Grammatical conjugation

From Free net encyclopedia

In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories. All the different forms of the same verb constitute a lexeme and the form of the verb that is conventionally used to represent the canonical form of the verb is a lemma.

Conjugated forms of a verb which show a given person, number, tense, etc. are called finite forms. In many languages there are also one or more several non-finite forms, such as the infinitive or the gerund. A table giving all the conjugated variants of a verb in a given language is called a conjugation table or a verb paradigm.

A regular verb has a paradigm of conjugation that derives all forms from a few specific forms or principal parts (maybe only one, such as the infinitive in English). When a verb cannot be conjugated straightforwardly like this, it is said to be irregular. Typically the principal parts are the root and/or several modifications of it (stems).

Conjugation is also the traditional name of a group of verbs that share a similar conjugation pattern in a particular language (a verb class). This is the sense in which teachers say that Latin has four conjugations of verbs. This means that any regular Latin verb can be conjugated in any person, number, tense, mood, and voice by knowing which of the four conjugation groups it belongs to, and its principal parts.

[edit]

Examples of conjugation

Indo-European languages usually inflect verbs for several grammatical categories in complex paradigms, although some, like English, have simplified verb conjugation to a large extent. Below is the conjugation of the verb to be in the present tense, indicative mood, active voice, in English, German, Swedish, French, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, Latvian, Polish, Hindi, and Persian. This is usually the most irregular verb. You may notice the similarities in corresponding verb forms; only the infinitives of Swedish and Hindi diverge from those of other languages.

To be in several Indo-European languages
Language Family Germanic Italic Baltic Slavic Indo-Iranian
Form / Person English German Swedish French Italian Spanish Portuguese Latin Latvian Polish Hindi Persian
infinitive to be sein vara être essere ser ser esse būt być hona budan
1st singular I am ich bin jag är je suis (io) sono (yo) soy (eu) sou (ego) sum es esmu (ja) jestem main hoon (man) hastam
2nd singular you are du bist
Sie sind [formal] 		du är tu es (tu) sei (tú) eres
(usted) es [formal] 		(tu) és [informal]
(você) é 		(tū) es tu esi (ty) jesteś tu hai
tum ho [informal] 		(to) hasti
3rd singular he/she/it is er / sie / es ist han / hon / den / det är il / elle est (lui / lei) è (él / ella) es (ele / ela) é (is / ea / id) est viņš / viņa ir (on / ona / ono) jest woh hai
ve hain [formal] 		(u) hast
1st plural we are wir sind vi är nous sommes (noi) siamo (nosotros / nosotras) somos (nós) somos (nōs) sumus mēs esam (my) jesteśmy ham hain (mâ) hastim
2nd plural you are ihr seid ni är vous êtes (voi) siete (vosotros / vosotras) sois
(ustedes) son [formal] 		(vós) sois
(vocês) são 		(vōs) estis jūs esat (wy) jesteście tum log ho / aap log ho / aap log hain (šomâ) hastid
3rd plural they are sie sind de är ils / elles sont (loro) sono (ellos / ellas) son (eles / elas) são (eī / eae / ea) sunt viņi, viņas ir (oni / one) są ve hain (ânhâ) hastand
Formal ~ Sie sind ~ vous êtes (Lei) è (usted) es / (ustedes) son (o senhor / a senhora) é / (os senhores / as senhoras) são ~ ~ ~ ~ 2nd person
(šomâ) hastid

3rd person
(išân) hastand
[edit]

See also

[edit]

External links

de:Konjugation (Grammatik) es:Conjugación eo:Konjugacio fr:Conjugaison he:בניין (שפה) nl:Vervoeging ja:活用 pl:Koniugacja (językoznawstwo) pt:Conjugação (biologia) sv:Konjugation wa:Codjowaedje

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Grammatical_conjugation"