Grammar Notes¶
Grammatical concepts we covered in this unit
- uses of the present tense
- present tense affirmative and negative conjugations of regular verbs
- some uses of the infinitive
- more information about word order
- definite articles on proper nouns in certain situations
- introduction to postpositions (հետ)
- formation of the plural
- dative case for most plural nouns
Uses of the present tense¶
Western Armenian uses the present tense for four different purposes:
- Present: I run.
- Present Progressive: I am running.
- Habitual: (Every day,) I run.
- Assured Future: I am going to be running.
For all verbs except for our four special verbs (including ըլլալ, ունենալ, and գիտնալ that have two present tense conjugations where the "current reality" conjugation is unusual) and one defective verb, the present tense can be used to express all four of the above purposes. For the four special verbs, the first two purposes are expressed by the present tense conjugation you have been learning (without the կը/կ՚/կու), while the habitual or assured future are expressed by a second present tense conjugation (with կը/կ՚/կու). Just know that, for now, by learning the present tense conjugations of regular verbs, you can say quite a lot!
On the progressive կոր
If you have heard anyone speaking Western Armenian before, you will have likely heard a lot of this word: կոր. It's an additional word we add to regular present tense and imperfect conjugations to show a progressive/continuous action. It's usually not included in textbooks because it had been considered colloquial or even "low register." But, it is used all the time in speech and is beginning to be used in written materials. The կոր is one of the things that makes Western Armenian different from Eastern Armenian—it's special.
So, we think the progressive կոր is something you should know and use! When you hear someone say Կ՚եփեմ կոր or Կ՚ընեմ կոր, know that they are specifically saying "I am cooking" and "I am doing it" (and not just "I cook" or "I do it"). For more information about the կոր addition, see page 10 of Dora Sakayan's Modern Western Armenian for the English-Speaking World.
Present tense affirmative and negative conjugations of regular verbs¶
Besides our four special verbs (including ըլլալ, ունենալ, and գիտնալ that have two present tense conjugations where the "current reality" conjugation is unusual) and one defective verb, all verbs are conjugated the same way.
On the usefulness of knowing how to conjugate ընել
Ընել is one of the most useful verbs in Western Armenian. If you don't know how to say a verb in Armenian, you could use the verb in English + ընել, like so:
- skateboard ընել ("to skateboard")
- ski ընել ("to ski")
Of course, the examples above assume your listener knows English, but you could use the "WORD IN OTHER LANGUAGE + ընել" structure with all other languages. Note that, since ընել starts with a vowel, it uses the կ՚- pattern in its present tense affirmative conjugations.
For all regular verbs, we must use կը or կ՚ [or կու for three verbs: գալ "to come," լալ "to cry," and տալ "to give"] for present tense affirmative conjugations. We choose between կը or կ՚ depending on whether the verb starts with a vowel. To complete the conjugation and match it to our subject, we drop the -ել, -իլ, or -ալ of the infinitive (unconjugated verb) and replace with the endings below.
Note that, when you use կը, you put a space between կը / կու and the second part. When you use կ՚, you omit the space.
Spelling difficulties
Most conjugations are really about replacing the լ of the infinitive with another consonant...however, for the third-person singular ("he/she/it") and the second-person plural/formal (դուք), it's a little more complicated. The ե of -ել verbs changes to է for these two conjugations. And for the third-person singular conjugation of -ալ verbs, we have to add a յ because we cannot end a conjugation with ա (except for when we are issuing commands). So, just make a star in your notes for the third-person singular and the second-person plural/formal!
