- ai = Ah!
- šis/šī = this/she
- pilsēta = city
- dziesma = song, air
- un = and
- laurs = laurel
- viņa = she, her
- kauns = shame, disgrace, dishonor, taint
- daiļums = beauty, loveliness, fairness
- segt = to cover
- atkal = again, anew, once more, afresh
- iet = to walk, to go
- (gāju = I went)
- kā = as, how, like
- sapnis = dream
- tas = that (the thing), it, that (over there)
- caurs = through, over
- raibs = multicolored
- nākts = night
- kad = when
- uguns = fire
- degt = burn
- tumsa = darkness, dark, gloom
- seja = face
- redzēt = to see
- izkārtne = mask, pretence, cover
- laists = shiny
- lūdzu = please
- te = here
- manta = property
- kas = who, what
- vērts = worth
- pasaka = (fairy-)tale
- skaists = beautiful, fair, good-looking
- garām = past, over, by
- aizejot = leaving
- smaidīt = smile
- pērc = you bought
- lepni = proudly
- kareivis = soldier
- soļot = march
- takts = tact
- smiet = laugh
- fleite = flute
- stenēt = groan
- bass = bass
- skrandains = tattered
- puišelis = kid
- slēpdamies = hiding
- kluss = quiet
- laisties = fly
- sikspārnis = bat
- mazs = small
- balts = white
- meitene = girl
- vērties = bring matters
- mīkla = dough
- galva = head
- pāri = over, across, beyond
- kur = where
- mūzika = music
- skanēt = sound
- milzīgs = overwhelming, huge, vast, immense
- zirneklis = spider
- tīkls = net
- ļaudis = people
- mutulis = swirl
- nozust = dissapear
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Latvian (latviešu valoda [latviɛʃu valuɔda]) is the official language of Latvia. It was previously known in English as Lettish which remains the standard today in various forms in most other Germanic languages. There are about 1.3 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and 100,000 abroad. Altogether, 2 million, or 80% of the population of Latvia, speak Latvian. Of those, 1.16 million or 56% use it as their primary language at home. The use of the Latvian language in various areas of social life in Latvia is increasing. Latvian is a moderately inflected language with a relatively free word order. Its usual unmarked word order is SVO. Latvian has pre-nominal adjectives and both prepositions and postpositions. There is no definite or indefinite article, but definiteness can be indicated by the endings of adjectives. On nouns, Latvian distinguishes two grammatical genders and 7 different cases. Adjectives generally precede the nouns they modify, and agree in case, number, and gender. In addition, adjectives take distinct endings to indicate definite and indefinite interpretation: Latvian has three simple tenses (present, past and future), and three compound perfect constructions: present perfect, past perfect, future perfect. There are 5 moods distinguished on verbs as well: indicative, imperative, conditional, conjuctive, quotative, and debitive.
Latvian verbs either have -t or -ties, latvian nouns can have one of 6 declensions:
- Masculine:
- 1st declension: nom. sg. in -s or -š, thematic vowel -a-
- 2nd declension: nom. sg. in -is/-ns/-ss, thematic vowel -i-
- 3rd declension: nom. sg. in -us, thematic vowel -u-
- Feminine:
- 4th declension: nom. sg. in -a, thematic vowel -a-
- 5th declension: nom. sg. in -e, thematic vowel -e-
- 6th declension: nom. sg. in -s, thematic vowel -i-
The full paradigms of endings for the three declensions is given in the following table:
| | 1st declension | | 2nd declension | | 3rd declension | |
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | vīrs | vīri | skapis | skapji | tirgus | tirgi |
| Genitive | vīra | vīru | skapja | skapju | tirgus | tirgu |
| Dative | vīram | vīriem | skapim | skapjiem | tirgum | tirgiem |
| Accusative | vīru | vīrus | skapi | skapjus | tirgu | tirgus |
| Instrumental | vīru | vīriem | skapi | skapjiem | tirgu | tirgiem |
| Locative | vīrā | vīros | skapī | skapjos | tirgū | tirgos |
| Vocative | vīr | vīri | skapi | skapji | tirgu | tirgi |
And for feminine nouns:
| | 4th declension | | 5th declension | | 6th declension | |
| | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | sieva | sievas | upe | upes | nakts | naktis |
| Genitive | sievas | sievu | upes | upju | nakts | nakšu |
| Dative | sievai | sievām | upei | upēm | naktij | naktīm |
| Accusative | sievu | sievas | upi | upes | nakti | naktis |
| Instrumental | sievu | sievām | upi | upēm | nakti | naktīm |
| Locative | sievā | sievās | upē | upēs | naktī | naktīs |
| Vocative | siev | sievas | upe | upes | nakts | naktis |
The final stem consonant is palatalized in the genitive plural of 5th and 6th declension nouns (in the examples above, p → pj and t → š, but see the next section for full details). Exceptions to this include loanwords such as epizode (gen. pl. epizodu) in the 5th declension and a handful of words in the 6th declension: acs "eye", auss "ear", balss "voice", zoss "goose". The 4th and 5th declensions include a number of masculine nouns (e.g. puika "boy", or proper names such as Dilba, Zvaigzne), or common gender nouns that are either masculine or feminine depending on their use in context (e.g. paziṇa "acquaintance", bende "executioner") . In these cases, the masculine nouns take the same endings as given in the table above, except in the dative singular:
- 4th decl.: -am (e.g. dat. sing. puikam "boy")
- 5th decl.: -em (e.g. dat. sing. bendem "male executioner", cf. bendei "female executioner")
The 6th declension noun ḷaudis "people" is masculine. It has no singular forms, only regular plural forms.
Some of the case endings given in the declension tables above begin with an underlying palatal approximant - /j/. This is true of the 2nd declension genitive singular (ending -ja), all forms of the 2nd declension plural, and the genitive plural of the 5th and 6th declensions (ending -ju). In Latvian literature this process is collectively referred to as līdzskaņu mija, i.e., consonant shift. Jotēšana (cf. German Jotisierung), i.e., iotation can be further distinguished as a subcategory. In English Academia the term "iotation" is often used to refer to properties of Eastern Slavic vowels wherein they acquire an underlying /j/ which palatalizes the preceding consonants regardless of their position within a word which is similar to the phenomenon of assimilative palatalization of consonants in Lithuanian. Latvian however does not have assimilative palatalization of consonants and the term "iotation" is used strictly in the sense of stem-final labial consonants being "affixed with an iota" (i.e., the letter ⟨J⟩) in 2nd, 5th and 6th declension nouns.
| change | nom. sing. (not iotated) | gen. plur. (iotated) | translation |
| p → pj | upe | upju | "river" |
| b → bj | gulbis | gulbju | "swan" |
| m → mj | zeme | zemju | "land" |
| v → vj | dzērve | dzērvju | "crane" |
| f → fj | žirafe | žirafju | "giraffe" |
Buuuuuuut wait, there's more :D. Besides labial consonants (/p, b, m, v, f/) that are iotated, coronal consonants (/n, t, d, s, z, l/, see below on /r/) and affricates (/ts, dz/) and their clusters can be said to undergo palatalization. Thus, for example, plain Latvian ⟨L⟩ (similar to the standard value of /l/ in American English or if not proceeded by a front vowel - Brazilian Portuguese, sometimes distinguished as "dark L" - /ɫ/) is palatalized to ⟨Ļ⟩, a palatal lateral approximant - /ʎ/.
| change | nom. sing. (unpalatalized) | gen. plur. (palatalized) | translation |
| c → č | lācis | lāču | "bear" |
| d → ž | briedis | briežu | "deer" |
| l → ļ | brālis | brāļu | "brother" |
| n → ņ | dvīnis | dvīņu | "twin" |
| s → š | lasis | lašu | "salmon" |
| t → š | nakts | nakšu | "night" |
| z → ž | vāze | vāžu | "vase" |
| sn → šņ | krāsns | krāšņu | "stove" |
| zn → žņ | zvaigzne | zvaigžņu | "star" |
| sl → šļ | kāpslis | kāpšļu | "stirrup" |
| zl → žļ | zizlis | zižļu | "baton" |
| ln → ļņ | vilnis | viļņu | "wave" |
| ll → ļļ | lelle | leļļu | "doll" |
| nn → ņņ | pinne | piņņu | "acne" |
| st → š | rīkste | rīkšu | "rod" |
Adjectives agree in case, number and gender with the noun they modify, and they also express definiteness.
