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Hachette UK poly is to use papers that are natura, reneuable and recycabl products and made trom wood grown in sustarable forest, The loging and manulacurng )rootsses are expect to conform othe envionment elton of the county of og Impression number 10.98.76 5.43.21 Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 {oti patikami nice to meet you 1 you wil leam some some common greetings and goodbyes, to say who you are, how to introduce someone, about asking ‘questions and to tak about nationality val js rundjat latviskt? ho you speak Latvian? “ ‘you will eam more about introducing people to each other, to say which languages you speak, to say where you lv and work ‘and to exchange personal information Jepazisimies! lets get acquainted a you wil leam how to catch someone's attention of open a conversation, to ask for someone's name, address ‘and telephone number, to spell something, to express incomprehension and ask for Clarfication and the numbers 1-20, ‘més dzivojam netalu no stacijas, We iv not fr from the station “ you wil lear to say where you are from, to find out where someone else is from, to tak about proximity how to address $}]U9}]U09;=)10 ‘Someone (Mr or Mrs) and more numbers: ‘counting up to 100 Sir mana gimene this is my family you wil learn to talk about members ofthe family, age, marital status, to-ask how much or how many, ‘to express having something ‘and about parts of the body and how to describe people's appearance naclet ciemos come and visit us you will learn the days of the week, about ordinal numbers, to describe where you lve (rooms, furniture) and about ‘accepting and dectning invitations abu éstgribut bon appetit! you will ear to order food and drink in a restaurant or bar, about requesting things, how to describe food and what {son the table and to say what you like oF disike about fod or drink ‘ejam lepirities! let's go shopping! you wil learn about buying quantities of things, about buying clothing (asking about prices and sizes) to express necessity and to talk about likes and dislikes (not food) ‘cikos vin8 zvanija? at what time did he ring? you will eam to talk about time, about making telephone calls and to ‘make arrangements talsni uz priekéu straight ahead you wil lear about traveling and transport, asking for directions, obtaining travel information and buying tickets 106 128 148 " 2 B “ key tothe exercises Latvian-English glossary ‘grammar reference ‘taking it further ‘par naudu nevar nopirkt veselibu ‘money can't buy health 190 ou will eam to describe health problems, to buy medication from a pharmacy and about dealing with other services (hairdresser, bank, post office) val, clk skaistil oh, how nice! an you will eam about the weather andthe seasons of the year, about festivals and Personal celebrations, how to say dates (months and years) and to describe how you feel astistet par sevi tol us about yourself 237 ‘you will eam to chat about your educational background, to talk about your work and profession to chat about your hobbies and pastimes and to talk more about yourse_ lalmigu ceful ave a nice trip! 262 you will eam about using the car, traveling around Latvia, abit about history and more on dates 8ee8Welcome to Teach Yourself Latvian. This book is intended for learners with no previous knowledge of Latvian. It can also be used as a refresher course for those who have some knowledge of Latvian, and wish to revise and consolidate their language skills. Many people have contributed, both directly and directly, to this book. I would like to thank, firstly, my students who, over the years, have taught me so much. In addition, a big thanks and acknowledgement is owed to various colleagues for their advice and encouragement, as well as to Helen Vick and Ginny Catmur at Teach Yourself, without whose support this project would not have been realized. Thanks also to my husband Martin. General remarks about the Latvian language Latvian is an unusual European language, sometimes described as archaic, because over time it has changed less than other languages. Formally, Latvian belongs to the Indo- European branch of languages, however the only other language that is really similar to it is Lithuanian. Beyond that ~ apart