouns they describe: statomas namas – a house that is being built, iškeltas klausimas – a question that has been raised, vykdysimas įsakymas – an order that will be obeyed. Future passive participles are rare in modern speech.

Present passive participles very often have an active meaning, especially if the verb is intransitive, and are one of the terminology building tools: kuliamoji mašina – a threshing machine, taupomasis bankas – a savings bank, grįžtamasis ryšys – a feedback. If the verb is transitive, it can be used in its intransitive meaning in form of a present passive participle: gydomasis vanduo – healing water. Compare: geriamasis vanduo – drinking water. The difference in those cases is only semantic (water cannot be healed, thus it is accepted that gydomasis vanduo denotes water having healing properties, but not water being healed).

Adverbial participles

As the name suggests, adverbial participles have the characteristics of an adverb and are used to describe the verb instead of the subject. These forms are not conjugatable, although the gerund (pusdalyvis) has feminine and masculine genders for both singular and plural.

Simple Reflexive
Present/imperfective baĩgiantbaĩgiantis
Past/perfective baĩgusbaĩgusis
Habitual/frequentative past baĩgdavusbaĩgdavusis
Future baĩgsiantbaĩgsiantis
Gerund baĩgdamas (sg M), baigdamà (sg F)baĩgdamasis (sg M), baĩgdamasi (sg F)
baigdamì (pl M), baĩgdamos (pl F)baĩgdamiesi (pl M), baĩgdomosi (pl F)
Intensifying participle (būdinys) (I) baigtè
Intensifying participle (būdinys) (II) baigtinaĩ

This table shows the participle usage in temporal adverbial phrases:

Simultaneous action Past action
Sentence subject is the agent Gerund Past simple adjectival participle
Sentence subject is not the agent Present adverbial Past adverbial

This table shows the participle usage as an object:

Simultaneous action Past action Multiple actions in the past Future action
Sentence subject is the agent Present adjectival active participle Past simple adjectival active participle Past iterative adjectival active participle Future adjectival active participle
Sentence subject is not the agent Present adverbial Past adverbial Past iterative adverbial Future adverbial

Grammatical aspect

All Lithuanian verbs can be characterized by their aspect which can be either perfective or imperfective. Nevertheless, this important dichotomy is semantical, rather than expressed by purely grammatical means.[3] Formally distinguishing an imperfective verb from its perfective counterpart is not possible, since those forms are not mutually exclusive or interdependant. Moreover, certain grammatical catogories (like past iterative tense) automatically negate any perfectiveness a certain verb might have in infinitive or in other tenses. The opposite is true as well: a different tense (like an inchoative or perfective tense) of an otherwise imperfective verb automatically grants a perfective meaning. Contrary to Slavonic languages, each and every Lithuanian verb, in spite of its aspect, has all tenses and forms described in previous chapters of this article.

Nevertheless, certain very general rules can be laid down to detect the aspect of a verb in Lithuanian.

The imperfective aspect of a verb means the continuity of an action or a repetitiveness of a completed action. The imperfective aspect can sometimes implied by:

The perfective aspect of a verb means the completeness of an action. The perfective aspect can sometimes implied by:

In other cases the aspect is contextual. This might sometimes be implied by:

mèsti – to throw:
Vakar mečiau darbą – I quit my job yesterday. (perfective)
Visas senas knygas jis metė į šiukšlių dėžę – He was throwing all the old books to the trash bin. (imperfective)
grį̃žti – to come back:
Grįžęs namo, virtuvėje rasi sriubos. – Having come back home, you’ll find some soup in the kitchen. (perfective)
Grįžtu namo, kol saulė dar nenusileido – I’m going home till the sun is not yet down. (imperfective)
laimė́ti – to win:
Kol kas mūsų komanda laimi – For the meantime our team is winning. (present tense, imperfective)
Mūsų komanda laimėjo dideliu skirtumu – Our team [has] won by a big difference. (past simple tense, perfective)

Verb prefixes

General usage notes

Prefixes are added to verbs to make new verbs that have different color of the primary verb's meaning. The new verb and the primary verb are considered different words, taking different positions in vocabularies. However their meanings are very close, often showing similarity to being forms of a single verb. In many instances a prefixed verb has no semantical relationship with the primary verb. Prefixes have mostly restrictive sense, so they restrict the meaning of the primary not prefixed verb to certain direction, amount or limit of time.

