Talk:Armenian verbs

Disagreement for preterite
The i-conjugation has a different preterite in Western than what is described here. See the following:

-Bardakjian, Kevork B. and Robert W. Thomson. 1977. A Textbook of Modern Western Armenian. New York: Delmar.

-Gulian, Kevork H. 1965. Elementary Modern Armenian grammar. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co.

-Kogian, Fr. S. L.  1949. Armenian Grammar (West Dialect). Vienna: Mechitharist Press.

It should be xosetsa, xosetsar, xosetsav, xosetsank, xosetsak, xosetsan

It conjugates in this tense like the forms with a suppletive root, such as ud-/ger- 'eat'.

69.157.128.50 (talk) 03:56, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Comment
The Armenian verbs are extremely awkward considering they sound like no other language I have ever come across. None the less, it is a beautifal language which has a sound of its own.

Disagreement over conditional
I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Armenia. One thing I noticed was that in Eastern Armenian in practice, the conditional verb forms weren't used as described here. The non-past conditional form was really used as another future tense (more used than the future form described, in fact). Meanwhile, the past conditional form was used like a non-past conditional form (I would like).

Therefore, the verb

non-past conditional ksirem: (I will like)

past conditional ksirei:    (I would like)

Meanwhile, the future tense described here really better relates to the English "I am going to..." so:

sirelu em (I am going to like)

sirelu ei (I was going to like)

The question then is, how do you say "I would have liked..." (a true past conditional). I asked several Armenians this, and they answered "Chka." ("There isn't any.")

What do other people think?


 * Ahhh.... yes and no. What you're talking about is more of an interpretation I think. I study Japanese and theres a similar concept, what seems like correct translation doesnt imply the intet. The intent of -elu lini and -alu lini is the future tense for EA. In Tehran and New Julfa dialect it absolutely is the future indicative, I can't say for Yerevan and other dialects. KaraiBorinquen (talk) 04:09, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

I definitely agree (with the first set of opinions. In my opinion, "gnalu em" corresponds to the English "I am going to go"

"sirelu em" corresponds to the English "I am going to love/like"

It's the same way it corresponds to the French "je vais aller", or the German "Ich werde gehen"

On the other hand, what is described as the non-past conditional form, is a future form, corresponding to "I will go" and "j'irai". I'm not a professor, so perhaps the technical definition of that term is in fact the non-past conditional, but I am a native Armenian speaker, and I'm going by the fact that when you say "k'gnam", it bears the same implications, the same air of certainty and the same weight as when you say "I will go" in English... not when you say "I would go"

Concerning the conditional tenses:

I would go ==> k'gnai

I would have gone ===> k'gnai

I think "I would go" is a little closer to "k'gnai" than "I would have gone" is, but in Armenian, either can be implied just from the context, if ever it is necessary for them to be distinguished between.

At times, I guess you could use the Future Anterior, "gnalu ei" ("I was going to go")... while this isn't really a conditional, at times, it can replace the past-conditional

I would have come, but I finished work late. ==> Galu ei, bayc ashxatanqic ush durs eka. ==> I was going to come, but I finished work late.

Finally, in my opinion, if it's a true past-conditional you want, then I don't think there is one in Eastern Armenian... but, as I said before, similar shades of meaning can be accomplished with other tenses... Hayreniq (talk) 17:54, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Radio Yerevan

 * The verbal morphology of Armenian is fairly simple in theory, but is complicated by the existence of two main dialects.

Found the leading sentence funny, as it resembles the structure of the Radio Yerevan jokes. :-) bogdan &#676;ju&#643;k&#601; | Talk 8 July 2005 19:17 (UTC)

omg finally
finally, a verb chart thingy. i wont sound like such an esh at the family reunions with my weird western dailect. Shad Shanorhagalem whoever made this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.233.92.137 (talk) 03:38, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

anterior
changed 'anterior' to 'perfect', since 'anterior' is generally used instead for a relative tense. — kwami (talk) 21:11, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

"Unique" to Eastern Armenian
Western Armenian has these tenses too, but they're formed kind of weirdly. Nonetheless, they still exist.

Here they are, but someone else will have to put them in because I'll probably completely ruin the page... Past Conditional:

Past perfect and pluperfect:

Future Perfect:

Same as conditional; they use them interchangeably.

Chuck67322 (talk) 19:22, 20 January 2014 (UTC)