Lithuanian grammar - Definition and Overview

Declined words

Cases of Declined words

• Nominative
• Genitive, which also functions similarly to the ablative case in other languages.
• Dative
• Accusative
• Instrumental
• Locative
• Vocative

Adverb forming cases

• Illative
• Allative
• Adessive (historical or dialectical, not used in modern, standard Lithuanian)

Note: The locative (inessive) isn't an objective case and words in the locative always are adjuncts, this way it could be also included in this subsection. However, according to a tradition of Lithuanian grammars, the locative is put with other "standard" cases.

Other categories

• Number
  • Singular number
  • Plural number
  • Dual number (archaic or dialectical)
• Gender
  • Masculine gender
  • Feminine gender

The Noun

The Adjective

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

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

The Verb

Verb categories

Tenses

• The present tense
• The past tense
• The past iterative tense
• The future tense
• (The four perfect tenses, periphrastic)
• (The four inchoative tenses, periphrastic)

Moods

• The indicative mood (with all tenses)
• The relative mood (with all tenses, non-conjugated)
• The imperative mood (without distinction of tenses)
• The optative mood (without distinction of tenses, having the 3rd person only, sometimes treated as the 3rd person of the imperative mood)
• The conditional mood (without distinction of tenses)
• (The optative mood II, periphrastic, based on the conditional mood)
• The negative form
• The indeterminate form (for true action with uncertain aspect)
• (The intensified periphrasis, based on the verbal intensifier)

The three moods without distinction of tenses have periphrastic perfect along with their main form, and the aspect of perfection could be expressed.

Voices

• The Active voice
• The self-reflexive form (voice-like form, being sometimes in passive voice too)
• The Passive voice
  • in a case of a participle it's a different grammatic form with 3 main tenses (it doesn't have the past iterative tense).
  • in a case of conjugated verbs it's periphrastic, based on the passive participles (3 main tenses).

Conjugative verbal forms

• The present tense
• The past tense
• The past iterative tense
• The future tense
• The imperative mood
• The optative mood (having the 3rd person only, sometimes treated as the 3rd person of the imperative mood)
• The conditional mood

Non-conjugative verbal forms

The non-conjugative verbal forms are close to other non-conjugated grammatical categories, e. g. the participles are close to adjectives. But they also retain (except the verbal intensifier) verbal specifics to have their own subject (except the infinitive, the gerund and the semi-participle) objects and adjuncts.

• The infinitive
• The relative mood
• The gerund , or the verbal noun, is masculine masculine noun, regularly made from any verb, not having distinction of tenses and not used in the plural number in its direct sense. The gerund has its own specific order, to put its objects.
• Participles:
  • The participles of the active voice, there are different ones of four tenses (the present, the past, the past iterative and the future).
  • The participles of the passive voice, there are different ones of three tenses (the present, the past, and the future).
• The sub-participles are verbal adverbs, not declined, being of four tenses (the present, the past, the past iterative and the future) of the active voice. The sub-participle has its own specific order, to put its subject.
• The semi-participle is a verbal adverb, closer to the main verb in the sentence than the sub-participle, not having distinction of tenses. The semi-participle isn't declined, but it has forms of number and gender, and they should be used in concord with the subject of the main verb in the sentence (whereas semi-participle couldn't have its own subject).
• The verbal intensifier is a verbal particle, used to mark more intensive action, than one of the single verb. It is quite always used with a verb of the same stem and never has its separate objects or adjuncts.
• The verbal interjection could be formed from verbs of certain categories. It's used like a simple interjection, but could have its own subject, objects and (not often) adjuncts.

Syntax

Word order

Verbal periphrastic constructions

Prepositions

Conjunctions

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External Links

• Some Unique Features of Lithuanian (http://www.lituanus.org/1984_3/84_3_05.htm) on Lituanus.org (http://www.Lituanus.org)
• Some Unsolved Riddles of Lithuanian Linguistics (http://www.lituanus.org/1984_1/84_1_04.htm) on Lituanus.org