from Slavic and German influences - the next kin language is Sanskrit. There aren’t many Latvian speakers in the world and it is always a pleasant surprise for Latvians to discover that a foreigner is making an effort to speak their language. The chief difference from English is the absence of articles: there is no a and no the in Latvian. uolnonpodyuiz)wononponuy $, Nouns (words for things, ideas and people) have gender: they are either masculine or feminine. Only living creatures, however, are referred to as he or she. If you want to refer to a feminine noun such as iela (street), or a masculine noun such as Balds (table), you will have to say ta for iela and or tas for galds (tas and ta can mean either that or it). The Latvian language makes use of cases, that is, the endings of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and numerais will change not only because they are masculine or feminine, but also because of their function, the way they are used in a sentence. Lastly, whilst in English there are different forms of the verb in the present tense (for example, I eat and I am eating), in Latvian there is only the one form ~ es édu. This one form of present tense in Latvian has both indefinite and continuous meanings: it can express I eat meat (generally I do ~ I am not a vegetarian) or I am eating meat (right now, ot currently) How to use this book Read the introduction in English at the beginning of each dialogue before you read or listen to the dialogue. The sections marked with EJ are on the recording which accompanies the book. We strongly recommend that you use the recording alongside the book. The dialogues attempt to reflect the language as it is really spoken in various everyday situations. See how much you can understand without consulting the vocabulary, because itis useful to learn to deduce or to guess the meaning of what is being said from the context ~ as you build up your ‘stepping stones’ of words. Getting the gist of the conversation without necessarily understanding every single word is what actually happens when you are learning to use a foreign language in real life. Then study the dialogue. The word list after the dialogue gives the meanings of new words and the main phrases. If you cannot find a word in the vocabulary box, it will be in the glossary at the back of the book. There are also language points — explanations about the grammar and about the way the language works. Because of the differences between languages, some of the points may not be immediately obvious. Allow yourself time to absorb the information. It's natural for things to fal into place gradually. The ‘Let’s practise’ sections are for practising your speaking skills by reading out loud, and also for listening to the recording, if you have it. Any reading out loud is extremely beneficial ~ it helps you get used to the sounds and will help your confidence with speaking and pronunciation. There are also exercises at the end of each unit. These may help you to consolidate your knowledge before you move on to the next unit. These are only suggestions. Everyone has their own completely unique way of learning. Symbols and abbreviations i this indicates that the recording can be used for the following section. BD information about the country or a particular theme Abbreviations used in this book are: masc. or m. ~ masculine, fem. or f. ~ feminine, sing. ~ singular, pl. - plural, acc. accusative, dat. - dative, gen. — genitive, loc. ~ locative, imp. ~ imperative, dim. ~ diminutive, coll. - colloquial. The alphabet and pronunciation guide The Latvian alphabet is similar to the English, but it differs in ‘ovo respects: there is no q, 1, x or y, and there are three sorts of diacritical marks or accents, which modify the sound of the letter they are on or under. We give examples of all these accented letters in ‘Listen and practise’, later in this section. The first accent is a horizontal line, which sits on top of the vowels a, i, and a. It extends the vowel sound, and makes it longer. That’s why sometimes it is called a ‘long’. The other two work only with consonants. One is a tiny v (called a jumtins, or ‘little roof, in Latvian). This sits on top of the letters &, %, and % and gives the consonant sound a kind of