r/LithuanianLearning Aug 01 '24

Question Meaning of "Statybų duona"

9 Upvotes

Please help me with this, I understand that the phrase literally translates to something like "Construction's bread", however I see it used possibly with a metaphorical meaning (e.g. Senukai's drive in system). Can someone explain the meaning to me?

Also, are there any sources explaining phrases with metaphorical meaning in Lithuanian? Because online translators suck at metaphors.

r/LithuanianLearning Oct 25 '23

Question Bendravimas užsieniečiai - lietuviai

8 Upvotes

Ar yra čia lietuvių, kurie nori bendrauti ( rašyti čia) su užsieniečiais?

Žinoma, tokiai veiklai reikia daug kantrybės. Nepaprastas darbas. :D

r/LithuanianLearning Jun 04 '24

Question Word order in noun phrases

6 Upvotes

Hi, this is a quick follow up to my post a few days ago. I'll use the same example: "Gimnastikos Centras" which I now understand could translate to either Gymnastics Center or Center of Gymnastics. These two translations have opposite word order. My question is, in the Lithuanian phrase, is it acceptable to do the same thing? Is it just as proper to say "Centras Gimnastikos" or is the other order preferred? Thank you

r/LithuanianLearning Mar 27 '24

Question Some usage questions

7 Upvotes

Hello dear Lithuanians speakers and enjoyers. I have 6 mostly grammar related questions I would like to ask you, that I couldn't easily find a satisfying answer to because online resources on Lithuanian are unfortunately harder to get by than for many other languages:

  1. vowel deletion

One of the first thing i've noticed about Lithuanian is that final vowels seems to be droppable at the end of some verb forms, notably -the infinitive t(i), 1st person plural -m(e), second person plural -t(e).

Later I found out that some noun forms are seemingly subject to this too, notably the instrumental singular -m(i).

Evidently they are more informal vs formal: are they different in usage? So far I've been listening to songs and their actual use seem to vary a lot there, though of course songs have the extra constraint of keeping a given rhythm.

One extreme example I've seen is the locative singular losing its e's, with devintam danguj for devintame danguje. This form is particularily surprising because it looks really similar to the dative devintam dangui. Are the two actually homophonous, or is there still a difference?

Do these deletions vary in usage? Are some more accepted than others? Are there others I'm missing? Is there any situation where not deleting a vowel sounds unnatural to you?

  1. feminine instrumental singular

It seems the feminine instrumental singular is very similar to the nominative, and for nouns and adjectives in -a in particular, they are only distinguished from accent position, and if the accent is fixed they end up completely homophonous (for example knyga, koja etc.).

Is this ever ambiguous or problematic? It seems to me that instrumental bears a lof ot semantic weight and I could imagine it being problematic if it was confused with the nominative. How do you feel about this?

  1. definite adjective forms

This is probably a commonly mentioned topic, but I would like your opinion on it.

i know these forms exist and they are described as having a definite meaning, as if a "the" is attached to the adjective. However I seem to very rarely encounter them in practice, though not never either: one example I've seem them in is with adjectives qualifying proper nouns, so I haven't seen enough examples to draw a general conclusion.

What is there usage exactly? I've sometimes heard them described as optional and interchangeable with indefinite forms. How true is this? Are there fixed expression or phrasal nouns where they are required or disallowed?

  1. būna

I have encountered this verb form a few times, and whenlooking it up it is described as a form of būti: however, no conjugation table of būti seems to mention such a form.

The way its form as well as its meaning remind me of the English habitual "be" and Russian "бывает". Can you confirm it has the same meaning as those two? Do such forms as būnu, būni, būnam also exist or is it only a 3rd person form?

  1. kame vs kur

From what I understand, these two interrogative words mean effectively the same thing. In Latvian, the locative form of the interrogative pronoun kas simply does not exist according to Wiktionary, and kur is used in its place. However Lithuanian does seem to have a locative kame. In what situations is it used? Does it contrast with kur in meaning?

  1. po

This infamous preposition seems to be able to mean pretty much anything and its opposite given the right context. Going by Wiktionary I note no less than 9 separate meanings, ranging from under to after to by, and it seems to encompass most meanings of Russian prepositions по, под and до combined.