There are also three special modifying prefixes that can be used with other prefixed or unprefixed (including reflexive) verbs. They define different forms of the same verb, rather than a new verb:

– takes an undefined amount of time: Šitaip bedirbant galima susigadinti sveikatą – Working [for a long time] like that one can damage one’s health. This function allows be- to be used as a dummy prefix for reflexive present tense participles. In that case the reflexive formant moves right after the prefix, thus avoiding the formation of a complex reflexive ending: džiaũgtis – to rejoice → džiaũgiantisis – the one (masc., sg. nominative) who rejoices, but more commonly: besidžiaũgiantis. Other forms besides nominative (džiaũgiančiasis – the ones (fem., pl. accusative) who rejoice) are not used at all in favour of besidžiaũgiančias etc.
– may be interrupted (see "Inchoative tenses");
– is restrictive (a combination of English "only" and "still"): Ligoninėje jį motina beaplanko – Only his mother still visits him to the hospital.
– that an action of a verb is restrictive (equivalent of English "only"): Ligoninėje jį motina teaplanko – Only his mother visits him to the hospital;
– the 3rd person of the imperative mood (see "Imperative mood").

 nẽšasi but nusìneša, atsìneša
 laikýtis but susilaikýti, pasilaikýti
 teiráutis but pasiteiráuti

 nẽšasi but nesìneša, nebesìneša, also nenusìneša, neatsìneša, tebeatsìneša
 laikýtis, but nesilaikýti, also nesusilaikýti, nepasilaikýti
 teiráutis but nesiteiráuti, also nepasiteiráuti

Stress retraction

Certain Lithuanian verbs have the ability to move their stress to the last prefixed element they acquire. General stress retraction principles are laid down below.

All prefixes (including ne- type, but not including the prefix per-) acquire the stress only in:

baũsti (to punish, monosyllabic stem verb) → baũdė (stress on the penultimate, rising tone) → baudė, nebenùbaudė etc.
vìrti (to boil, monosyllabic stem verb) → vìrė (stress on the penultimate, short vowel) → ìšvirė, nebeišvirė etc.
kláusti (to ask, monosyllabic stem verb) → kláusė (stress on the penultimate, falling tone, the rule does not apply) → pakláusė
darýti (to ask, suffixal verb, the rule does not apply) → dãrė (stress on the penultimate, rising tone) → padãrė
kalbė́ti (to speak, suffixal verb) → kal̃ba (stress on the penultimate, no suffix, rising tone) → kalba, tebesìkalba etc.
sukti (to turn, primary verb) → sùka (stress on the penultimate, no suffix, short vowel) → suka, suka etc.
plaũkti (to swim) → išplaũkti (to swim out) → išplaũkia (no retraction, hence: neišplaũkia, teišplaũkia etc.)
riñkti (to gather) → suriñkti (to gather them all) → sùrenka (retraction does happen, hence: nèrenka, tèrenka etc.)
turė́ti (to have) → suturė́ti (to restrain) → sùturi (retraction does happen, but not for ne- type prefixes of the non-prefixed verbs: netùri, tetùri etc.)
galė́ti (to be able) → išgalė́ti (to afford) → ìšgali (retraction does happen, but not for ne- type prefixes of the non-prefixed verbs: negãli, begãli etc.)

Stem classes

The below given tables are not a full collection of types of conjugation, there can be types in language not included here.

Consonants d, t become s before t in any case in language. In verbs this occurs before a desinence -ti of the infinitive, desinence with -t- of the past passive participle.