crunch ch,’sh and zh. The other is like a comma. It sits underneath the letters k, |, and and above the letter g. The effect is similar to adding a y, so 9 sounds like the ny of canyon. ‘When this y sound is added the sound of the original letter is slightly changed. This will all become clearer in ‘Listen and practise’. uwoRonponul 5uoponponur x ‘The accents or diacritical marks are very significant, because by altering the sounds they can completely alter the meaning of the e ‘asinbet | es 1 xi word. A typical example would be the word vin, which means _ 2)asincat | ledus_ ice 5 he. Change a few accents to obtain vins, and now it means wine. Siong™ [asin air [st, més 10 eat, we ‘Another example is the word for wedding — kazas. Lose the 2)asin fan__| tavs, dais father, son accent (kazas) and, instead of talking about a wedding, you may 7 fotografia, ima | photograph fim find yourself talking about goats! In fact the same thing happens 9 ‘as in gold ‘gramata, gads | Book, year in English, except it is harder because the change in ¢ aay, Simene, kugis | family, Shp pronunciation is not shown with a written accent - think of as in dew present, as in She gave me a present and I will present you to my F hallo, hokejs__| hello, hockey friend and other examples. ainsi Tgaunija, istaba | Estonia, room as in feet ‘tris, ret three, to rent hire asinyellow |, los yes, you (plural) as in king kafija, krésis coffee, chair T+, asin | Kiploks, rekins | gariic, bil Tuesday 1 as in Latvia labs, laiks good, time / weather T T+¥, asin | oti, bijete very, ticket milion mm ménesis, maja_| month, house Word stress n ‘as innormal | né,nedéla__|no, week ‘Asa general rule, stress is on the first syllable. However some of 0 wey, emt, astoni | fo fake, eight the first words you will be learning, such as greetings and thank {ike in new. ‘you are exceptions, with the stress on the second syllable. Just o )round, a8 | ola, Koks 299, tree / wood remember that this is unusual. in whooa 2) open, oktobris, oficiants; October, waiter DListen and practise tke awe _ P pilséta, puke, | town, flower, pulksteni clock Latvian |English Latvian English = fetter [equivalent —_| example words |meaning ' led Tee the | rs, restorans "| moming, lscund restaurant = - 3 ‘as in soft ‘sieva, soma __| wife, bag a like ‘u’ in cup _[Anglija, galds_ |England, table z ke “sh Sodien, sei | today, six ‘along [asin aaagh — |mate, masa __|mother, sister t ja, teats a, ae . et ts pon u [estat [un upe, vga [and, river fe ‘long _|as in foo! ‘dens, ja h @ fas tS in rats | eilvks, cukurs|person, sugar Jae s.jura_{water, sea : vakars, virs evening, man7 é ike "ch Seti, Eipsi__|four, orsps ne d divi, durvis | itwo, door Zz ‘as in Z00 ‘Zale, ziema ‘grass /'hall, winter z "zh’, as in| Zumals, bagaa | magazine, luggage leisure“Note that the Latvian e, € and o are pronounced in two different ways. There is no way of predicting the pronunciation of the different e and @ sounds, but the pronunciation of 0 depends on the origin of the word. If it has come into Latvian from another language (words like oktobris, oficiants and fotografia, for example) it will have the open awe sound. ** The consonant v after vowels is pronounced like au, the word nav (isn't) will sound like nau, similarly divpadsmit (twelve) will be pronounced diupadsmit. Sometimes the combination dz and di are treated as a single sound and presented as part of the alphabet: daudz much / many [ d= [asin badge [tempers dtungl | jumper, junote } dz |as in adds | dzivokls, dzer, tt acre k | Diphthongs Diphthongs are combinations of vowel sounds: ai, au, ei, ie, ui. There are lots of these open sounds in the language, which is probably why Latvians sing so much. You'll find that you need to use your jaw and lips a lot. Take your time and enjoy them. Gisten and practise ai | as ineye maize, gaisma, | bread, light, kaimins neighbour au) tke ‘ow ‘saule, nauda | sun, money i | Tike “ay” ‘meita, veikals | daughter, shop ie | like ‘ea’ Tela, diena, viens | street, day, one in idea Ul [ike ‘00° followed | pulsis ‘youth, lad by ‘ee" Building up vocabulary ‘Try to learn new words as you meet them. In this way you can accumulate the building blocks you need to communicate, to get the message across. Everyone has their own system of