Latvian Verbs (Part IV)

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

First conjugation (continued)

Second subclass

Verbs of the second subclass have a root vowel i or ī, but this vowel is altered to e, ē or ie in the present tense. For example, the verb likt 'to put' is a member of this subclass; normally the root vowel is i, but in the present tense the diphthong ie occurs instead. Here is a chart showing how various forms of the verb likt are conjugated:

	singular		plural
	1st p.	2nd p.	1st p.	2nd p.	3rd p.
present	liek-u	liec	liek-am	liek-at	liek
past	liku	liki	likām	likāt	lika
future	lik-š-u	lik-s-i	lik-si-m	lik-si-t	lik-s

Examples of 2nd subclass verbs: cirpt 'to snip' - cērpu 'I am snipping', dzīt 'to chase' - dzenu 'I am chasing', krimst 'to gnaw' - kremtu 'I am gnawing', likt 'to put' - lieku 'I am putting', palikt 'to stay' - palieku 'I am staying', vilkt 'to pull' - velku 'I am pulling'.

First subclass

Finally we have the first subclass. This is really a miscellaneous grouping of whatever is left. For example, we have verbs where the verb root shows little or no difference between the present and past, such as the verb augt 'to grow:

	singular		plural
	1st p.	2nd p.	1st p.	2nd p.	3rd p.
present	aug-u	audz	aug-am	aug-at	aug
past	aug-u	aug-i	aug-ām	aug-āt	aug-a
future	aug-š-u	aug-s-i	aug-si-m	aug-si-t	aug-s

Another verb of this type is sākt 'to start' - sāku 'I am starting' - sāku 'I started'.

If a verb root belonging to this subclass ends in the consonant k, in the past tense this final consonant may appear instead as c (phonetically [ts]): nākt 'to come' - nāku 'I'm coming' - nācu 'I came'.

Verbs of this subclass which have have a root vowel e will typically alternate between an open e in the present tense, and a close e in the past tense. Although the pronunciations differ, Latvian spelling does not actually distinguish between these two pronunciations of e. For more information on these two different pronunciations, see: Close and Open 'e' alternation. Verbs which show this alternation include: bēgt 'to flee' - bēgu 'I am fleeing' and 'I fled', ēst 'to eat' - ēdu 'I am eating' and 'I ate', nest 'to carry' - nesu 'I am carrying' and 'I carried', and vest 'to bring' - vedu 'I am bringing' and 'I brought' .

This subclass also includes verbs which alternate between a root vowel ī and the sequence in which occurs in both the present and past forms: mīt 'to tread' - minu 'I am treading' - minu 'I (did) tread', but: mīšu 'I will tread'.

It also includes verbs which alternate between the root vowel ī and the sequence ij in the present and past forms: vīt 'to twist, weave' - viju 'I am twisting' - viju 'I twisted', but vīšu 'I will twist'.

Finally some verbs of this subclass alternate between the diphthong ie and the sequences ej and ēj in the present and past tense forms: liet 'to pour' - leju 'I am pouring' - lēju 'I poured', but: liešu 'I will pour.'

Examples of 1st subclass verbs: augt 'to grow', bēgt 'to flee', ēst 'to eat', liet 'to pour', mīt 'to tread (on)', nākt 'to come', nest 'to carry', sākt 'to begin, start', vest 'to bring', vīst 'to wilt, wither', vīt 'to plait, braid'.

First conjugation class verb endings

The endings used with first conjugation verbs look like this:

		present	past	future
singular	1st p.	(j)-u	-u	-š-u
singular	2nd p.	(-i)	-i	-s-i
plural	1st p.	(j)-a-m	-ā-m	-si-m
plural	2nd p.	(j)-at	-ā-t	-si-t
	3rd. p.	(j)-	-a	-s

Irregular Verbs (nekārtnie darbības vārdi)

There are three Latvian verbs which are very, very common, but which are quite irregular. They do not fall into any one of the three conjugation classes. These three verbs are būt 'to be', iet 'to go', dot 'to give'. Here are some charts showing how they are conjugated in the three simple tenses:

būt 'to be'		present	past	future
singular	1st p.	esm-u	bi-ju	bū-š-u
singular	2nd p.	es-i	bij-i	bū-s-i
plural	1st p.	es-a-m	bij-ā-m	bū-si-m
plural	2nd p.	es-at	bij-ā-t	bū-si-t
	3rd. p.	ir	bij-a	bū-s

iet 'to go'		present	past	future
singular	1st p.	ej-u	gā-ju	ie-š-u
singular	2nd p.	ej	gāj-i	ie-s-i
plural	1st p.	ej-a-m	gāj-ā-m	ie-si-m
plural	2nd p.	ej-at	gāj-ā-t	ie-si-t
	3rd. p.	iet	gāj-a	ie-s

dot 'to give'		present	past	future
singular	1st p.	dod-u	dev-u	do-š-u
singular	2nd p.	dod	dev-i	do-s-i
plural	1st p.	dod-a-m	dev-ā-m	do-si-m
plural	2nd p.	dod-at	dev-ā-t	do-si-t
	3rd. p.	dod	dev-a	do-s

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