Non-suffixed

infinitive present tense past tense meaning
I p. sg. II p. sg. III p. sg., pl. I p. sg. II p. sg. III p. sg., pl.
Consonantal non-palatalized stems (it is palatalized in the form of the present II p., but not in the remaining forms). Sounds of a stem do not change in conjugation, except a common pre-desinential alternation between historically nasal vowels (in the infinitive) and nasal diphthongs.
áugti áugu áugi áuga áugau áugai augo to grow
bė́gti bė́gu bė́gi bė́ga bė́gau bė́gai bė́go to run
šókti šóku šóki šóka šókau šókai šóko to jump, spring, leap; hop in, out; dance
dìrbti dìrbu dìrbi dìrba dìrbau dìrbai dìrbo to work
sė́sti sė́du sė́di sė́da sė́dau sė́dai sė́do to sit down, sit up; mount, get on (car, plain etc.)
grū́sti grū́du grū́di grū́da grū́dau grū́dai grū́do to thrust; hustle; pestle; tamp
žį́sti žìndu žìndi žìnda žìndau žìndai žìndo to suck, nurse (at)
ką́sti kándu kándi kánda kándau kándai kándo to bite
galą́sti galándu galandi galánda galándau galandai galándo to sharpen, hone
lìpti lipù lipì lìpa lipaũ lipaĩ lìpo to mount; tread (on); scale, climb
kìšti kišù kišì kìša kišaũ kišaĩ kìšo to put, slip, poke, stick in
rìsti ritù ritì rìta ritaũ ritaĩ rìto to roll, bowl
sukti suku suki suka sukau sukai suko to turn; bear (to); spin; wrap
supti supu supi supa supau supai supo to swing, sway, rock
lupti lupu lupi lupa lupau lupai lupo to peel; flay; swinge, thrash
skùsti skutù skutì skùta skutaũ skutaĩ skùto to shave; scale, peel, scrape; run fast
There is a frequent verb with a consonant of an end of a stem palatalized in the present tense.
léisti léidžiu leidi leidžia leidau leidai leido to let, allow; spend
Alternation between pre-desinential e of the present tense and i of the other forms. Maybe only when the syllable contains a mixed diphthong (a, e, i, u + sonorant) and it is stressed in the end-firm accent.
sir̃gti sergù sergì ser̃ga sirgaũ sirgaĩ sir̃go to be ill
kirsti kertu kerti kerta kirtau kirtai kirto to cut, fell (by axe); cross, traverse; strike, smite; pitch in (food)
vilkti velku velki velka vilkau vilkai vilko to pull, trail, drag
tilpti telpu telpi telpa tilpau tilpai tilpo to get / have enough of space for oneself: be contained, go into
rinkti renku renki renka rinkau rinkai rinko to pick; collect
lįsti lendu lendi lenda lindau lindai lindo to be getting into / through smth.; make a pass at, intrude, molest, cavil, meddle
A numerous part of the verbs having any of a short vowel – a, e, i, u – in a pre-desinential syllable in infinitive receive n, m (the latter when before p, b) after these vowels in the present.
tàpti tampù tampì tam̃pa tapaũ tapaĩ tãpo to become
rasti randu randi rañda radau radai rãdo to find
gesti gendu gendi genda gedau gedai gedo to deteriorate; decay; spoil; corrupt
tikti tinku tinki tinka tikau tikai tiko to fit
apnikti apninku apninki apninka apnikau apnikai apniko to obsess, crowd in
migti mingu mingi minga migau migai migo to be / start falling asleep
lipti limpu limpi limpa lipau lipai lipo to stick, cling
plisti plintu plinti plinta plitau plitai plito to spread, proliferate, circulate
misti mintu minti minta mitau mitai mito to feed on, fare, live on
kisti kintu kinti kinta kitau kitai kito to mutate; vary
blukti blunku blunki blunka blukau blukai bluko to fade
klupti klumpu klumpi klumpa klupau klupai klupo to stumble
justi juntu junti junta jutau jutai juto to sense, feel
A small group of verbs has to be written with a nosinė in the present.
balti bąlu bąli bąla balau balai balo to become white, to whiten
šalti šąla šąli šąla šalau šalai šalo to freeze; to cool; to feel cold
karti kąra kąri kąra karau karai karo to incline, bow down (hung things, boughs)
For the verbs, that have start-firm accented mixed diphthongs -il-, -ir- in the pre-desinential syllable in the infinitive, the vowel i lengthens and receives the end-firm accent in the present tense, if the syllabe becomes open.
kìlti kylù kyli kỹla kilau kilai kilo to rise; emerge (e.g. question)
dilti dylu dyli dyla dilau dilai dilo to fray, decay, become dull
birti byru byri byra birau birai biro to crumble; fall down (for particles)
irti yru / irstu yri yra irau irai iro to disintegrate, decay, crumble
Cases of alternation between a pre-desinential e of the present tense and i of the other forms in verbs which receive n, m in the present forms. A word likti has i.e. / i alternation. A word kristi can be conjugated both with -en- / -in- in the present tense.
skristi skrendù skrendi skrenda skridau skridai skrido to fly
bristi brendu brendi brenda bridau bridai brido to wade, go on foot through water, grass etc.
kristi krentu /krintu krenti krinta kritau kritai krito to fall
likti lieku lieki lieka likau likai liko to remain
Stems that are palatalized in the past tense.
ėsti ė́du ėdi ėda ė́džiau ėdei ėdė to eat (for animals); eat like an animal; erode
vesti vedù vedi veda vedžiaũ vedei vedė to lead, take smb. to somewhere; marry (for a man; for a woman a word is tekėti, teka, tekėjo)
mèsti metù meti meta mečiau metei metė to throw
vežti vežu veži veža vežiau vežei vežė to carry by means of conveyance, by vehicle
nešti nešu neši neša nešiau nešei nešė to carry (going on foot)
kasti kasu kasi kasa kasiau kasei kasė to dig