memorizing words. From the above pronunciation list, for example, you can put them into separate groups, like words to do with family, or food, or according to word type (such as verbs - doing words or action words). Write them on pieces of paper to create flashcards. These are handy as little reminders and for testing yourself. Build your own personal vocabulary list in a notebook or on the computer. When you learn a new word in Latvian you will be given it in its dictionary form, in the singular. This happens in English t you won’t find ‘houses’ in the dictionary; you'll find ‘house’. There are three different types of masculine singular nouns in Latvian: ones that end with an -s, an -is or, more rarely, -us. Although words like virs (man / husband), bralis (brother) and tingus (market) are all masculine nouns, they will occasionally behave differently, ie. their endings will change in different ways, not only between singular and plural forms, but also among the various cases. (These will be explained in more detail later on.) Note that nouns such as kaimin3 (neighbour), which end in a, behave as if they had an -s ending. There are also three different endings for feminine nouns. These too change between singular and plural forms, and in the different cases. The most common are -a and -e, with a handful of feminine nouns that end in an -s. So the words puke (flower), masa (sister) and nakts (night) are all feminine nouns. There are only very few feminine nouns that have this last ending -s, in fact they could be considered to be exceptions, because far more usually this isa typical masculine noun ending. It may be a good idea to pay particular attention to these exceptions when you first come across them, so that you can remember them. Vocabulary All new words will always be listed in a vocabulary list, with the gender given (m, ~ masculine, f. ~ feminine, also pl. ~ plural). Anglija (f.) astoni bagaza (f,) bilete (f.)bralis (m.) briti (m. pl.) éetri cilvaks (m.) ipsi (m. pl.) cukurs (m.) daudz dais (m.) diena (f.) divi divpadsmit durvis (f. pl.) dzemperis (m.) dzert dzivoklis (m.) dzungli (m. pl.) es ést filma (f.) fotografia (f.) gads (m.) gaisma (f.) galds (m.) gimene (f.) gramata (f.) hallo brother Brits, British people four person ‘crisps sugar ‘much / many ‘son day two twelve door jumper to drink flat / apartment ye toeat film photo garlic tree / wood chair ‘ship ) (n) Sr woater ice very bread 8 nedéja (t) emt oficiants (m.) oktobris (m.) ola (f) pilséta (f) Puisis (m.) puke (f) pulkstenis (m) rakins (m) restorans (m.) fits (m) saule (f) sedi sieva (f) Sodien ‘soma (f) teditris (m.) tj (t) tévs (m.) tirgus (m.) tris dens (m.) uguns (f.) un upe (f.) vakars (m.) veikals (m.) viens virs (m.) zai ziema (f) Zurnais (m.) evening ‘shop one ‘man or husband {grass or hall winter magazine ‘wononpamu %xercises 1 In amongst the pronunciation word list there were some numbers. Arrange them in the right order. Is it possible to count up to ten? Which number(s) are missing? (Bz The following are names of places in Latvia. Read and practise pronouncing them. If you can, read them out loud and get your facial muscles used to the new sounds ~ this will help increase your confidence. Riga Ventspils Sigulda Liepaja Madona Jelgava Jékabpils. AinaZi_-— Bauska Tukums Ogre Daugavpils Ape Rézekne Césis 3. Masculine or feminine? The following words are all nouns. By looking at the ending on the word, work out which ones are masculine and which ones are feminine. galds, gramata, avize, Zurnals, rts, vakars, diena, nedéla, ménesis, gads, skapis, maja, dzivoklis, kaimins, koks, puke, zale, darzs, ola, veikals, tirgus, gimene, virs, sieva, barns, déls, meita, bralis, masa, automaiina, divritenis, iela, cel, pase ‘automagina (t) avize (t) béms (m) cols (m.) darzs (m) divritenis (m) pase (f.) ‘skapis (m.) C34 Listen to, or read, these Latvian words, then match them to the pictures. galds kiploks ii durvis puke iii ledus maja iv gramata ola v_ kugis koks vi krésls i_oficiants‘xviti] [CJS Listen to, or read, these Latvian words, then match them 5 to the correct English translations in the right-hand column. i pilséta a evening a b clock pulkstenis © sea restorans ds winter Vv upe e bill vi uguns water vii adens magazine i h town i