| -ել/-իլ/-ալ verbs | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1st | կը [կ՚] -եմ / -իմ / -ամ | կը [կ՚] -ենք / -ինք / -անք |
| 2nd | կը [կ՚] -ես / -իս / -աս | կը [կ՚] -էք / -իք / -աք |
| 3rd | կը [կ՚] -է / -ի / -այ | կը [կ՚] -են / -ին / -ան |
Forming the negative
Do you remember how you say "I am not" in Western Armenian? Yes, it's չեմ! Isn't it interesting that when you say "I do not study" and "I do not want to be," both of these statements also use չեմ in the first of their two-part conjugations! For almost all subjects (except for the third person singular he/she/it, explained below), this pattern holds:
ըլլալ NEGATIVE conjugation for subject + negative participle [infinitive with լ changed to ր]
Example: չես վազեր = You don't run
The third-person singular (he/she/it) has a special form in the negative present tense. It's the only one that changes the affirmative ըլլալ conjugation more than just adding the չ- prefix. Here's how the pattern works for the third-person singular:
չի [or չ՚ if the verb starts with a vowel] + negative participle [infinitive with լ changed to ր]
Examples: չ՚ըներ, չ՚եփեր
In the examples above, both verbs (ընել, եփել) start with a vowel, so we use the չ՚ option (and omit the space we need for all other conjugations).
| -ել/-իլ/-ալ verbs | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1st | չեմ -ր | չենք -ր |
| 2nd | չես -ր | չէք -ր |
| 3rd | չի [չ՚] -ր | չեն -ր |
Some uses of the infinitive¶
As you saw in this unit, we use the unconjugated form of the verb—the infinitive—when talking about the activities we like. So, we say Քալել կը սիրեմ. In English, we can use the infinitive ("I like to walk") or the gerund (-ing) form: "I like walking." In Western Armenian, the infinitive form is used for both of the English statements. In later units, you will learn about how we can add suffixes or definite/possessive articles to infinitives for various other purposes.
More information about word order¶
You don't have to say the word "it" in Armenian statements. So, if I want to say "I like it," I can just say Կը սիրեմ...no need for more words!
In our last unit, we learned that Western Armenian prefers SUBJECT-OBJECT-VERB order even though it's a free-word-order language. Let's look at a few examples of the subtle differences between two sentences:
- Լալան պարե՞լ կը սիրէ։
- Ո՛չ, Լալան չի սիրեր պարել։
You see here two different variations of the same sentences: One emphasizes whether it is DANCING that Լալա likes (which is why the question mark is on պարել, and պարել is placed before the verb), and the other emphasizes that Լալա DOES NOT LIKE (which is why it frontloads the verb չի սիրեր). So, though there is a free word order in Armenian and we tend to prefer SUBJECT-OBJECT-VERB, here we see that we can put the thing that matters to us in the BEGINNING of the sentence to stress its importance. See pages 260 and 265 of Haroutiun Kurkjian's Practical Textbook of Western Armenian for more details.
Definite articles on proper nouns in certain situations¶
In a later unit, you will learn more about definite articles (the word "the" in English). In this lesson, you saw more examples of how proper nouns are also marked with definite article suffixes in certain situations.
Remember that we do not use the definite article to say names. Note the differences in these statements:
- Անունս Զաւէն է
- Ես Զաւէնն եմ
- Զատիկը պարել կը սիրէ
- Արան կարդալ կը սիրէ
Here you see that we do not use definite articles with names, but we do use them when we are referring to specific people. We also have two different uses of definite articles here: -ը on Զատիկ (which ends in a consonant) and -ն on Արա (which ends in a vowel).
However there is one situation when the definite article is omitted, even when the name is used in the subject position—you will often see the -ը/-ն omitted in historical or formal texts and speech when referring to a famous, but not personally known, individual.
Note these two examples:
- Արմէնին անունը (Armen's name, and he's someone I know)
- Նափոլիոնի անունը (Napoleon's name, and I have never met him)
Why are we adding definite articles on only some of the proper nouns here? It is because, when the third person is someone familiar to us (not a celebrity, politician, historical figure), we use definite articles on names when they are the subjects or the objects of the action of the sentence (and we are not using the ___ն է որ [It is __ that is...] construction after their name). For more information, find an Armenian speaker and refer to page 721 of Armenag Yeghiayan's «Արեւմտահայերէնի Ուղղագրական, Ուղղախօսական, Ոճաբանական Ուղեցոյց».
