Appendix:Lower Sorbian conjugation

Lower Sorbian, like most Slavic languages, has a relatively complex system of conjugation. Some forms are inflected, while others are built periphrastically.

Present

The present tense is formed by inflection. The endings found in the present tense are as follows:

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	-m, -u	-mej	-my
2d	-š	-tej	-śo
3d	∅	-tej	-u, -e

There are four conjugation classes, defined by the final letter of the third-person singular:

• o-conjugation, e.g. wuknuś (“to learn”), third-person singular present wuknjo
• i-conjugation, e.g. groniś (“to say”), third-person singular present groni

  The i-conjugation includes those whose third-person singular present ends in y, e.g. licyś (“to count”) – licy.

• a-conjugation, e.g. cytaś (“to read”), third-person singular present cyta
• j-conjugation, e.g. dejaś (“should, ought to, must”), third-person singular present dej

Preterite

The preterite is found only in the literary language, and is formed by inflection. The endings found in the preterite are as follows:

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	-ch	-chmej	-chmy
2d	-šo (imperfective) ∅ (perfective)	-štej	-šćo
3d	-šo (imperfective) ∅ (perfective)	-štej	-chu

Perfect

The perfect is formed periphrastically by means of the present tense of byś plus the past active participle (or ł-form) of the main verb. It can have either a present perfect or a simple past meaning, e.g. ja som studował (“I studied; I have studied”). The participle agrees with the subject for number (singular, dual, or plural) and, in the singular only, for gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter). The perfect of wuknuś (“to learn”), for example, is:

Person	Singular (masculine)	Singular (feminine)	Singular (neuter)	Dual	Plural
1st	ja som wuknuł	ja som wuknuła	ja som wuknuło*	mej smej wuknułej	my smy wuknuli
2d	ty sy wuknuł	ty sy wuknuła	ty sy wuknuło*	wej stej wuknułej	wy sćo wuknuli
3d	wón jo wuknuł	wóna jo wuknuła	wóno jo wuknuło	wónej stej wuknułej	wóni su wuknuli
*Theoretical form, unlikely to occur in natural language.

The perfect is the ordinary past tense of the colloquial language.

Pluperfect

The pluperfect is found in the literary language and is formed with the preterite of byś plus the past active participle (or ł-form) of the main verb. The pluperfect of wuknuś (“to learn”), for example, is:

Person	Singular (masculine)	Singular (feminine)	Singular (neuter)	Dual	Plural
1st	ja běch wuknuł	ja běch wuknuła	ja běch wuknuło*	mej běchmej wuknułej	my běchmy wuknuli
2d	ty běšo wuknuł	ty běšo wuknuła	ty běšo wuknuło*	wej běštej wuknułej	wy běšćo wuknuli
3d	wón běšo wuknuł	wóna běšo wuknuła	wóno běšo wuknuło	wónej běštej wuknułej	wóni běchu wuknuli
*Theoretical form, unlikely to occur in natural language.

Future

The future is formed periphrastically by means of the future tense of byś (one of the few verbs to have an inflected future) plus the infinitive of the main verb. For example, the future of cytaś (“to read”) is:

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	ja buźom cytaś ja budu cytaś	mej buźomej cytaś	my buźomy cytaś
2d	ty buźoš cytaś	wej buźotej cytaś	wy buźośo cytaś
3d	wón(a/o) buźo cytaś	wónej buźotej cytaś	wóni budu cytaś

Besides byś, the verbs hyś, jěś, and měś have inflected futures, formed by adding a prefix (pó- for the first two, z- for the third) to the present tense.

Conditional

The conditional is formed periphrastically by means of the invariable verb form by plus the past active participle (or ł-form) of the main verb, e.g. the conditional of groniś (“say”) is as follows:

Person	Singular (masculine)	Singular (feminine)	Singular (neuter)	Dual	Plural
1st	ja by gronił	ja by groniła	ja by groniło*	mej by groniłej	my by gronili
2d	ty by gronił	ty by groniła	ty by groniło*	wej by groniłej	wy by gronili
3d	wón by gronił	wóna by groniła	wóno by groniło	mej by groniłej	my by gronili
*Theoretical form, unlikely to occur in natural language.