man j fire xi ziema ko sun xii Zurnls 1 money xiii bagiza m_ bread xiv maize n restaurant xv saule 0 baggage xvi nauda Pp oriver 6 Odd one out. Read out loud the following groups of words and circle the one which doesn’t belong with the others. daudz, ést, dzert, pemt tévs, mate, pulkstenis, masa psi, kugis, kiploks, maize galds, kresls, déls, durvis gads, soma, nedéla, ménesis jira, ledus, upe, bralis tgja, gimene, tidens, kafija nauda, uguns, gaisma, saule iurnals, gramata, ola, filma rits, vakars, diena, kaimin’ meita, pilséta, maja, iela Zale, puke, cukurs, koks daivoklis, iret, istaba, ziema diungli, oficiants, r€kins, restorans NOA JeewW 0} Bolu yized Ho By ore mean oe In this unit you will learn + some common greetings and goodbyes to say who you are how to introduce someone about asking questions to talk about nationality ieweyned nol ro GDialogue 1 David has just arrived in Latvia. His friend and colleague Karlis has invited him to a party. David sees a woman standing on her ‘own, so he walks up to her and introduces himself. David Labvakar! Es esmu Deivids. ize —_Labvakar! Loti patikami. Es esmu lize. David Vinu? Alu? We Sulu, ladzu. David brings her a glass of juice. David Ladzu. lize Paldies. David Nav par ko. ‘good evening Tam pleased to meet you (lit. very pleasant, it's a pleasure) wine beer juice please thank you don’t mention it *See the note about word endings on p. 4. Transcript David Good evening. I'm David. lize Good evening, Pleased to meet you (iteraly: very pleasant, it's a pleasure) | am Ize. David Wine? Beer? lize Juice, please. David There you ar (iterally: please). We Thank you. David Don't mention it Language points Greeting people ‘The word for good evening, labvakar, is actually made up of two separate words: labs (good) and vakars (evening). Good day and good morning are labdien and labrit. There is no Latvian expression for good afternoon, although there is a word for afternoon — pécpusdiena (literally: after midday). Sveiki or sveicinati is a slightly less formal kind of greeting, but not as informal as the English hi. Often, friends will greet each other with a au, which is similar to the Italian ciao! Saying ‘goodbye’ The most common way of saying goodbye is uz redzééanos. It literally means to when we see each other. Visu labu (all the best, literally: everything good) is also something that is said on departure, as is the more informal or familiar ata. A very casual ‘greeting is Eau, which can be said on leaving as well. Arlabvakar isa kind of goodbye which is said in the evening. Last thing at night you may hear an arlabunakti (good night). Courtesy phrases Ladzu most often means please, but itis also used when handing or offering things to people, as a there you are or you're welcome. Paldies is simply thank you. If you want to thank someone very much, you say liels paldies ~ a big thank you. Dlet'’s practise! Read the following words out loud. Repeat them a few times until you feel comfortable saying them. Try to remember the meaning without looking at the explanations above. Labvakar! Uz redzééanost Labdien! Visu labu! Labrit! ‘Arlabunaktit Sveiki! ladau Syeicinatit paldies Cau! liels paldies Joti patikami nay par ko Arlabvakar! jwexned nol 6jwerned pol Word endings tell us about their function ‘When David was offering a drink to Ilze, he said vinu and alu, instead of the way it appeared in the vocabulary list (vins and alus). This is because in this particular situation ~ where the wine and the beer he was offering was the direct object of the sentence - he had to put a different ending on the nouns, because they have a particular function. We call this a case (the accusative case, in this example). Using different endings on words to express different cases is a typical feature of the Latvian language. We will continue to learn more about cases in the next chapters. DB Dialogue 2 At the party Karlis is spotted by Mara who has met him before, but she isn’t sure of his name. Mara = Labvakar. Val jlis esat Karlis? Kérlis Sveiki. Ja, es esmu Karlis. Un jis, \Gdzu? Mara Es esmu Mara. Mans vards ir Mara. Sis ir mans virs Dons. Karlis Loti patikami. Kairlis turns to John. Karlis Vai jds esat amerikénis? John —Né, es neesmu amerikénis. Es esmu anglis. Mana sieva, protams, ir