lesti lesu lesi lesa lesiau lesei lesė to peck
sekti seku seki seka sekiau sekei sekė to follow; spy (on, upon); tell a tail
kepti kepu kepi kepa kepiau kepei kepė to bake
degti degu degi dega degiau degei degė to be on fire, burn; kiln
megzti mezgu mezgi mezga mezgiau mezgei mezgė to knit
zùiti zujù zuji zuja zujau zujai zujo to pop in and out
kálti kalù kali kala kaliau kalei kalė to hammer, smith, batter; mint; chisel; hit
málti malu Mali mala maliau malei malė to grind, mill
bár̃ti barù bari bara bariau barei barė to scold, trim
A verb pulti has alternation between u in the infinitive and uo in the present and past tenses. Verbs gimti, mirti have the suffix -st- in the present.
pùlti púolu puoli puola púoliau puolei puolė to attack; fling, throw oneself, make a dive
gìmti gìmstu gimsti gimsta gimiaũ gimei gimė to be born, arrive
mir̃ti mìrštu miršti miršta miriaũ mirei mirė to die, stop living
For the verbs of this group that have start-firm accented mixed diphthongs starting in i – im, in, il, ir – in a pre-desinential syllable in the infinitive, the syllable becomes open and a vowel i lengthens (the accent remains start-firm) in the past tense.
pìlti pilù pili pila pýliau pylei pylė to pour (any non solid material); tip
tirti tiriu tiri tiria tyriau tyrei tyrė to investigate; analyse; research
skinti skinu skini skina skyniau skynei skynė to pluck (fruits, flowers etc.)
pinti pinu pini pina pyniau pynei pynė to plait; weave; pleach
trinti trinu trini trina tryniau trynei trynė to rub
minti minu mini mina myniau mynei mynė to step, tread (on); trample; treadle
ginti ginu gini gina gyniau gynei gynė to defend
im̃ti imù imi ima ėmiaũ ėmeĩ ė̃mė to take
There are some verbs having mixed diphthongs in a pre-desinential syllable that have alternation between pre-desinential e of the present tense and i of the other forms. A sound i of a pre-desinential syllable is not lengthened in the past tense. A verb virti has d insterted after -er- in the present tense.
atsimiñti atsìmenu atsimeni atsimena atsìminiau atsiminei atsiminė to remember, recollect
miñti menù meni mena miniaũ minei minė to riddle, ask a riddle
giñti genù geni gena giniau ginei ginė to herd, goad, drive
vìrti vérdu verdi verda viriaũ vireĩ vìrė to boil (figur. as well); cook (by boiling)
Consonantal non-palatalized stems that have suffix -st- in the present. There are many verbs in this group. When the suffix is preceded by d, t of a stem, these consonants merge with s and s remains, when it is preceded by ž, š of a stem, the remaining are stem-ending consonants ž, š.
sprógti sprógstu sprogsti sprógsta sprógau sprogai sprogo to explode, burst; eat (get stomach filled)
plýšti plýštu plyšti plyšta plyšau plyšai plyšo to tear, rip, split; (coll.) get drunk
klysti klystu klysti klysta klydau klydai klydo to mistake, err, be under misapprehension
rūgti rūgstu rūgsti rūgsta rūgau rūgai rūgo to sour, become turned
tolti tolstu tolsti tolsta tolau tolai tolo to become remote, distant, to recede
alkti alkstu alksti alksta alkau alkai alko to become, be hungry; to be short of food
pažìnti pažį́stu pažįsti pažįsta pažinaũ pažinai pažino to become familiar, to explore; recognize
pažinoti pažinojau pažinojai pažinojo to know smb., be acquaintance with smb.
pỹkti pykstù pyksti pỹksta pykaũ pykai pyko to be angry, annoyed
nykti nykstu nyksti nyksta nykau nykai nyko to dwindle, wither away, vanish, disappear
rausti raustu rausti rausta raudau raudai raudo to become red, to redden; to blush
brangti brangstu brangsti brangsta brangau brangai brango to become expensive
išsigąsti išsigąstu išsigąsti išsigąsta išsigando išsigandai išsigando to get a scare, fright; to lose courage
vargti vargstu vargsti vargsta vargau vargai vargo to have difficulties doing smth.; be in hardship
širsti širstu širsti širsta širdau širdai širdo to be angry (širdis – heart)
dingti dingstu dingsti dingsta dingau dingai dingo to disappear
klimpti klimpstu klimpsti klimpsta klimpau klimpai klimpo to sink (to viscous material)
drįsti drįstu drįsti drįsta drįsau drįsai drįso to dare
grįžti grįžtu grįžti grįžta grįžau grįžai grįžo to come back, return
A small group of stems ending in ž, š, has to be written with an ogonek in the present.
gesti gęstu gęsti gęsta gesau gesai geso to be stopping (intransitive) shining, burning, working (for light, fire; life; motor)
težti tęžtu tęžti tęžta težau težai težo to become squidgy; wimp out
For a few stems that have short i, u in a pre-desinential syllable, maybe only when it ends in ž, š, the vowels lengthen in the present. For tikšti the forms tykšta and tyška are used in the present tense.
dùžti dū̃žta dùžo to smash, chip
gižti gyžta gižo to sour, become turned (figur. as well)
tikšti tykšta tiško to splash on smth., smb.
tižti tyžta tižo to become squidgy; wimp out
ižti yžta ižo to crack (usual for ice)
nižti nyžta nižo to start itching, to itch
Vocalic stems. A consonant n (or j in dialects) is inserted before desinences after a pre-desinential au. The diphthong becomes ov in the past, when start-firm accented. Consonant v is palatalized.
eĩti einù eini eĩna ėjaũ ėjai ė̃jo to go
aũti aunù auni aũna aviaũ avei ãvė to boot, shoe
máuti máunu máuni máuna móviau movei movė to put on, glove, shoe
