Lietuviešu darbības vārds

Verbs

Lithuanian doesn't have the wide variety of tenses as, say, English or French. There are only 4 tenses (2 of them are past), some moods and a few participles. So one good news is that you probably won't get lost in the number of tenses as you would in English.

Lithuanian has three main verb forms. Using these three forms, you can make everything else: tenses, moods, participles, etc. So it's the most necessary to know those three main forms for every Lithuanian verb. When learning, try to memorize them all, instead of just the infinitive.

The three main forms are as follows: infinitive; present tense third person; past tense third person. For example: pykti, pyksta, pyko (to be angry, he/she is angry, he/she was angry). So when you learn, you'll have to learn all three 'girdėti, girdi, girdėjo' (to hear, he/she hears, he/she heard) by heart.

Alongside that, you'll have to recognize which conjugation a verb belongs to. The number of conjugations is three. Which conjugation a verb belongs to is determined by the second main form (present tense third person). This is a very important form, because depending on what the ending of that form is (either -a, -i or -o) you can easily recognize the conjugation. Let's illustrate it with the following table:

Conjugation Infinitive Present tense third person Past tense third person English
1 dirb-ti
pyk-ti
giedo-ti
dainuo-ti
šluo-ti
krės-ti
skųs-ti
dirb-a
pykst-a
gied-a
dainuoj-a
šluoj-a
kreč-ia
skundž-ia
dirb-o
pyk-o
giedoj-o
dainav-o
šlav-ė
krėt-ė
skund-ė
to work, works, worked
to be angry, is angry, was angry
to chant, chants, chanted
to sing, sings, sang
to sweep, sweeps, swept
to shake, shakes, shook
to peach, peaches, peached
2 stebė-ti
girdė-ti
steb-i
gird-i
stebėj-o
girdėj-o
to observe, observes, observed
to hear, hears, heard
3 rašy-ti
ieško-ti
raš-o
iešk-o
raš-ė
ieškoj-o
to write, writes, wrote
to seek, seeks, sought

I have made the endings of the present verbs bold, because, as said, they determine the conjugation of a certain verb. For example, dirbti belongs to conjugation 1, because its second form ends in a. The ending of stebėti second form is i (stebi), therefore the conjugation is 2. And finally, rašyti second form is rašo, thereby it is a verb of conjugation 3.

If you don't find yourself puzzled after all these paragraphs, you may move on to explore the three conjugations. As you saw in the table, every conjugation has different endings, so it is very important to recognize the conjugation number.

All in all, when you are learning new verbs, you should memorize their three main forms and the conjugation that the verb belongs to. You won't need anything else, because everything else comes from these.

Conjugation of Verbs

Here is the conjugation table. If you know which conjugation a certain verb belongs to, and what are its three main forms, then you can easily 'construct' this verb using this table. It may look huge, but notice that many boxes are very alike (i.e. past tenses, subjunctive and imperative moods).

Conjugation Person Present tense Past tense Past Frequentative tense Future tense Subjunctive mood Imperative mood
1
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
-u
-i
-a
-ame
-ate
-a
-au
-ai
-o
-ome
-ote
-o
-au
-ai
-o
-ome
-ote
-o
-iu
-i
-
-ime
-ite
-
-čiau
-tum
-tų
-tu[mė]me
-tu[mė]te
-tų

-k
te-...-a
-kime
-kite
te-...-a
2
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
-iu
-i
-i
-ime
-ite
-i
-au
-ai
-o
-ome
-ote
-o
-au
-ai
-o
-ome
-ote
-o
-iu
-ai
-
-ime
-ite
-
-čiau
-tum
-tų
-tu[mė]me
-tu[mė]te
-tų

-k
te-...-i
-kime
-kite
te-...-i
3
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
-au
-ai
-o
-ome
-ote
-o
-iau
-ei

-ėme
-ėte
-au
-ai
-o
-ome
-ote
-o
-iu
-i
-
-ime
-ite
-
-čiau
-tum
-tų
-tu[mė]me
-tu[mė]te
-tų

-k
te-...-o
-kime
-kite
te-...-o

We're now going to see how to make every tense and mood. We will use these three verbs as examples: skristi - to fly (first conjugation); tylėti - to be quiet (second conjugation); rašyti - to write (third conjugation). Their second main forms are as follows: skrenda, tyli and rašo. And their third main forms are these: skrido, tylėjo and rašė.