latviete. Kérlis Mana sieva Laima ar ir atviete. M&s abi esam latvieéi. Bet ‘mans draugs Deivids ir skots. Tur vin8 ir you are (pl. or formal) vai question word: ia yes un and mans, mana my (m. f) vards name is ir this (m) is amerikanis (man American (masc.) esneesmu /am not anglis (m.) an Englishman sleva (t) wife protams of course it is latviete (f.) a Latvian (fem.) ari also més esam we are abi (m. pl.) both draugs (m.) friend skots (m.) 2 Scotsman tur there vins he Transcript Good evening. Are you Karlis? Hi. Yes, I'm Karlis. And you, please? am Mara. My name is Mara. This is my husband John. Pleased to meet you. ‘Are you [an] American? ‘No, I'm not American. | am English (literally: an Englishman), but my wife of course is a Latvian. My wife also is Latvian. We both are Latvians, but my friend David is a Scot. There he is. Language points Personal pronouns A pronoun is a word that replaces a name or a noun. es I més we tu you(sing.) jis you (pl. or formal) ving he vini they (all male or mixed group) vina she vinas they (all female) Tu and jas, the two forms of ‘you’ As in many other languages, there are two words for you, the formal and the informal. Which form you use depends on who you are talking to. The singular and informal tu (you) is used when addressing a child, a friend or a member of the family. The plural or polite jas (you) is used not only for more than one person, but also when addressing strangers or adults who are not close friends. wexned nolnweyned nol © Doing something: using verbs or action words Sometimes itis said that the ‘motor’ of a language is its verbs ~ the words which express an action or the process of doing something. Here is a table for the verb bat to be: esesmu am més esam — we are tu esi you are (sing.) jas esat you are (pl.) vin / vina ir he/she is vini / vinas ir they (m./f.) are Did you notice that the he, she and they pronouns all use the same form of the verb (ir)? In this respect Latvian is different to English, where it changes: he is, they are. The he, she and they pronouns are often referred to as ‘the third person’. You could almost call it the ‘not me and not you’ form. Not doing something ~ negating the verb To form the negative of the verb, add ne- in front of it. This works for any verb in Latvian. Here it is in action with the verb to be: esneesmu Iam not més neesam we are not tuneesi you are not (sing.) jis neesat you are not (pl.) vin3 / vina /vini/ vinas nav he / she is not, they (m. /.) are not There is one exception here (and itis the only such exception in the entire language!), it is the third person form nav, pronounced now. So varbit ir, varbit nav means maybe it is, maybe it isn't. BB a itle about Latvia Latvia is one of the smaller states of the European Union. In size it is considerably larger than Denmark or the Netherlands, but slightly ‘smaller than Ireland or the Czech Republic. With a total population of about 2.4 milion, it is a highly centralized country, because almost 1 million inhabitants live in the capital city, Riga. The second largest city - Daugavpils - lies approximately 230 km to the ‘southeast of Riga, and has a population of about 108,000. ‘Since Latvia joined the EU in 2004, many tens of thousands have ‘emigrated in search of better-paid employment, mostly to the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom or the Channel Islands. Geographically Latvia is largely lat: the highest mountain ~ or, more precisely, hill (there isn’t a separate word in the language for mountain) - is the 312 m high Gaizin8. There are many lakes, especially in the easter part of the country. The chief river is the Daugava, which rises beyond the border with Belarus and flows into the Guif of Riga by the capital city. GDialogue 3 [At the party David and Ize come over and join the group. David Labvakar! Mani sauc Deivids. Si ir lize. John oti patikami, Es esmu DZons, un &i ir mana sieva Mara, David 0, Déons. Jas varbit esat anglis? KarlisJ8, vin8 ir anglis. Jas abi esat brit David Un Mara ir angliete? Kérlis_N@, vipa nav angliste. Vina ir latviete. lize un Mara ~ vipas abas ir latvietes. ‘mani sauc sir varbat angliete (f.) briti (m. pl) abas (f. pl.) latvietes (f. pl.) Transcript David Good evening. 