rauti raunu rauni rauna roviau rovei rovė to tear up
šauti šaunu šauni šauna šoviau šovei šovė to shoot
brautis braunuosi brauniesi braunasi broviausi broveisi brovėsi to intrude; thrust one's way; be breaking in
liautis liaujuosi liaujiesi liaujasi lioviausi lioveisi liovėsi to cease, desist
griauti griaunu griauni griauna grioviau griovei griovė to ruin, demolish; unsettle
Consonant v / n is inserted after ū.
griū̃ti griūvù /-nù griūni griū̃va griuvaũ griuvai griùvo to tumble down, fall down; collapse
žūti žūnu /-vu žūni žūva žuvau žuvai žuvo to perish
pūti pūvu /-nu pūni pūva puvau puvai puvo to rot
siūti siuvu /siūnu siuvi siuva siuvau siuvai siuvo to sew, stitch
gáuti gáunu gauni gauna gavaũ gavai gãvo to get
A consonant j is inserted before desinences after other pre-desinential vowels, diphthong i.e.
móti móju moji moja mójau mojai mojo to motion, wave, sweep
ploti ploju ploji ploja plojau plojai plojo to clap, applaud; flatten; swat
joti joju joji joja jojau jojai jojo to ride on horse
goti goju goji goja gojau gojai gojo (dial.) to go in a hurry
kloti kloju kloji kloja klojau klojai klojo to lay, pave; to tell, report, retail; to make a bed (lovą);
groti groju groji groja grojau grojai grojo to play (musical instrument)
sėti sėju sėji sėja sėjau sėjai sėjo to sow, seed; disseminate
sieti sieju sieji sieja siejau siejai siejo to tie, associate, bond
lieti lieju lieji lieja liejau liejai liejo to pour (liquid); water (plants)
lýti lỹja lijo to rain
gýti gyjù gyji gỹja gijaũ gijai gijo to heal, recover
rýti ryjù ryji ryja rijau rijai rijo to swallow; guttle
výti vejù veji veja vijau vijai vijo to strand, twist; chase
Two verbs have d insterted before the desinences in the present forms.
dúoti dúodu duodi dúoda daviaũ davei davė to give
dė́ti dedù dedi dẽda dėjau dė́jai dėjo to put, lay, set; place
Palatalized consonantal stems. Maybe the most numerous group of non-suffixed verbs.
siẽkti siekiù sieki siẽkia siekiaũ siekei siekė to seek, aim (at, for)
griebti griebiu griebi griebia griebiau griebei griebė to grab; snatch
keisti keičiu keiti keičia keičiau keitei keitė to change
braukti braukiu brauki braukia braukiau braukei braukė to wipe, sweep across; line through
rausti rausiu rausi rausia rausiau rausei rausė to trench, burrow
kaupti kaupiu kaupi kaupia kaupiau kaupei kaupė to save up, gather, amass
mer̃kti merkiù merkì mer̃kia merkiaũ merkeĩ mer̃kė to soak, dip
dengti dengiu dengi dengia dengiau dengei dengė to cover
švęsti švenčiu šventi švenčia švenčiau šventei šventė to celebrate
tęsti tęsiu tęsi tęsia tęsiau tęsei tęsė to continue, proceed; drag, carry
čiulpti čiulpiu čiulpi čiulpia čiulpiau čiulpei čiulpė to suck
siųsti siunčiu siunti siunčia siunčiau siuntei siuntė to send
láužti láužiu lauži laužia láužiau laužei laužė to break (transitive)
grėbti grėbiu grėbi grėbia grėbiau grėbei grėbė to rake
grobti grobiu grobi grobia grobiau grobei grobė to plunder; kidnap; usurp, hog
mérkti mérkiu mérki mérkia mérkiau mérkei mérkė to give a wink; to close eyes
melžti melžiu melži melžia melžiau melžei melžė to milk
jùngti jùngiu jungi jungia jungiau jungei jungė to connect, join
skų́sti skùndžiu skundi skundžia skundžiau skundei skundė to tell on; tattle; appeal (against)
When a pre-desinential syllable having mixed diphthong becomes open in the past, its vowel receive a start-firm accent and lengthens (for a, e, besides lengthening, those vowels are of different quality, o, ė) if stressed.
gérti geriu geri geria gė́riau gėrei gėrė to drink
pér̃ti periu peri peria pė́riaũ pėrei pėrė to beat with a leafy, wet birch bunch (in sauna)
kélti keliu keli kelia kėliau kėlei kėlė to raise
rem̃ti remiu remi remia rėmiau rėmei rėmė to prop, bear up; support
kùlti kuliu kuli kulia kū́liau kūlei kūlė to flail
dùrti duriu duri duria dūriau dūrei dūrė to prick, stick
stùmti stumiu stumi stumia stūmiau stūmei stūmė to push, move; thrust, shove; (coll.) grudge
ìrti iriu iri iria ýriau yrei yrė to row, oar
spìrti spiriu spiri spiria spyriau spyrei spyrė to kick; spring back; press (for), push
kárti kariù kari kãria kóriau korei korė to hang over; execute
árti ariù ari ãria ariaũ areĩ ãrė to plough
tar̃ti tariù tari tãria tariaũ tarei tarė to pronounce; assume
Alternation between u, e, a in the present and respectively ū, ė, o (long vowels, historically: ū, ē, ā) in the past. A vowel u is short both in stressed and unstressed position, e, a lengthen and are end-firm accented in stressed position in stem (not in desinence).
pū̃sti pučiù puti pùčia pūčiau pūtei pū̃tė to blow; toot
tū̃pti tupiu tupi tupia tūpiau tūpei tūpė to squat; hunker
drė̃bti drebiu drebi drẽbia drėbiau drėbei drė̃bė to make smth. fall on smth., smb. (for viscous, thick material); sleet; plonk
krė̃sti krečiu kreti krečia krėčiau krėtei krėtė to shake smth. down
plė̃sti plečiu pleti plečia plėčiau plėtei plėtė to expand, widen, amplify
lė̃kti lekiu leki lekia lėkiau lėkei lėkė to scurry, rip along, fly; fly; fall out, fly away
skė̃sti skečiu sketi skečia skėčiau skėtei skėtė to spread, open out (e.g. arms, legs, umbrella)
tė̃kšti teškiu teški teškia tėškiau tėškei tėškė to splash on smth., smb.; slap; slam
võgti vagiu vagi vãgia vogiau vogei vogė to steal