Imperative

The imperative is formed only in the second person. The endings are as follows:

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
2d	-j (after a vowel) ∅ (after a single consonant) -i (after two consonants)	-tej	-ćo (after a sibilant consonant) -śo (in all other cases)

Passive

The passive voice can be formed in a variety of ways. The most common methods are to use the reflexive pronoun se, as in Dom se pśedajo (“The house is being sold”, literally “The house is selling itself”), or to use the third-person plural impersonally, as in Su pśedali dom (“The house was sold”, literally “They sold the house”).

In a highly literary style, the passive of byś can be combined with the past passive participle of the main verb to form a past-tense passive, for example Dom bu pśedany (“The house was sold”). The complete table of forms is as follows:

Person	Singular masculine	Singular feminine	Singular neuter	Dual	Plural
1st	ja buch pśedany	ja buch pśedana	ja buch pśedane*	mej buchmej pśedanej	my buchmy pśedane
2d	ty bu pśedany	ty bu pśedana	ty bu pśedane*	wej buštej pśedanej	wy bušćo pśedane
3d	wón bu pśedany	wóna bu pśedana	wóno bu pśedane	wónej buštej pśedanej	wóni buchu pśedane
*Theoretical form, unlikely to occur in natural language.

In a very casual, colloquial style, the any tense of verb wordowaś (“to become”) can be combined with the past passive participle of the main verb, for example Dom wordujo pśedany (“The house is being sold”), Dom jo wordował pśedany (“The house was sold”), Dom buźo wordowaś pśedany (“The house will be sold”). This practice is a calque of the German passive construction with werden.

Participles

Lower Sorbian has three participles:

• Present participle, formed by adding -cy to the third-person plural present form, e.g. cytaju (“they read”) → cytajucy (“reading”).
• Past active participle, also called the ł-form, formed by replacing the -ś of the infinitive with -ł, cytaś (“to read”) → cytał (“having read”).
• Past passive participle, formed by replacing the -ś of the infinitive with -ny or -ty chytaś (“to throw”) → chytany (“thrown”), znaś (“to know”) → znaty (“known”).

Verbs whose infinitive does not end in -ś form the past active and past passive participle in various irregular ways.

Infinitive

The infinitive is the lemma form of the verb; most verbs have an infinitive ending in -ś, though some end in -sć or -c. The infinitive is chiefly used in conjunction with modal verbs, e.g. ja dejm hyś (“I ought to go”).

Supine

The supine, which is found in the spoken language only in dialects spoken north of Cottbus, and otherwise only in the literary language, is formed by replacing the -ś, -sć, or -c of the infinitive with -t, -st, or -ct respectively. The supine is used after verbs of motion or where motion is implied, e.g. Jědu k nanoju woglědat (“They’re going [in a vehicle] to visit their father”), Smej nakupowat (“We [two] are (going) shopping”).

Verbal noun

The verbal noun is formed by replacing the -ś of the infinitive with -nje or -śe, e.g. spiwaś (“to sing”) → spiwanje (“singing”), znaś (“to know”) → znaśe (“knowing, knowledge”). In some cases, both types are attested for the same verb, often with different meanings gójś (“to heal”) → gójśe (“healing”) and gójenje (“cure”).

Negation

Verbs are generally negated by means of the prefix nje-, which attaches to finite forms, e.g. wuknjo (“(s/he) learns”) – njewuknjo (“(s/he) does not learn”). The verbs byś (“to be”) and hyś (“to go”) take the variant njej- (njejsom (“I am not”), njejźom (“I do not go”)); the verbs móc (“can”) and měś (“to have”) take the variant nja- (njamógu (“I cannot”), njama (“(s/he) does not have”)); and the verb kśěś (“to want”) takes the variant njo- (njoco (“(s/he) does not want”)). The verb hyś (“to go”) takes njej- also in the imperative: njejźi (“don’t go”). The other verbs all take nje- in the imperative.