Lithuanian Verbs

Grammar Tips:

Verb is very important in Lithuanian. While English is language of prepositions, Lithuanian must be considered as language of verbs. In Lithuanian there are 4 tenses and 3 forms of participles.

Verb has such gramatical properties: tense, mood (mode), person, number, voice. Here are conjugating and nonconjugating forms of verb. Nonconjugating forms are participles and infinitive, but participles have gender and declension of case according to gender and case of subject or object they belong to.

Person and tense

Persons in Lithuanian are:

Aš (singular, first person), which gets the flexion –u/-uo.

Pres. t. einu (I go), rašau (I write), nešu (I carry), nešuosi (I carry myself);

past t. ėjau (I went), rašiau (I wrote), nešiau (I carryed), nešiausi (I carryed myself));

future eisiu (I will go), rašysiu (I will write), nešiu (I will carry), nešiuosi (I will carry myself).

Tu (singular, second person), which gets the flexion –i/-ie

Pres. t. eini (you go), rašai (you write), neši (you carry), nešiesi (you carry yourself);

past t. ėjai (you went), rašei (you wrote), nešei (you carryed), nešeisi (you carryed yourself));

future eisi (you will go), rašysi (you will write), neši (you will carry), nešiesi (you will carry yourself).

Jis, ji (he, she, it) gets standard flexions –a, -i, -o, -ė. Future has ending -s.

Pres. t. eina (he/she/it goes), rašo (he/she/it writes), neša (he/she/it carryes), nešasi (he/she/it carryes him/her/itself);

past t. ėjai (he/she/it went), rašei (he/she/it wrote), nešei (he/she/it carryed), nešeisi (he/she/it carryed him/her/itself));

future eis (he/she/it will go), rašys (he/she/it will write), neš (he/she/it will carry), nešis (he/she/it will carry him/her/itself).

Mes (plural, first person), which gets the flexion –m(e)/-mė.

Pres. t. einam(e) (we go), rašom(e) (we write), nešam(e) (we carry), nešamės (we carry ourself); (e) is optional, so we have here short and ful form: einam, einame; nešam, nešame. Both are correct.

past t. ėjom(e) (I went), rašėm(e) (we wrote), nešė m(e) (we carryed), nešėmės (we carryed ourself));

future eisim(e) (we will go), rašysim(e) (we will write), nešim(e) (we will carry), nešimės (we will carry ourself).

Jūs (plural, second person), which gets the flexion –t(e)/-tė

Pres. t. einat(e) (you go), rašot(e) (you write), nešat(e) (you carry), nešatės (you carry yourself);

past t. ėjot(e) (you went), rašėt(e) (you wrote), nešėt(e) (you carryed), nešėtėsi (you carryed yourself));

future eis t(e) (you will go), rašysit(e) (you will write), nešit(e) (you will carry), nešitės (you will carry yourself).

Jie, jos (they) gets standard flexions –a, -i, -o, -ė. Future has ending -s.

Pres. t. eina (they goes), rašo (they write), neša (they carry), nešasi (they carry theyrself);

past t. ėjo (they went), rašė (they wrote), nešė (they carryed), nešėsi (they carryed theyrself));

future eis (they will go), rašys (they will write), neš (they will carry), nešis (they will carry theyrself).

In Lithuanian there are 2 past tenses. One you can see in the example. Second is so named “iterative past”. It means “doing some times”. Simple past means it was did, maybe one time, maybe not one. Iterative past means it was did exactly more than one time. Iterative past forms from mentioned above past with suffix –dav- :

aš eidavau, rašydavau, nešdavau, nešdavausi;

tu eidavai, rašydavai, nešdavai, nešdavaisi;

jis, ji eidavo, rašydavo, nešdavo, nešdavosi;

mes eidavom(e), rašydavom(e), nešdavom(e), nešdavomės;

jūs eidavot(e), rašydavot(e), nešdavot(e), nešdavotės;

Jie, jos eidavo, rašydavo, nešdavo, nešdavosi.

Important: in Lithuanian peronal form of the verb is unambiguous, so often here personal pronoun (especially in first person) is omited (it is clear from context). Example: Einu nesustodamas (I go nonstop.) Einame nesustodami. (We go nonstop.)