Suffixed

-o- suffixed stems. Shorter present tense. A consonant j is iserted between a vocalic stem and a desinence to make pronunciation easier. Historically it is most probably the same type as the full is, there are verbs that are conjugated in both types, for example, saugoti, saugau / saugoju (< saugā(j)u). A verb pažinoti – to know (person), has the same to pažinti – to know, become familiar, -st- suffixed present forms.
žinóti žinaũ žinai žino žinójau žinojai žinojo to know, be aware (of; that)
šypsótis šỹpsaũsi šypsaisi šỹpsosi šypsójausi šypsojaisi šypsojosi to smile
sáugoti sáugau saugai saugo sáugojau saugojai saugojo to protect; keep, save
Full type of -o- suffixed stems (the suffix is kept the same in conjugation)
naudóti naudóju naudoji naudoja naudójau naudojai naudojo to use
putóti putoju putoji putoja putojau putojai putojo to foam
býlóti byloju byloji byloja bylojau bylojai byloja to speak, purport
sáugoti sáugoju saugoji saugoja saugojau saugojai saugojo to protect; keep, save
šakótis šakojuosi šakojiesi šakojasi šakojausi šakojaisi šakojosi to spread boughs: ramify; (coll.) conflict, put one's own condition over smb.; fork, divaricate
vilióti vilioju vilioji vilioja viliojau viliojai viliojo to attract, seduce, bait
galióti galioja galiojo to stand, hold good, be valid
Stems that do not have -o- suffix in the present tense.
miegóti miegù miegi miẽga miegójau miegojai miegojo to sleep
raudóti ráudu raudi ráuda raudójau raudojai raudojo to weep, mourn
giedóti gíedu giedi gieda giedójau giedojai giedojo to chant (religious); warble, crow
-y- suffixed stems. The present is of the -o- suffixed type. The past forms are historically possibly the same to the full -y- suffixed type, there are verbs that are conjugated in the both types, for example, pelnyti, (past) pelniau / pelnijau, pelnė (< pelnē < (possibly) pelni(j)ā) / pelnijo (< pelnijā) (a after a soft consonant is e).
sakýti sakaũ sakai sãko sakiaũ sakei sãkė to say
klausýti klausau klausai klauso klausiau klausė klausei to listen
darýti darau darai daro dariau darei darė to do
matýti matau matai mato mačiau matei matė to see
mė́tyti mė́tau mėtai mė́to mė́čiau mėtei mė́tė to throw (one-time: mesti, metu, mečiau)
gáudyti gaudau gaudai gaudo gaudžiau gaudei gaudė to catch (one-time: su/pagauti, -gaunu, -gavau)
ródyti rodau rodai rodo rodžiau rodei rodė to show
pelnýti pelnaũ pelnai pel̃no pelniau pelnei pelnė to earn
Full type of -y- suffixed stems. The suffix is shortened in conjugation if not stressed and is long or short (both variants are apt) in the present if stressed.
pel̃nyti pel̃niju pelniji pelnija pelnijau pelnijai pelnijo (obsolete) to earn
mū́ryti mū́riju mūriji mūrija mūrijau mūrijai mūrijo to lay bricks, set
nuõdyti nuõdiju nuodiji nuodija nuodijau nuodijai nuodijo to poison
trūnýti trūnỹja trūnijo to rot, putrefy
-ė- suffixed stems. Shorter present tense, palatalized ending consonant of a stem. It is possible that historically it would be the same type as the full one, there are words that are conjugated in the both of the types, for example, ryšė́ti – to wear smth. tied on oneself (rišti – to tie), ryšiù / ryšė́ju. For a verb vertėti the mainly used form is subjunctive, III p. (present) vertė́tų – it would be worth, for the present tense it is mostly said in a neuter adjective: ver̃ta – it is worth (to do smth.), for the past tense it is said either buvo verta or vertėjo – it was worth (to do smth.).
mylė́ti mýliu mýli mýli mylė́jau mylė́jai mylė́jo to love
norė́ti nóriu nori nori norėjau norėjai norėjo to want
blyksė́ti blýksiu blyksi blyksi blyksėjau blyksėjai blyksėjo to twinkle, blink
galė́ti galiù galì gãli galė́jau galėjai galėjo to be able
girdė́ti girdžiù girdi girdi girdėjau girdėjai girdėjo to hear
rūpė́ti rūpiù rūpi rūpi rūpėjau rūpėjai rūpėjo to concern, be interesting to smb.
nyrė́ti nyriù nyri nyri nyrėjau nyrėjai nyrėjo to be submerged and still
tikė́ti tikiù tiki tiki tikėjau tikėjai tikėjo to believe
vertė́ti (verti) vertėjo to be worth for being done / to be done
