Lower Sorbian/Grammar/Introduction to the conjugation

• In Lower Sorbian on the basis of the ending of 2. pers. sg. present tense we can identify 3 conjugations:

1. –oš
2. –aš
3. –iš (yš)

• In every conjugation verbs have 6 grammatical tenses: (a) present tense, (b) past tense, (c) future tense, (d) imperfect, (e) aorist, (f) plusquamperfect.
• Verbs have 3 moods - indicative, imperative, conditional - in 3 numbers - singular, plural and dual - as well as in 3 persons
• Verbs form following impersonal forms: (a) infinitive, (b) verbal noun, (c) supine, (d) present active participle, (e) past active participle, (f) past passive participle.
• Grammatical tenses are divided into simple and complex ones. Passive voice is formed descriptively.

Present and past stems

(a) present stem is formed of 2. pers. sg. present, by cutting -š ending, e.g. wuknjoš> wuknjo-

(b) past stem:

• of verbs with infinitive ending with -š is formed out of infinitive, by cutting -ś ending, e.g. wuknuś > wuknu-
• of verbs with infinitive ending with -č, -c is formed out of 1. pers. sg. present, by cutting the ending -u, e.g. njasć, njasu >

njas-

Negation

Negation is formed by adding a prefix nje- to the verb.