Contents

The following Help Topics are available:

Overview of Albanian

Alphabet

Nouns

Gender and Agreement

Number and Agreement

Pronouns

Adjectives

Adverbs

Verbs

Verb Inflection

Prepositions

Conjunctions

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Overview of
 Overview of Albanian

Welcome and congratulations on your choice to learn Albanian!  This Grammar Basics help file will serve as your introduction to the most basic aspects of Albanian grammar.  This overview will give you some more information about this exciting language.

The origin of Albanian is not certain, but it was determined to be an Indo-European language in the mid-1800s. Although it belongs to the Indo-European group of languages, it contains many words not found in any other such language. There are approximately four million native speakers in Albania, about a million in Yugoslavia, and a number of native speakers scattered throughout Greece and Italy.


 Alphabet

Examples are provided for those letters likely to be unfamiliar to English speakers.

A	a	like	'u' in up, or 'a' in park
B	b
C	c	like	'ts' in its
Ç	ç	like	'ch' in chip
D	d
Dh	dh	like	'th' in this
E	e	like	'e' in pet, or 'ay' in pay
Ë	ë	like	'u' in up, or 'u' in purple
F	f
G	g
Gj	gj
H	h
I	i	like	'i' in pick, or 'ee' in keep
J	j
K	k
L	l
Ll	ll	like	'll' in pill
M	m
N	n
Nj	nj	like	'ny' in canyon
O	o	like	'o' in pot
P	p
Q	q		no English equivalent, similar to 'tu' in rapture
R	r	like	Scottish pronunciation of 'r,' trilled
Rr	rr		double trilled
S	s
Sh	sh
T	t
Th	th
U	u	like	'u' in push, or 'oo' coop
V	v
X	x
Xh	xh	like	'j' in judge
Y	y		no English equivalent, similar to 'u' in French une
Z	z
Zh	zh	like	's' in treasure

There are thirty-six letters in the Albanian alphabet, including nine letters that are a combination of two consonants. These are considered to be a single letter and each has its own entry in an Albanian dictionary.


Nouns

A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea.

libër  (book)

Tiranë  (Tirana)

dhomë  (room)

Nouns can be masculine or feminine.  It is easiest to the learn the gender of a noun as you acquire vocabulary since it is not easily determined from the spelling of the word.

Nouns also have a singular or plural form.

Albanian nouns have a definite or an indefinite form.  Using these forms is like using "a" or "the" in English, with the exception that these articles are built into the noun in the form of a suffix.

The indefinite forms are the noun stem.

MASCULINE NOUNS

The masculine definite form in the singular attaches the suffix -i or -u to the stem.

Noun stem		Definite Noun
qytet	(town)	qyteti	(the town)
apartament	(apartment)	apartamenti	(the apartment)

The masculine definite form in the plural attaches the suffix -t(ë) or -(i)t to the stem.

Noun stem		Definite Plural Noun
student	(student)	studentë	(the students)
mjek	(doctor)	mjeket	(the doctors)

FEMININE NOUNS

The feminine definite form in the singular attaches the suffix -(j)a to the stem.

bankë	(bank)	banka	(the bank)
balerinë	(ballerina)	balerina	(the ballerina)

The feminine definite form in the plural attaches the suffix -t(ë) or -(i)t to the stem.

fëmijë	(child)	fëmijët	(the children)
balerinë	(ballerina)	balerinët	(the ballerinas)

There are also five cases of nouns in Albanian:  Nominative, Genitive, Accusative, Dative, and Ablative.

NOMINATIVE

The Nominative Case denotes that the noun is being used as the subject.

qyteti (the town)

apartamenti (the apartment)

GENITIVE

The Genitive Case expresses possession and is used in combination with a particle: i, e, të, or së.

ACCUSATIVE

The Accusative Case is used when the noun is a direct object.

DATIVE

The Dative Case is used when the noun is an indirect object.

ABLATIVE

The Ablative Case is used mainly with prepositions.

In Albanian, nouns decline.  That means that the form of a noun will change with regard to its grammatical function.  This change in form depends on whether a noun is:

Masculine or Feminine  (Gender)

Definite or Indefinite

Singular or Plural  (Number)

See Also:

Gender and Agreement

Number and Agreement


Gender and Agreement

The gender of an Albanian noun, pronoun, or adjective can be masculine, or feminine.

qen (dog, m.)

turmë (crowd, f.)

As an Albanian language learner, it may help you to memorize the gender of each new noun as you learn it.

Pronouns, adjectives and articles generally agree with a noun's gender. Adjectives generally follow the noun they modify.

See also:

Nouns

Adjectives

Pronouns


Number and Agreement

There are two numbers in Albanian:  singular and plural.

See Also

Nouns

Pronouns

Adjectives

Verbs


Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that stands for a previously mentioned (or understood) noun.

The house was badly damaged when it was hit by the hurricane.

The pronoun it refers back to the noun house.

Pronouns can be used in various ways:  as the subject of a verb, as the object of a verb, or they can refer back to the subject (reflexive).  There are also possessive pronouns.