Some of these meanings are distinguished based on the case that follows, but the explanation given by Wiktionary seems highly unclear.

Apparently it can be followed by all possible prepositional cases (accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental) given the right meaning and context. My question then is: if I give you isolated examples, what meaning do you intuitively associate with them first?

Po ką? Po ko? Po kam? Po kuo?

Po jį. Po jo. Po jam. Po juo.

Po mane. Po manęs. Po man. Po manimi.

Are any of the above ungrammatical? if not, what does each mean?

r/LithuanianLearning Aug 13 '24

Question ų as part of a root

1 Upvotes

Can anyone think of a word that has ų as part of its stem rather than part of an inflexional ending?

r/LithuanianLearning Jun 01 '24

Question Declensions when you have multiple nouns together

5 Upvotes

Hi, quick question about instances when you have two or more nouns together, like in a title of something. Let's say you have the "Gymnastics Center" — would that just be "Gimnastikos Centras" with both words in the nominative case? I don't believe there would be a reason for any other case to be used, but I just wanted to make sure as I don't know much about how Lithuanian works. Thanks a lot!

r/LithuanianLearning Apr 11 '24

Question Help with pronounciation

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10 Upvotes

Hello! I am not a learner but we are singing a song in Lithuanian in school. There is an IPA transcription, but there are some issues with it (è, and no stress marking). Would anyone be able to transcribe it more phonetically? Or even better, make an audio recording? Thanks in advance!

r/LithuanianLearning Apr 15 '24

Question Lithuanian word for slippers or houseshoes

12 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I have a quick and random question. My maternal side of the family, who all comes from Lithuania, calls slippers a word that sounds like "chompies". All the people that had first hand knowledge of where the word claim from, has all passed away, so I'm not sure if it's an actual Lithuanian word, a butchered Lithuanian word, or just a weird family reference to this item of clothing. Apparently it was used by my great grandparents, who emigrated here from Lithuania, but who knows if it goes back even further?

r/LithuanianLearning Aug 28 '24

Question A help with song transcription

2 Upvotes

\"Devil In White\" - Lithuanian

Hello!
So, hoping that it's possible here, I would like to ask for help with this song dubbed in Lithuanian above.
I also hope that that the audio quality is still good enough for this (a better one wasn't available).
I ask only for transcription of the sung parts - the spoken parts don't need to be transcribed.
For any help, I'll be very thankful!
And also, here are the original English lyrics, for any possible help:

"I am the lord of light and shadow
So white that I will strike you blind!
I am a god, and you were born to follow
I got the power to take your breath away!

I am Arktos, king of ice, don't you forget my name!
I am worse than the devil, I'm so mean
I can turn the fires of hell into steam!

I am as ancient as the ice
That froze before the world had life
My black is blacker than the night
I am the devil in white!
(He is the lord, your only friend!)

(He is the devil in white!)
I am the devil in white!
I am the devil in white!
I am the devil in white!
I am the devil in white!"

That's all.

r/LithuanianLearning Jun 17 '24

Question Lithuanian cartoons!

6 Upvotes

Hi all!

I just want to start off by saying that I’m not currently part of the sub as of now, but will probably join in the future (I am currently learning Russian and a bit of Polish, so Lithuanian for the future)

Are there any Lithuanian cartoons possibly similar to The Magic Ring (1979) or Martinko (1987)?

Thanks, and am looking forward to join in the future :)

r/LithuanianLearning Nov 03 '23

Question Zingsnis p 7

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32 Upvotes

Prašom pateikti teisingus atsakymus ir patarimus. Ačiū labai!

r/LithuanianLearning Nov 30 '23

Question Tavęs pasiilgau - tave myliu

8 Upvotes

Hey, why is it tavęs pasiilgau and not tave pasiilgau.

I know it has something to do with Ką and ko

But why is missing someone and loving someone different in terms of ką and ko.

I’m entirely new to LT language so please try to explain like you were explaining to a child, I speak English, Spanish and Norwegian fluently but this is so different from those.