'm called David. This is ize. John Pleased to meet you. | am John, and this is my wife Mara. David Oh, John. Perhaps you are English? Karlis Yes, he's English. You both are British. David And Mara is English? Klis No, she’s not English. She is Latvian. ‘ize and Mara - they both are Latvian. Get's practise! esesmu... mani sauc...__mans vards ir Bis ir Deivids Sis ir mans_——Sis ir mans_—_—&is ir mans virs bralis draugs Sir Mara Siirmana = Slirmana Sir mana sieva masa gimene jwexged nol ~iwexned pol Language points More than one - forming the plural of nouns You already know the noun endings in the singular, and that there are three different endings for each gender. Forming the plural of masculine nouns endings are easy: they all end with an -i. More than one man (or husband) will be viri, ‘more than one clock ~ pulkstegi and a number of beers will be ali (but you don’t hear this last one being said very much). virs > viri pulkstenis = pulksteni alus = ali ‘Take special note of masculine -is nouns. In the plural form the consonant before the -i ending is usually altered. divritenis = divriteni ménesis. > ménedi brilis - brali latvietis = latviesi skapis - skapji Feminine plurals are also quite simple. For the ones that end in a vowel you just add an -s (pukes, masas). The unusual feminine nouns (those which end in an -s in the singular, e.g. nakts (night), have the plural ending -is (naktis). There aren’t many of these exceptions, but they can be words which are used quite regularly, for example another is the word pils (castle). It often appears in Latvian place names, eg. Ventspils, Jékabpils, Daugavpils. The formal place of work of the president of Latvia is Rigas pls (the castle of Riga). Compare: puke = pukes masa - misas nakts, pils = naktis, pilis Nouns that exist only in the plural Certain nouns exist in the plural form only. In English, for example, you can’t talk about a trouser or a scissor ~ you have to say trousers and scissors. There are quite a few of these ‘plural-only’ nouns in Latvian too. One you have already met is the feminine plural noun durvis (it is as if you were talking about a pair of doors). In fact, you can still see a lot of these rather old fashioned double-doors on unmodernized buildings in Riga, Ventspils and elsewhere in Latvia. The Latvian word for trousers is bikses, also a plural word, as is brilles (glasses or spectacles). By looking at the ending we can tell that it is a feminine word, like pukes. Another plural noun is the word for news ~ zinas, like masas. Occasionally a noun in the plural may take on a different meaning. Maja means house, but in its plural form majas it has ‘wo possible meanings: it can be more than one house, or it may mean home. The meaning will be obvious from the context. Mealtimes - brokastis (breakfast), pusdienas (lunch) and vakarinas (evening meal) - are all feminine plural nouns. Another feminine plural noun was mentioned in the Introduction. It was the word for wedding ~ kazas. pécpusdiena (f,) nakts (f.) ils (f.) bikses (f. pl) brilles (f. pl.) maja (f.) zinas (f.) majas (f. pl) brokestis (f. pl) kazas (f. pl) DaAsking questions As in English, you can generally ask questions by raising the pitch of your voice: Un jis? And you? More frequently, questions begin with question words: What is that? Who (or what) are you? Kas tas ir? Kas jis esat? jwexned pol ©wweyned nol S ‘Simple statements can be turned into questions by putting the question word vai at the beginning: Vai jis esat Dons? Are you Jobn? ‘This only works for questions which can be answered with a yes or a no. For example, if you wanted to check whether John is English, you would say: Is Jobn English? (literally: an Englishman) (On the other hand, the following question could be answered in ‘many ways: Kas Dions ir? Dions ir anglis. Dions ir brits. Vai Dions ir anglis? Who (what) is John? John is English. Jobn is British (literally: a British person). John is a man. Jon is a doctor. Dions ir virs. Dions ir arsts. Normally there is for nationality a male version and a female version, as well as their plural forms. When talking about a mixed group of people, or when we don’t know what gender they are, itis usual to use the masculine plural form. Male Female Collectively a Latvian latvietis _latviete——latviesi ‘an English person anglis angliste —_angfi an American amerikanis amerikaniete amerikani a Canadian kanadietis kanadiete _kanadiesi an irish person irs iriete ii @ Scots person —_skots skotiete ——_ skoti ‘Welsh person velsietis.