Singular	Subject Pronouns
1st person	unë (I)
2nd person	ti (you)
3rd person-masculine	ai (he)
3rd person-feminine	ajo (she)
Plural
1st person	ne (we)
2nd person	ju (you)
3rd person-masculine	ata (they)
3rd person-feminine	ato (they)


Adjectives

In Albanian, an adjective agrees in gender, number, and case with the noun or pronoun it modifies.

See Also:

Gender and Agreement

Number and Agreement


Adverbs

Many adverbs are formed from adjectives.  In Albanian, adverbs are indeclinable, that is, they don't change with regard to case.

sot (today)

dje (yesterday)

Simple adverbs can be formed by dropping the i/e from the adjective stem.

See Also:

Adjectives


Verb Conjugations:  Tense and Mood
Verbs

A verb expresses action or a state of being.

In the dictionary, you will find a verb listed by the first person singular of the present tense.

kam (have)

flas (speak)

Present Tense

The present tense is used to describe an action in progress.

di (know)
unë	di	ne	dimë
ti	di	ju	dini
ai/ajo	di	ata/ato	dinë

Imperative:  expresses a command.

The imperative has only two forms, second person singular and second person plural.

Subjunctive:  expresses a wish or request.

The subjunctive corresponds loosely to the English infinitive. It is formed by putting the particle të in front of the present tense forms of the verb.

Admirative Mood

The Admirative mood has no equivalent in English. It is used to express surprise or unexpectedness.

The Optative Mood

The Optative mood is used to express the speaker's wish or desire. It can occur in the present and perfect tenses.

See Also:

Verb Inflection


Verb Inflection

Inflection is a change in the form of a verb to show grammatical function.  A verb is inflected when it is changed from the base form to the imperative, participles or any of the tenses. A brief explanation of many of the tenses used in Albanian follows.

Verb Stems

A verb stem is the part of the verb to which endings are added.

Imperative

When forming the second person plural imperative, most verbs use the same form as the second person plural of the present tense.  When forming the second person singular, however, a verb can fall into one of a few different categories.

Some verbs do not take any ending, like fshij (sweep). The singular imperative would be fshi.

Other verbs take the ending -j, and so appear exactly like the first person singular form of the present tense of the verb. The verb luaj (play) has luaj as its singular imperative.

Some verbs require the ending -r, like lë (leave). Its singular imperative is lër.

And still other verbs undergo significant spelling changes when forming their imperatives, whereby -a- or -je- change to -i-. Also, a final -k or -g changes to -q or -gj respectively. For example, dal (go out) becomes dil in the singular imperative. And djeg (burn) changes to digj.

Simple Past Tense

In general terms, the simple past can be formed by adding the following endings to the verb stem:

Singular	Past Tense Ending
1st person	-a
2nd person	-e
3rd person-masculine	-i
3rd person-feminine	-u
Plural
1st person	-am, -ëm, -më
2nd person	-at, -ët, -të
3rd person-masculine	-an, -ën, -në
3rd person-feminine	-an, -ën, -në

Very often, the verb stem ends in a vowel. You will notice that, for ease of pronunciation, a consonant is inserted before the past tense ending in the first and second person singular. This is usually -v-.

Future Tense

The future is formed by putting the particle po before the subjunctive form of the verb.

Perfect Tense

The perfect tense is equivalent to the Present Perfect in English ('have gone,' 'have eaten'). It is formed using an auxiliary, kam (have) or jam (be), plus the participle of the main verb.

Future Perfect Tense

This tense is formed by using the future form of the auxiliary verb, kam (have) or jam (be), plus the participle of the main verb.

For your convenience, here are the conjugations of two very important verbs in Albanian: kam (have) and jam (be).

kam (to have)

Singular	Present Tense	Simple Past	Imperfect
1st person	kam	pata	kisha
2nd person	ke	pate	kishe
3rd person-masculine	ka	pati	kishte
3rd person-feminine	ka	pati	kishte
Plural
1st person	kemi	patëm	kishim
2nd person	keni	patët	kishit
3rd person-masculine	kanë	patën	kishin
3rd person-feminine	kanë	patën	kishin

jam (to be)

Singular	Present Tense	Simple Past	Imperfect
1st person	jam	qeshë	isha
2nd person	je	qe	ishe
3rd person-masculine	është	qe	ishte
3rd person-feminine	është	qe	ishte
Plural
1st person	jemi	qemë	ishim
2nd person	jeni	qetë	ishit
3rd person-masculine	janë	qenë	ishin
3rd person-feminine	janë	qenë	ishin
See Also:

Verbs


Prepositions

Prepositions are the connecting words that show the relationships between words in the sentence.  Nouns, pronouns, noun phrases, gerunds, or noun clauses can be the complement of a preposition. It is very important to remember that prepostions can take the nominative, accusative, or ablative case depending on the meaning of the phrase.

Some prepositions in Albanian include the following:

nga (+ nominative)	from, towards (depending on context)

te (+ nominative)	at, to

deri (+ accusative)	until

mbi (+ accusative)	on, over

me (+ accusative)	with, by

poshtë (+ ablative)	down

midis (+ablative)	between

bri (+ ablative)	beside


Conjunctions

Conjunctions join words, phrases and clauses together.

Some commonly used conjunctions include:

apo (or)

mirëpo (but)

siç (as)

dhe, edhe, e (and)