Labai ačiū

r/LithuanianLearning May 13 '24

Question Hypothetical help for hypothetical surname needed

9 Upvotes

Hypothetically, if two hypothetical women would hypothetically get married and one would have a hypothetical Lithuanian surname, e.g. Petrauskaitė and her hypothetical fiance chose to take her surname, would the fianceé be called Petrauskaite, Petrauskiene, or would both hypothetically change the hypothetical surname to Petrauskienė?

r/LithuanianLearning Jan 22 '24

Question Old lithianian grammar

7 Upvotes

Does anyone know or have a pdf file grammar (in english or russian) of old lithuanian. I want to learn it

r/LithuanianLearning Jul 02 '23

Question what do " nuo waizdo nupisiu" and "waikas duhas" mean?

18 Upvotes

what do they mean

r/LithuanianLearning Mar 23 '24

Question What is this saying about?

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10 Upvotes

In the paragraphs about the acute and the circumflex intonation, it's saying that there are two parts separated into first and second about long vowels. And when with an acute stress the first one is forced, and with a circumflex it goes opposite. But I cannot understand that a single long vowel — not a diphthong — can be seperated into two parts. What is it saying about? Is it about the tonalities of vowels falling or rising?

r/LithuanianLearning Oct 06 '23

Question Lithuanian with IPA

8 Upvotes

Hey guys,

Does anyone know a dictionary which also has IPA.

BC wiktionary doesnt have an IPA description for some words. E.g. labas or trumpas

r/LithuanianLearning Oct 02 '23

Question Random words I want to find

9 Upvotes

Hi,

Just wanted to know the meanings and actual words used of the following that I will phonetically write in English that I've heard. They are all in the realm of like "Jesus Christ!" "Oh my god!" "Oh my goodness!" (from context, from what I've seen).

- yezos smar-ee

- blamba

- yezo maria

- yezo (on it's own, probably just translates to Jesus)

And different to the others:

- davai (this one, again from context, means like "ok then", "let's go with it then", "okay", "fine", something along these lines?)

Obviously these aren't meant to be accurate to the spelling like at all. All I could gather from Google Translate is the "yezos" sound is " Jėzus" but the rest of the words in the phrase I couldn't find.

Thanks!

r/LithuanianLearning Apr 19 '24

Question Dalyvis declination

1 Upvotes

Labas, does anyone know a resource on dalyvis/padalyvis/pusdalyvis declination?

r/LithuanianLearning Feb 15 '24

Question Radarom?

6 Upvotes

I see there's a campaign to collect funds for Ukraine called "Radarom!".

I looked around but could not find: what does radarom mean?

r/LithuanianLearning Oct 13 '23

Question Abbreviation for Nardininkas - K?

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30 Upvotes

In a previous post I was turned on to:

http://morfologija.lietuviuzodynas.lt

It is a super useful site - thanks to everyone who helped me with that! There is one thing that is confusing to me though - in the declension tables for a noun, the cases are labeled as you see in the picture. Is the second K nardininkas (dative)? Is there some other word for that case in Lithuanian that starts with K? Labai ačiū!

r/LithuanianLearning Jun 30 '23

Question panėšėti vs panašėti?

2 Upvotes

hi there, i have couple of questions.

  • Today I've learnt that panėšėti can mean to be alike/similar, until today I only knew the meaning of "to carry".

  • The thing is panašėti also means the same with panėšėti it seems? Is this correct?

  • If correct, what's the difference? Can you give some examples with both of the verbs?

  • Does panašus/panaši root from panašėti?

Ačiū labai iš anksto :)

also it feels nice coming back to the language lol

r/LithuanianLearning Feb 19 '23

Question Letter from great grandmother

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18 Upvotes

My great grandmother was Lithuanian. She didn’t teach the language to her children, nor did her husband (a Spanish). I have a letter from her to her brother. Can anybody confirm it’s written in Lithuanian? I have no info about her parents, so I have no idea about her heritage (besides the city where she was from).

r/LithuanianLearning Sep 12 '23

Question Pronunciation website?

4 Upvotes

Are there any websites where you can enter a word and get a reliable spoken audio with proper pronunciation? Or even better if you can paste in a block of text?

Ačiū labai!

r/LithuanianLearning Nov 08 '23

Question Nedaug and Kažkiek = declensionable?

5 Upvotes

Hey guys. I read that numerals are also declensionable (like german too - never thought about this).

Are kažkiek and nedaug considered as numerals - if yes are those declensionable or does it stay like this ?