User:Aegon/High Valyrian Tutorial/1-3

Lesson 3| Present Verbs

Note: copy/paste from Latin wikibook to see what it looks like.

Grammatical Introduction to Verbs

This introductory section may be a bit overwhelming;, is an overall look at verbs. The majority of this section will be covered in later chapters. Nevertheless, looking over this chapter may help you to familiarize yourself with verbs.

Verbs are parts of speech which denote action. There are two main forms of verbs in High Valyrian:

• Principal Verbs (the main verb which is found in every sentence. e.g.,: vala dekurūbas = the man is walking)

• Adjectival Verbs (also known as participles, gerunds and gerundives which describe the state of the described noun. e.g.,: vir ambulans = the walking man. The verb behaves as an adjective)

Every sentence must have a verb. In a sense, the principal verb is the sentence and all the nouns, adverbs and participles are only describing the scenario of the verb. Thus in High Valyrian this constitutes a sentence:

issa.

If you want to explain 'who' is or exists, you add a nominative substantive:

Daenerys issa.

We now know Daenerys 'is'. What is she? So we add an adjective.

Daenerys sȳz issa.

Now we can see that Daenerys is good; to elaborate further we can add an adverb:

Drīvose Daenerys sȳz issa.

Now we know that Daenerys is 'truly' good.

Examples

These two examples will demonstrate the difference between an adjectival verb and a principal verb.

The resurrected Jesus appeared to his disciples.

'resurrected' is a perfect participle (Adjectival) describing Jesus, while 'appeared' is the principal verb in the sentence.

The shocked disciples see Jesus.

'shocked' is a perfect participle (Adjectival) describing the disciples, while 'see' is the principal verb in the sentence.

Exercises

Answer the following questions:

1. What is the difference between a principal and adjectival verb?
2. What constitutes a sentence?
3. Write a sentence in English, and High Valyrian.
4. Conjugate the verb 'to be' in the present tense in English and High Valyrian (I am, You are, He is etc.)

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1. The principal verb is the main verb which is found in every sentence. Adjectival verbs are participles, gerunds and gerundives which describe the state of the described noun.
2. a verb
3. nyke iksan, I am
4. iksan, iksā, issa, iksi, iksāt, issi

Personal Endings

Verbs in High Valyrian are inflected to reflect the person who performs the action. English does the same to some extent in the verb to be:

High Valyrian	English
iksan	I am
iksā	You are
issa	(He/she/it) is
iksi	We are
iksāt	You (all) are
issa	They are

High Valyrian, however, inflects all verbs, and is much more extensive than English, allowing writers and speakers of High Valyrian to often drop the personal pronoun, as the performer of the action is understood by the formation of the verb. The Personal pronoun is only usually added for emphasis. In a way, the ending on High Valyrian verbs are a type of pronoun.

Exercises

Answer the following questions:

1. What do the personal pronouns indicate?

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1. Personal pronouns (nyke, ao, ziry, ūja, īlon, jeme, pōnta) add emphasis. They are usually omitted because they are understood.

   Example: [nyke] muñe ñuhe kepē ñuhe jorrāelan.

   I love my mother and my father. Ñuhe above is a possessive pronoun to be discussed later. (you don't have to write nyke, it is understood)

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Moods

There are several moods. Each has its own uses to convey certain ideas. The most commons moods are:

• Indicative • Subjunctive • Imperative

The two moods we will first learn are the imperative (commands and orders) and the indicative (declarative statements and factual questions).

Exercises

Answer the following questions:

1. List the most common moods.
2. What two moods are we going to learn about in this lesson, and what do they let us construct?

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1. Indicative, subjunctive (or conjunctive) and imperative.
2. The moods we are going to learn about first are:

   Imperative: Which we use when we make orders.

   Go away. Fetch me the keys. Do not order me around!

   Indicative: Statements which are declarative, and questions concerning facts.

   John plays football.

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Voice

There are two constructions verbs can have regarding voice.

Verbs can have either an active or passive voice.

E.g. 'I smash the car.' 'smash' is an active verb construct.

The passive is used when the nominative is affected by the verb.

E.g. 'The car is smashed by me.' 'is smashed' is a passive construct.

Exercises

1. What is 'voice'?
2. What is active voice?
3. What is passive voice?
4. Construct a sentence in English using each of these voices.

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1. Voice is how a verb is constructed.
2. When the subject affects the verb
3. When the nominative is affected by the verb
4. Ex.- I carried, I am being carried.