Present tense

This tense is constructed using the second main form. Below you see a table with previously mentioned examples (skristi, tylėti, rašyti).

Conjugation Person Present tense
1
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
skrendu
skrendi
skrenda
skrendame
skrendate
skrenda
2
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
tyliu
tyli
tyli
tylime
tylite
tyli
3
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
rašau
rašai
rašo
rašome
rašote
rašo

Past tense

This tense is constructed using the third main form. Below you see a table with previously mentioned examples (skristi, tylėti, rašyti).

Conjugation Person Past tense
1
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
skridau
skridai
skrido
skridome
skridote
skrido
2
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
tylėjau
tylėjai
tylėjo
tylėjome
tylėjote
tylėjo
3
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
rašiau
rašei
rašė
rašėme
rašėte
rašė

Past Frequentative tense

This tense is constructed using the infinitive without ti, but with dav. Below you see a table with previously mentioned examples (skristi, tylėti, rašyti).

Conjugation Person Past Frequentative tense
1
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
skrisdavau
skrisdavai
skrisdavo
skrisdavome
skrisdavote
skrisdavo
2
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
tylėdavau
tylėdavai
tylėdavo
tylėdavome
tylėdavote
tylėdavo
3
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
rašydavau
rašydavai
rašydavo
rašydavome
rašydavote
rašydavo

Future tense

This tense is constructed using the infinitive without ti, but with s. Below you see a table with previously mentioned examples (skristi, tylėti, rašyti).

Conjugation Person Future tense
1
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
skrisiu
skrisi
skris
skrisime
skrisite
skris
2
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
tylėsiu
tylėsi
tylės
tylėsime
tylėsite
tylės
3
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
rašysiu
rašysi
rašys
rašysime
rašysite
rašys

Subjunctive mood

This mood is constructed using the infinitive without ti. Below you see a table with previously mentioned examples (skristi, tylėti, rašyti).

Conjugation Person Subjunctive mood
1
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
skrisčiau
skristum
skris
skristumėme
skristumėte
skris
2
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
tylėčiau
tylėtum
tylė
tylėtumėme
tylėtumėte
tylė
3
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos
rašyčiau
rašytum
rašy
rašytumėme
rašytumėte
rašy

Imperative mood

This mood is constructed using the infinitive without ti. However in the third person it takes the second main form. Below you see a table with previously mentioned examples (skristi, tylėti, rašyti).

Conjugation Person Imperative mood
1
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos

skrisk
teskrenda
skriskime
skriskite
teskrenda
2
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos

tylėk
tetyli
tylėkime
tylėkite
tetyli
3
tu
jis, ji
mes
jūs
jie, jos

rašyk
terašo
rašykime
rašykite
terašo

Tenses and Moods of Verbs

Lithuanian tenses are not completely like English, but similar. And easier, I think.

Present tense

The Present tense indicates a present action. Lithuanian doesn't differ Simple and Continuous tenses like English.

Jis dirba anglų kalbos mokytoju. He works as an English teacher.
Jis dabar dirba. He is working at the moment.

Past tense

The Past tense indicates a past action. Lithuanian doesn't differ Simple and Continuous tenses like English.

Jis dirbo anglų kalbos mokytoju. He worked as an English teacher.
Jis vakar dirbo. He was working yesterday.

Past Frequentative tense

The Past Frequentative tense is like the Past tense, but it indicates an action that took place frequently. However this frequence is different. It's a frequence that takes a long time and the action is done steadily throughout the whole time. For example, daily during a month or every month throughout a year. The Past Frequentative tense is usually used when remembering something, so you are not going to come across it frequently.

English has a perfect substitution for this tense, which is the phrase 'used to do something'.

Jis dirbdavo anglų kalbos mokytoju. He used to work as an English teacher.
Aną vasarą mes važinėdavome dviračiais. That summer we used to ride bicycles.
Note that when you see such sentence, you should imagine that 'we' rode the bicycles throughout the whole summer, not just once or twice in August.

