Advanced Grammar Topics: Conjugation

Written by Blackkdark on 6th July 2007

Alas, one of the nightmares of languages and learning them: Conjugations. Conjugations is something that affects verbs. Conjugations are affected by number, person, aspect, tense, voice, mood and sometimes even gender and case. Conjugation is a form of Agreement.

Number and person are the basic things which affect verbs. The number usually indicates whether a thing is singular or plural. In some language, such as Old English (Anglo-saxon), there was even a Dual number which is basically two. In some cases, there are two froms of the singular plural, exclusive and inclusive. In English we just have we, but it could mean you and I (inclusive), or someone else and I (exclusive). This is by the way, but a verb would have to agree with the pronoun in person and number. It is so specific in some languages, such as Latin, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, that the subject (pronoun) is often omited completely. Other languages still require them.

Aspect is a far harder thing to describe, but I shall try. Aspect shows a difference in the state of being. This mixes a bit with tense, but is a different issue. It's similar to the difference between "I go," and "I am going." That's the difference between regular present and present progressive. In Spanish the difference between Imperfect and preterite. In Latin, it's the difference between Imperfect and Perfect. Now in Slavic languages, like Russian, the verbs rely heavily on the aspect. I think there are two aspects, Perfective and Imperfective. These are the most basic seperations in aspect. Perfective is described as a completed or singular thing, where as the other is incomplete, continuous, or repetitive.

The next is Tense. This is the fun one. There are three basic tenses, but some languages don't even have these three. Those are past, future, and present. Each language is different with this. There are compound and simple versions of these, and often can intermix with the aspect. The future tense usually protrays something that might happen. I think in Arabic, to indicate it, you say something similar to "Allah willing" or "god willing." In most languages, using a word describing the future along with a present tense verb sometimes can cover that as well (like saying "I'm leaving tomorrow," instead of "I will leave tomorrow"). In a few languages, such as Spanish and English, a version of to go can be used to form the future. In Norwegian they use an expression with Komme to come. Some languages conjugate the future into the verb endings, whereas others use compound tense (more than one word) to form it. English loves to use compound tenses, whilst Spanish and Latin (and others) love to add it to the end of the verb.

Voicing is a favourite of mine. This is an important thing. There is an explination of English Voicing here. In Latin, (and surprisingly, no other Romance languages) there are seperate endings for a verb to indicate passive voice. So, amo, I love, and amor, I am loved. And that fits for all tenses and numbers after that. Some languages use the verb to become as the passive marker, such as German, others use a form of to be as in English. In languages like Spanish and Italian which use a form of to be, there has to be a gender agreement to the participle that is formed. Check the agreement link above for more on that.

Another big thing and favourite of mine is Mood. As far as I know there are only three major moods, although I have heard of some others which could be considered "moods." The three major ones in English, though two be commonly used, are described here. Subjunctive is usually the most mysterious for English speakers since we rarely use it. Indicative is normal, and Imperative is common as well. One must learn them since they will affect the conjugations as well. Sometimes one may call the conditional and negation a mood. Conditional are "could" statements basically, and negation shows something that is opposite of the truth, or negated so. In Romance and Germanic languages, this can affect the endings of the verbs in question.

Case is not usually used to affect verbs, however, in a few languages it does. It might be affected by direct objects or indirect objects. I know some verbs and verbal phrases in German require certain cases to come after it. There are some languages that require more than that even. I haven't studied any like this so you might have to consult something else, I'm afraid.

Verbs that are affected by gender are not usually seen in Indo-European languages. It does occur in Hebrew and I believe Arabic as well. There are also times when the past, present, and passive participles will change depending on Gender. You see this in Spanish, Italian, and sometimes Portuguese.