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Tense

Tense in High Valyrian comprises two parts: TIME and ASPECT. Time reflects when the action is occurring or did occur: past, present, or future. Aspect refers to the nature of the action: simple, completed, or repeated. The "completed" aspect is generally termed "perfective" and repeated aspect "imperfective."

Theoretically, a verb could have nine tenses (combinations of time and aspect). However, High Valyrian only has seven, since some possible combinations are expressed by the same verb forms. High Valyrian tenses do not correspond exactly to English ones.

Below is a rough guide to tense in High Valyrian.

	Time
A S P E C T		Present	Future	Past
	Simple	Present Tense "I walk"	Future Tense "I will walk"	Perfect Tense "I walked"
	Imperfective	Present Tense "I am walking"	Future Tense "I will be walking"	Imperfect Tense "I was walking"
	Perfective	Perfect Tense "I have walked"	N/A "I will have walked"	Pluperfect Tense "I had walked"

High Valyrian also has an Aorist tense for expressing ideas of an action always occurring or never-ending and a post habitual tense for expressing an action that "used to" take place.

As is evident, some High Valyrian tenses do "double duty." The High Valyrian Present and Future Tenses can either express simple or progressive aspect. Particularly difficult to grasp is the High Valyrian Perfect tense, which carries a number of stem spelling changes.

Exercises

1. Copy out the above table.
2. Study the table.

| Vide (see) the table above. }}

Infinitive

The infinitive (impersonal) is the form of the verb which simply means 'to (verb)' e.g. 'to do', or 'to be', or 'to love', or 'to hate' etc. All forms which are not in the infinitive are in the finite (personalised) form.

The infinitive has a -gon at the end of the stem of the verb.

dēbeō currere nunc = I ought to run now.

esse, aut nōn esse = To be, or not to be?

Exercises

Answer these two questions about the infinitive and finite.

{Latin/Exercise|Answer|

1. What is the infinitive? Give an example.
2. What is the finite? Give an example.

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1. The infinitive is the verb-form that simply mean "to (verb)".

   To sing, to dance, to drink, to love.

2. Every verb which is not in the infinitive, is in the finite.

   He smells, we plot, she had drunk, he pours.

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Irregularities

Verbs which use the passive formation in an active sense are known as deponent. Verbs which don't have a form for every tense and mood are known as defective. You will meet a few words like this soon.

Exercises

{Latin/Exercise|Answer|

1. What is a deponent verb?
2. What is an irregular verb?
3. What is a defective verb?

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1. A verb which uses the passive voice in an active sense.
2. A verb that does not follow the normal rules of conjugation.
3. A verb missing forms for some tenses or moods.

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Personal Pronouns

In case you do ever use a personal pronoun to emphasise the SUBJECT of the verb, you must remember that the personal pronoun must be in the nominative case and the number and person of the verb must match that of the subject. (Review Lesson 7 if unfamiliar with the terms person and subject).

Exercises

{Latin/Exercise|Translate|

1. What case should the subject (performer) of the verb be in?
2. What number should the principal verb be?
3. What person and number is 'ego'?
4. What person and number is 'I'?
5. What person and number is 'we'?
6. What person and number is 'thou'?
7. What person and number is 'ye'?
8. What person and number is 'vōs'?
9. What person and number is 'nōs'?
10. What person and number is 'tū'?
11. What person and number is 'boy'?

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1. Nominative case
2. First person, singular.
3. First person, singular.
4. First person, singular.
5. First person, plural.
6. Second person, singular.
7. Second person, plural.
8. Second person, plural.
9. First person, plural.
10. Second person, singular.
11. Third person, singular.

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Principal Parts

When one looks up a verb in the dictionary, the principal parts are given. From these principal parts you can find the correct form of the verb for every circumstance.

Present Indicative Active 1st Person	Present Infinitive	Perfect Indicative Active 1st Person	Supine
amō	amāre	amāvi	amātum
Determines whether the vowel is dropped in the 1st person singular present.	Gives the imperfect stem and infinitive	Gives the perfect stem	Allows you to form adjectival forms of the verb (Participles)

Exercises

Answer this question about principal parts.

{Latin/Exercise|Answer|

1. What do the principal parts allow you to do?

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1. The principal parts are the verb-forms you find when you look in the dictionary. E.g. if you look for the verb amō (love) in a dictionary you would find:

   amō • amāre • amāvi • amātum

These four forms will help you form every Latin verb you want.

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Using the Dictionary

All nouns are given in the nominative, as well as the declension and gender of the noun. Verbs are alphabetized using the 1st person singular (the first principal part) and the infinitive is given. Supplementary principal parts are given if the various other principal parts do not follow the standard pattern of formation from the infinitive and 1st person singular.