Future tense

The Future tense indicates a future action. Lithuanian doesn't differ Simple and Continuous tenses like English.

Jis dirbs anglų kalbos mokytoju. He will work as an English teacher.
Rytoj jis dirbs. He will be working tomorrow.

Subjunctive mood

The Subjunctive mood is like that one of English, but there are differences in forming Conditional sentences. English would use different tenses in Conditionals, but Lithuanian suffices with just the Subjunctive mood.

Jeigu tu daugiau dirbtum, galėtum nusipirkti mašiną. If you worked more, you could buy yourself a car.
Mūsų vaikas norėtų ledų. Our child would like some ice-cream.

Imperative mood

The Imperative moods is used to order someone or something to do something. Again, the Lithuanian Imperative mood works the same as English. You cannot form first person singular imperative (because you can't order yourself), but you can form first person plural (we) imperative:

Eikime namo! Let's go home!

You can order others directly (second person singular and plural):

Eik namo! Go home! (Singular)
Eikite į parduotuvę. Go to the shop. (Plural)

And you can as if order things to happen indirectly (third person singular and plural):

Teprasideda varžybos! Let the games begin!
Tegyvuoja karalius! Long live the king!
Tedirba greičiau. Let him work faster. I want him to work faster.

Darbybas vaardu atgriezeniskaas formas

Atgriezeniskaas formas veido, attiecygajaam darbybas vaardu formaam pievienojot -s(i)

Atgriezenisko darbybas vaardu daudzskaitlja 1. un 2. personas galotnes visos laikos ir -mės un -tės, piem. tagadnee kalbamės, rašomės, kalbatės, girditės, naakotnee kalbėsitės utt.

Ja darbybas vaardam ir kaads priedeeklis, tad -si- staajas saknes priekšaa un locyšanu neietekmee: už-si-dirbu, pa-si-gird-o, ne-si-rašo u. c.

Laiks Skaitlis Persona 1. 2. 3.


Tagadne



Vsk.

Dsk.


tu
jis, ji

mes
jūs
jie, jos
kalb-uos[i]
kalb-ies[i]
kalb-as[i]

kalb-amės
kalb-atės
kalb-as[i]
steb-iuos[i]
steb-ies[i]
steb-is[i]

steb-imės
steb-itės
steb-ai[i]
mok-aus[i]
mok-ais[i]
mok-os[i]

mok-omės
mok-otės
mok-os[i]


Pagaatne



Vsk.

Dsk.


tu
jis, ji

mes
jūs
jie, jos
kalbėj-aus[i]
kalbėj-ais[i]
kalbėj-os[i]

kalbėj-omės
kalbėj-otės
kalbėj-os[i]
stebėj-aus[i]
stebėj-ais[i]
stebėj-os[i]

stebėj-omės
stebėj-otės
stebėj-os[i]
mok-iaus[i]
mok-eis[i]
mok-ės[i]

mok-ėmės
mok-ėtės
mok-ės[i]


Iteratyvaa pagaatne



Vsk.

Dsk.


tu
jis, ji

mes
jūs
jie, jos
kalbėdav-aus[i]
kalbėdav-ais[i]
kalbėdav-os[i]

kalbėdav-omės
kalbėdav-otės
kalbėdav-os[i]
stebėdav-aus[i]
stebėdav-ais[i]
stebėdav-os[i]

stebėdav-omės
stebėdav-otės
stebėdav-os[i]
mokydav-aus[i]
mokydav-aus[i]
mokydav-os[i]

mokydav-omės
mokydav-otės
mokydav-os[i]


Naakotne



Vsk.

Dsk.


tu
jis, ji

mes
jūs
jie, jos
kalbės-iuos[i]
kalbės-ies[i]
kalbės-is

kalbės-imės
kalbės-itės
kalbės-is
stebės-iuos[i]
stebės-ies[i]
stebės-is

stebės-imės
stebės-itės
stebės-is
mokys-iuos[i]
mokys-ies[i]
mokys-is

mokys-imės
mokys-itės
mokys-is

Tālāk: divdabji. Sākums.