Full type of -ė- suffixed stems (the suffix is kept the same in conjugation)
ryškė́ti ryškė́ju ryškėji ryškėja ryškė́jau ryškėjai ryškėjo to become more clear, bold, bright, glowing
tvirtė́ti tvirtėju tvirtėji tvirtėji tvirtėjau tvirtėjai tvirtėjo to stiffen, strengthen, firm up
raudonė́ti raudonėju raudonėji raudonėja raudonėjau raudonėjai raudonėjo to become red, to redden
púoselėti púoselėju puoselėji puoselėja púoselėjau puoselėjai puoselėjo to foster; cherish
The stems having the suffix -in-ė-, which is used to make iterative or progressive meaning, are of this type. Varaũ į darbą – I am driving / going to work (or "I am going to drive / go to work", if said before the action happens). Varinėju po miestą – I am driving / going in the town / city here and there. Varau per miestą – I am driving / going through a town / city. Atidarinėju tą dėžutę – I am opening / I am trying to open that can (at the moment) ("atidarau" is also possible as "I am opening"). Lengvai atidarau – I open it easily.
varinė́ti varinė́ju varinėji varinėja varinė́jau varinėjai varinėja to drive, direct; drive, go (on foot, by train, etc.); propel, power (not repeated: varyti, varau, variau)
pardavinėti pardavinėju pardavinėji pardavinėja pardavinėjau pardavinėjai pardavinėjo to sell, market (one-time: parduoti, -duodu, -daviau)
klausinėti klausinėju klausinėji klausinėja klausinėjau klausinėji klausinėjo to ask (not repeated: klausti, klausiu, klausiau)
Stems that have neither -ė- suffix nor palatalization in the present tense.
kalbė́ti kalbù kalbi kal̃ba kalbė́jau kalbėjai kalbėjo to speak; talk
judė́ti judu judi juda judėjau judėjai judėjo to move, be in motion
žibė́ti žibu žibi žiba žibėjau žibėjai žibėjo to glitter, glint, star
bambė́ti bámbì bám̃ba bambėjai bambėjo to grouse, be on smb's case
skambė́ti skamba skambėjo to tune; sound
skaudė́ti skauda skaudėjo to hurt, ache
byrė́ti byra byrėjo to crumble; fall (small particles, petals)
-au-, -uo- suffixed stems, the suffix is -av- in the past. Verbs of this group are made from nouns, adjectives, etc. Verbs made from borrowings from other languages receive a suffix -uo-, for example, sportuoti – to go in for sports.
bendráuti bendráuju bendrauji bendrauja bendravaũ bendravai bendravo to associate (with), communicate (with)
kariáuti kariauju kariauji kariauja kariavau kariavai kariavo to be at war, wage war
matúoti matúoju matuoji matuoja matavaũ matavai matavo to measure
dainúoti dainuoju dainuoji dainuoja dainavau dainavai dainavo to sing
sapnúoti sapnuoju sapnuoji sapnuoja sapnavau sapnavai sapnavo to dream (sleeping); (coll.) to speak about smth. lacking orientation in it
vėlúoti vėluoju vėluoji vėluoja vėlavau vėlavai vėlavo to be late, to fall behind schedule
raudonúoti raudonuoju raudonuoji raudonuoja raudonavau raudonavai raudonavo to blush; to attract attention by being red
sūpúoti sūpuoju sūpuoji sūpuoja sūpavau sūpavai sūpavo to swing, sway, rock
kopijúoti kopijuoju kopijuoji kopijuoja kopijavau kopijavai kopijavo to copy
Some other suffixes, for example, transitivity-forming suffix -in-. A suffix -en- can have a meaning of moderate intensity of action. The suffix -in- is usual for making verbs from foreign words, e.g., (coll.) kòpinti – to copy, which is used besides longer standard kopijuoti.
rū́pintis rū́pinuosi rūpiniesi rūpinasi rū́pinausi rūpinasi rūpinosi to take care
grãžinti grãžinu gražini gražina grãžinau gražinai gražino to beautify
grąžìnti grąžinù grąžini grąžìna grąžinaũ gražinai grąžino to give back, return
jùdinti jùdinu judini judina jùdinau judinai judino to move, make smth. move
lýginti lýginu lygini lygina lýginau lyginai lygino to compare; to level, make level; make smooth; to iron (clothes); to equate
srovénti srovẽna srovẽno to stream tranquilly, in small ripple
kuténti kutenù kuteni kutẽna kutenaũ kutenai kutẽno to tickle, titillate
gabenti gabenu gabeni gabena gabenau gabenai gabeno to convey, carry
kūrenti kūrenu kūreni kūrena kūrenau kūrenai kūreno to fire furnace, heater
ridenti ridenu rideni ridena ridenau ridenai rideno to trundle, wheel, roll, make roll; bowl