-—velsiete—_—velsiesi ‘British person bits - brit an Australian austrdlietis austrliete australiegi Exercises C81. What form of greeting would you use at the following times of day: (C82 What would you say to a Latvian when you were leaving? What would you say late or last thing at night? G33 Here is a list of people. All names in Latvian are given masculine and feminine endings. Even foreign names are written phonetically (or ‘Latvianized’). Some of the following are English names which have been ‘Latvianized’. Listen to the recording or read the names out, loud, and add the relevant Latvian pronoun according to whether the name is masculine or feminine, for example: Fiona _ Vina ir Fiona. Deivids + Vins ir Deivids, a Laima g Péteris bo Mara h Harijs © Naidiels i Zane d_ Karlis j Dions © Millija k Ihe £ Carls 1 Gundega jwexned no}mwemned nol 7 Use the correct question word (Vai ...? or Kas ...?) at the beginning of each of the following questions: jiis esat Karlis? tas ir? a Are you Karlis? b What is it? ¢ Are you Latvian? d Is she Mara? es that Ilze? £ Who / what is he? vin’ ir? gis he [the /a] doctor? = jus esat latvie3i? vina ir Mara? air Ie? vin’ ir arsts? Masculine or feminine? We have seen that some words that end in -is are masculine (singular), others are feminine (plural). See if you can remember which is which from the following list: teatris, divritenis, naktis, brokastis, durvis, pulkstenis, daivoklis, plis ‘What will be the plural form of these nouns? grimata, avize, durnils, diena, nedéla, ménesis, gads, maja, Kaiming, koks, puke, zale, gimene, bérns, déls, meita, brilis, masa, skapis, masina, iela, pilséta, skots, brits, anglis, latvietis, latviete, puisis, draugs Rearrange these mixed up sentences so that they make sense. Deivids esmu es. Sauc mani Karlis Mans Ilze vards ir. Sis mans ir virs. Ir sieva Si mana. canes 8 You may find yourself in the following situations when in Latvia. Answer the following questions. a You have just walked into a hotel dining room to have breakfast. How would you greet your fellow diners? b You have just been introduced to a Latvian. Tell the person that you are pleased to meet them. ¢ What would you ask someone to find out whether they are Latvian? 4 Somebody has just done you a big favour. How do you ‘express your thanks? 13 You give the money for your purchase to the shop | % assistant. She says thank you. How do you respond? £ How would you tell someone that you are not Latvian? I ‘Write the Latvian for the following: a Tam © weare b you(formal) are we aren't c heis g they (m.) are d_ sheis h they (f) are So =|ENMSIAL| feuns snf 1ea guelnye] yeeds nod op yele {n this unit you will learn + more about introducing people to each other + to say which languages you speak + to say where you live and work + to exchange personal information GB Dialogue 1 Fiona is out with her children when she bumps into her new friend Zane, who is together with her colleague Karis. Zane Sveika, Fional Sis ir mans kol6gis. Vai js esat pazistami? Fiona 8, més neesam pazistami. Es esmu Fiona Brauna. Kérlis A, js esat Deivida sieva. [oti patikami. Mani sauc Karls Ozolin8. Val te ir jdsu bei? Fiona Ja, Sie ir mani bémi. Tas ir Haris un ta ir Milja, Karlis Vai vini rund latviski? Fiona Diem! bami nerund latvski, Vini rund tikal angliski. Bet vigi saprot diezgan daudz. Kérlis Un jis? Vai is runajat latviski? Fiona Ja, es mazlit runaju latvisk. Karlis Es rundju latviski, angliski, krieviski un vacisk. Fiona JOs esat joti qua kol@gis(m.) colleague pazistami acquainted those, (they) ‘your, yours these, (they) my that (m.,f) they speak Latvian (language) unfortunately only vini saprot (saprast) they understand diezgan rather, quite {is rundjat (runat) you speak mazliet a litte bit es runaju (runat)/ speak angliski English (anguage) krieviski Russian (language) vaciski German (anguage) gudrs clever Transcript ‘Zane — Hi Fiona. This is my colleague. Do you know each other? (Literally: Are you known to each other? or Are you acquainted”). Fiona No, we don’t know each other. | am Fiona Brown.