Latvian Verbs (Part II)

• Person: first, second, third person
• Number: singular vs. plural
• Tense: present, past, future
• Conjugation classes: 1st conjugation, 2nd conjugation, 3rd conjugation
• Irregular verbs
• Reflexive verbs
• Complex tenses: complex present, complex past, complex future
• Participles: declinable, partially declinable, indeclinable
• Mood: indicative, imperative, subjunctive, etc.
• Voice: active vs. passive

Latvian Conjugation Classes

As you can see, even though the thematic vowel (o in this case) appears in all three tenses, the verb forms are not identical. The person and number endings differ somewhat in each tense. Here is a chart of what the endings look like:

In fact, this is pretty much the same as the chart I gave you earlier for the future tense. I'll do a chart like this for each conjugation class.

The second conjugation has many thousands of verbs in it. Most new verbs become a part of this class. For example, if I wanted to invent the verb "to google" in Latvian, it would end up in this class: gūglēt 'to google'. Looks cute, doesn't it?

Examples of other 2nd conjugation verbs: ārstēt 'to treat (medically)', dejot 'to dance', domāt 'to think', dzīvot 'to live', jautāt 'to question', klusēt 'to be/become quiet', lidot 'to fly', medīt 'to hunt', meklēt 'to search (for)', ogot 'to pick berries, go berrying', runāt 'to speak', strādāt 'to work', studēt 'to study', trokšņot 'to make noise, be noisy', zīmēt 'to draw, design', etc.

Third Conjugation

All third conjugation verbs omit the thematic vowel in the present tense. However, (as the above chart shows) they are not otherwise identical.

Some third conjugation verbs have a suffix -a to mark the third person present form (dala 'he/she/it divides') and some do not (redz 'he/she/it sees'). The same verbs which have the suffix -a in the 3rd.p. present, also have a long vowel -ā in the first and second person plural endings of the present: (dalām 'we divide', dalāt 'you (plural) divide'). These same verbs have a thematic vowel -ī (as opposed to 3rd. conjugation verbs with a thematic vowel -ā or -ē ). Thus, we have to divide the third conjugation into (at least) two further sub-groups.

Group (a): 3rd conjugation verbs with thematic vowel -ī, or which end in -ināt
(These are the verbs which have a short -a suffix in the third person present form, and a long -ā in the first and second person plural endings of the present.)
Examples: dalīt 'to divide', darīt 'to do', lasīt 'to read', mācīt 'to teach', rādīt 'to show', skaitīt 'to count', etc. and a large group of verbs which end in the causative suffix -ināt, such as: audzināt 'to raise, educate', smīdināt 'to make laugh', valdzināt 'to fascinate', etc.

Group (b): 3rd conjugation verbs with thematic vowels -ā or -ē
(These are the verbs which do not have a suffix in the third person present form, and which have a short -a suffix in the first and second person plural forms of the present.)
Examples: atbildēt 'to answer', dziedāt to sing', gribēt 'to want', raudāt 'to cry', redzēt 'to see', stāvēt 'to stand', turēt 'to hold', zināt 'to know', etc.

I'm also going to introduce one more additional sub-group in this conjugation. It contains verbs which alter the final consonant of the verb root in the present tense. Take a look at the five verbs below:

This group includes only a small handful of verbs (I have included all the ones I know of in the chart above). In the present tense form these verbs either (i) palatalize the final consonant of the verb root (l → ļ or d → ž) or (ii) depalatalize the final consonant of the verb root (c → k). (To learn more about palatalization, see the section on: J_Palatalization).

Group (c): 3rd conjugation verbs which alter the final consonant of the verb root in the present tense: gulēt 'to sleep', mācēt 'to know', sacīt 'to say, tell', sēdēt 'to sit', and tecēt 'to flow'.

(Note: the verb sacīt 'to say, tell' has the thematic vowel -ī and, thus, has a short -a suffix in the 3rd p. present (just as Group (a) verbs do). The other verbs in Group (c) have the thematic vowel -ē (i.e. gulēt 'to sleep', mācēt 'to know', sēdēt 'to sit', and tecēt 'to flow'), and, thus, lack this suffix in the 3rd p. present (just as Group (b) verbs do)).

Here is a chart of what the third conjugation endings look like:

First Conjugation

This is basically a miscellaneous class, as it contains several different types of verbs. However, it is also a very important class, as it contains some of the most commonly-used verbs in Latvian. Most grammarians assign first conjugation verbs to one of five subclasses. I'm using this categorization, but, as usual, I am going to be different; I'll start you off with the fifth subclass:

Fifth subclass

This group contains only a handful of verbs. All the verbs are intransitive (i.e. have no direct object), and often denote a change in state or position.
Examples: atbilst 'to correspond with', kļūt 'to become', salt 'to feel cold', silt 'to warm (up)'.

Fourth subclass

The -j suffix is visible in this example, as it is in all fourth subclass verbs which have a verb root ending in p, b, or m (Note: these three are labial consonants). Other 4th subclass verbs like this: glāb-t 'to save', kāp-t 'to climb', stiep-t 'to stretch', streb-t 'to gulp', etc.

Here is another example using the verb celt 'to lift':

This verb illustrates the effect of j-palatalization on the final consonant of the verb root; in this case the effect is: l → ļ. For more information on this effect, see → j-palatalization.

Note on Velar Affrication: If the final consonant of the root is a k or g, the present tense forms show a c [ts] or dz. Since k and g are velar stops, but c [ts] and dz are dental affricates, I usually refer to this alternation as Velar Affrication. To get a clearer understanding of Velar Affrication, take a look at the following chart which uses the verb braukt 'to drive' as the example verb:

Notice that this alternation also takes place in the past forms of this type of verb. Verb roots of the 4th subclass which end in k or g (which are called velar stops) exhibit this alternation. Another verb of this type is: lūg-t 'to beg, pray'.

If the verb root ends in a vowel (as in pļau-t 'to mow' or šū-t 'to sew'), the j appears in all forms of the present, but v (which is an alternate form of [ w ] ) occurs in the past tense forms:

Finally, any verb roots ending in r typically belong to this class. Historically these verbs did undergo the palatalization effect (i.e. r → ŗ); there are still some dialect areas where this effect occurs. However, the majority of dialects show no such effect. Here is a chart using the verb dzer-t 'to drink' as the example:

If the vowel of the verb root is e, it will lengthen to ē in the past. Otherwise, these verbs operate as expected. Examples of this type of verb include: ar-t 'to plough', dzer-t 'to drink', kār-t 'to hang', kur-t 'to make fire', pēr-t 'to flog, whip', svēr-t 'to weigh', tver-t 'to grasp', seize', vēr-t 'to swing (open or closed)'.

Additional examples of 4th subclass verbs: bāzt 'to shove', belzt 'to strike, hit', bērt 'to strew, scatter', braukt 'to drive', celt 'to lift', dzert 'to drink', dzēst 'to extinguish', glābt 'to save', griezt 'to cut', kāpt 'to climb', kopt 'to look after, tend', kult 'to thresh', laist 'to allow', lauzt 'to break', lemt 'to decide', lūgt 'to beg, pray', pļaut 'to mow', pūst 'to blow', smelt 'to bale', spiest 'to press', stiept 'to stretch', strebt 'to gulp (down)', stumt 'to push', sviest 'to throw', šūt 'to sew', etc.

To continue on with verbs, go to → Latvian Verbs (Part III)