As for adjectives, here you can find the indefinite declension:
| | Masculine | | Feminine | |
| | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | -s | -i | -a | -as |
| Genitive | -a | -u | -as | -u |
| Dative | -am | -iem | -ai | -ām |
| Accusative | -u | -us | -u | -as |
| Locative | -ā | -os | -ā | -ās |
And for the definite declension, you might need it, you might not.
| | Masculine | | Feminine | |
| | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | -ais | -ie | -ā | -ās |
| Genitive | -ā | -o | -ās | -o |
| Dative | -ajam | -ajiem | -ajai | -ajām |
| Accusative | -o | -os | -o | -ās |
| Locative | -ajā | -ajos | -ajā | -ajās |
| Vocative | -ais/-o | -ie | -ā/-o | -ās |
And the magnificent pronouns, be ready:
| Singular | | | | Plural | | | | reflexive |
| | 1st | 2nd | 3rd masc. | 3rd fem. | 1st | 2nd | 3rd masc. | 3rd fem. | |
| | I | you (fam.) | he/it | she/it | we | you (pol./plur.) | they | | -self/selves |
| Nominative | es | tu | viņš | viņa | mēs | jūs | viņi | viņas | - |
| Genitive | mans | tavs | viņa | viņas | mūsū | jūsu | viņu | viņu | sevis |
| Dative | man | tev | viņam | viņai | mums | jums | viņiem | viņām | sev |
| Accusative | mani | tevi | viņu | viņu | mūs | jūs | viņus | viņas | sevi |
| Locative | manī | tevī | viņā | viņā | mūsos | jūsos | viņos | viņas | sevī |
Uh, conjugation, this one is... hard. There is a fuckton involved /shrug But I'll try my best to generalize it.
The first conjugation class is characterized by an absence of the thematic vowel in infinitive, present as well as past. Furthermore 1st conjugation verbs are always monosyllabic and their stems undergo sound shifts. Based on these sound shifts they are further divided in 5 subcategories. Celt, es ceĻu, tu cel, viņš ceĻ, es cĒlu, tu cĒli, viņš cĒla - "to build, I/you/he build(s), I/you/he built." (Sound shifts marked in uppercase.)
The second conjugation class is characterized by retaining the thematic vowel in infinitive, past as well as present. 1st person singular present and past tenses match.
StrādĀt, es strādĀju, tu strādĀ, viņš strādĀ, es strādĀju, tu strādĀji, viņš strādĀja - "to work, I/you/he work(s), I/you/he worked." (Thematic vowel marked in uppercase.)
Verbs of the third conjugation class retain the thematic vowel in infinitive and past, however, it is absent in present and the stem takes on the full set of endings unlike 1st and 2nd conjugation where 2nd person singular and 3rd person present endings -i and -a are either absent or have given way to the thematic vowel. LasĪt, es lasu, tu lasi, viņš lasa, es lasĪju, tu lasĪji, viņš lasĪja. (Thematic vowels are shown in bold.)
The 3rd conjugation is divided into 2 subgroups, the 1st one containing the thematic vowel ī, and the 2nd subgroup - all other vowels. The only difference between the two subgroups is that verbs belonging to the 2nd subgroup do not take on the 3rd person present tense ending -a. dziedāt, es dziedu, tu dziedi but viņš dzied unlike viņš lasa.
Beside the three conjugations, there are three verbs characterized by different stems in present, past as well as infinitive. These verbs are referred to as "irregular" (nekārtni or neregulāri.) Irregular verbs and their stem changes are:
- būt (esmu, biju) - to be (I am, I was)
- iet (eju, gāju) - to go (I go, I went)
- dot (dodu, devu) - to give (I give, I gave)
Now, if I am to give SOME quick endings, here
- Stem of the verb: verb - -āt/ēt/it/ot/t
- For present: es - u, tu - i, viņi/viņas -, mēs - am, jūs - at, viņi/viņas –
- For past: Es - ju, tu - ji, viņš/viņa - ja, mēs - jām, jūs - jāt, viņi/viņas - ja
- For future: es - šu, tu - si, viņš/viņa - s, mēs - sim, jūs - siet, viņi/viņas - s.
The consonant changes still apply.
Also gt > dz for tu at past.
Well, I honestly don't know what else could you need, so lai tev veicas!
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