Syntax

Word order

Lithuanian has an SVO (subject–verb–object) as the main word order:

Adjunct(s)(temporal, locative, causal) + Subject + Adjunct(s)(other) + Verb + Object(s) + Infinitive + other parts.

At the same time Lithuanian as a highly declined language is often considered to have the free word order. This idea is partially true, and a sentence such as "Today I saw a beautiful girl at the movies" could be said or written in many ways:

Šiandien kine aš mačiau gražią mergaitę. (the main order)
Today - at the movies - I - saw - beautiful - girl.
Aš mačiau gražią mergaitę kine šiandien.
Šiandien aš mačiau gražią mergaitę kine.
Gražią mergaitę mačiau aš kine šiandien.
Gražią mergaitę aš šiandien mačiau kine.
Kine šiandien aš mačiau gražią mergaitę.
Kine gražią mergaitę aš mačiau šiandien.

However word order isn't a subject of intonation only. Different word orders often have different meanings in Lithuanian. There are also some strict rules and some tendencies in using different word placing. For example, a word that provides new information (rheme, or comment) has tendency to be postponed after other words, but not always to the end of the sentence. Adjectives precede nouns like they do in English, but order of adjectives in an adjective group is different from in English. If the main word order is followed, a temporal, locative or causal adjunct is put at the beginning of the sentence, while adjuncts of other types go directly before the verb and its objects (see the SVO rule above).

The word order in Lithuanian can also be described, using concepts of theme and rheme. Looking from this point of view, the structure of a sentence is following:

Initial complementary words or clauses + theme + middle words or clauses + rheme + final complementary words or clauses

The middle words or clauses are more significant words or word groups other than the theme or the rheme, but complementary words or clauses (both the initial and the final) are less significant or secondary. Local, causal or temporal adjuncts are typical parts of the initial complementary words group, while other complementary words are put to the final group. If an adjunct is more significant in a sentence, it should be put to the middle group or even used as theme or as rheme. The same is true, considering any other part of sentence, but the Subject and the Verb aren't complementary words typically, and they often serve as the theme and as the rheme respectively. Note, that a sentence can lack any part of the structure, except the rheme.

Prepositions

Prepositions tell us where an object is or what direction it is going. Some cases of nouns, such as the genitive, accusative and instrumental, take prepositions. Some cases never take prepositions (such as locative and nominative). Certain prepositions are used with certain cases. Below is a list of some common prepositions used in Lithuanian.

Used with genitive form of noun

Used with instrumental form of noun

Used with accusative form of noun

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are used to link together clauses in a sentence, for example "I thought it would be a nice day but it was raining." Some common conjunctions in Lithuanian are:

References

  1. In some languages like Icelandic neuter is used in such cases.
  2. 1 2 "Naujas požiūris į lietuvių kalbos linksniavimo tipus []", Acta Linguistica Lithuanica (in Lithuanian): 3, 6–7, 10–16, 17–18; 16, 2004
  3. Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatika. Vilnius, 1997, page 288–289

External links

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