Introduction to postpositions (հետ)¶
In English, we use many prepositions. We say "I am IN the store," "I am WITH John," and "I came FROM Europe." These are called "prepositions" because they are used BEFORE complements ("the store," "John," and "Europe" of the previous examples). Western Armenian has both prepositions and postpositions—words that come AFTER complements. In general, we can say that Western Armenian has more postpositions than prepositions.
Just like with English where you cannot say "She is with I" (we say "She is with me") the prepositions and postpositions of Western Armenian are used with particular cases. What this means is that when we use an adposition (pre- or postposition) in Armenian, the complement of that adposition must be in a particular form that matches its grammatical function in the sentence.
In this unit, you encountered one postposition: հետ. Հետ is a word that means "with," and it's used with people or animate indirect objects. It is not used in statements like "I cut it with a knife," in which case you would use the instrumental case in Western Armenian (which you will see in a later unit). You saw its use with the statement Ընկերներուս հետ ժամանակ անցնել կը սիրեմ. What you didn't know is that հետ is a postposition that must be used with the either the genitive or dative cases for personal pronouns, or with the dative case in all other situations. As you will see below, ընկերներուս հետ is in the correct dative form of plural nouns!
For more information, find an Armenian speaker and refer to pages 434–436 of Armenag Yeghiayan's «Արեւմտահայերէնի Ուղղագրական, Ուղղախօսական, Ոճաբանական Ուղեցոյց».
Formation of the plural¶
To form the plural for nouns in Western Armenian, you add either -եր or -ներ. The decision about which one to use is largely based on how many syllables a word has. So, we saw one plural noun in this unit:
- ընկերներ
Ընկերներ is pluralized by adding -ներ to a multisyllabic noun.
In general, these rules hold:
- -եր for monosyllabic nouns
- -ներ for polysyllabic nouns
When adding both suffixes, we drop the final յ of a word if it is silent (like with տղայ→տղաներ if we are not using the special տղաք plural).
However, there are a few exceptions to this rule, that we will note here:
- Words that are compound words joined by connecting vowels (like մօրաքոյր "mother's sister = aunt") tend to maintain the plural form for monosyllabic nouns (-եր) because քոյրներ sounds odd to our ears
- Monosyllabic nouns that take the -ներ suffix (because they used to have -ն at the end of them in classical Armenian): լեռ ("mountain"), թոռ ("grandchild"), մատ ("finger"), դուռ ("door")
- Words that still use the classical Armenian plural forms: մարդ→մարդիկ, տղայ→տղաք, ծնող→ծնողք, որդի→որդիք, կին→կանայք, տիկին→տիկնայք, պարոն→պարոնայք
For more information about the formation of plurals, see pages 32–33 of Dora Sakayan's Modern Western Armenian for the English-Speaking World.
Dative case for most plural nouns¶
In general, the dative is the case of the indirect object and answers the questions to whom? or for what? or for whom?. In Western Armenian, we also use the dative case to answer the question when? and during? if the time is a countable quantity. However, as we explained above in our discussion of postpositions and հետ, certain adpositions mandate that a complement appear in a particular case.
The postposition հետ mandates the use of dative with all words that are not personal pronouns. In our lessons for this unit, we saw a few examples of the plural dative:
- ընկերներուս հետ = with my friends
- ընկերներուդ հետ = with your friends
- ընկերներուն հետ = with their/the friends
Did you notice that these examples all have -ու added to the word that comes before հետ? The -ու suffix is added on top of plural forms of the word (the formation of which we discussed above). So, the steps for forming the dative case of plural nouns is as follows:
- Form plural
- Add -ու suffix
- Add definite article or possessive suffix
For the dative case of plural nouns that already have a special plural form, refer to the "Cases" section of our "Appendix."