Verbs: Present Tense — Lithuanian Grammar

The present tense describes what is happening right now, what happens regularly, and general truths. Lithuanian has only one present tense, so covers both English "I work" and "I am working" - only the context tells you which is meant.

Dabar dirbu.
I am working now. (this moment)
Visada dirbu rytais.
I always work in the mornings. (habit)
Vasarą šviečia saulė.
In summer the sun shines. (general truth)

The ending of the verb already shows who the subject is, so the subject pronouns ( I, you, he, she, we, you plural, / they) are usually left out. You normally say , not , unless you want to stress who is meant.

Three Conjugation Types

Every Lithuanian verb belongs to one of three present-tense types, told apart by the ending of the third-person form (the "he/she" form):

Type 1 - third person ends in -a: (works), (goes)
Type 2 - third person ends in -i: (has), (wants)
Type 3 - third person ends in -o: (reads), (eats)

The dictionary form (the infinitive, ending in -ti) does not reliably tell you the type, so it pays to learn the third-person form together with each new verb.

Type 1 (-a): dirbti (to work)

The endings are -u, -i, -a, -ame, -ate, -a:

- I work
- you work
- he / she works
- we work
- you (plural) work
- they work

Mes dirbame kartu.
We work together.
Kur tu gyveni?
Where do you live?

Type 2 (-i): turėti (to have)

The endings are -iu, -i, -i, -ime, -ite, -i:

Aš turiu laiko.
I have time.
Ar jūs turite klausimų?
Do you have questions?
Ji nori miego.
She wants sleep. / She is sleepy.

Type 3 (-o): skaityti (to read)

The endings are -au, -ai, -o, -ome, -ote, -o:

Ji skaito knygą.
She is reading a book.
Ką jūs skaitote?
What are you reading?
Mes žinome.
We know.

One Form for "He", "She" and "They"

The third person has a single form for both singular and plural, and for masculine and feminine. means "he works", "she works" and "they work". Only the subject, if it is stated, tells them apart.

Jis dirba.
He works.
Jie dirba.
They work.
Vaikai miega.
The children are sleeping.

Negatives and Questions

To make a verb negative, attach ne- to its front; to make a yes/no question, put in front of the sentence (or just raise your intonation):

Nedirbu.
I don't work.
Ar tu dirbi?
Do you work?
Ji nevalgo mėsos.
She doesn't eat meat.

The Present Stem Can Differ

Some verbs have a present stem that is not obvious from the infinitive: an extra -n- or -st- turns up in the present that the dictionary form does not show at all.

rasti → randa
to find → he finds. (an n appears)
pažinti → pažįsta
to know a person → he knows. (a st appears)

Nothing in the infinitive warns you that this is coming, so learn the "he/she" form alongside the infinitive rather than trying to predict it. Once you have that one form, the whole present tense follows the endings above.

The Verb "to be" (būti)

The most common verb is irregular and worth memorising:

(I am), (you are), (he/she is)
(we are), (you are), (they are)

In the present tense is very often dropped when you simply link two nouns, or a noun and an adjective:

Jis gydytojas.
He is a doctor.
Kava karšta.
The coffee is hot.

But is kept to mean "there is / there are":

Ar yra laisvų vietų?
Are there free seats?

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Lithuanian course

310 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 1. A few of them, with the words “Verbs: Present Tense” is about in bold:

Tai mano draugė Ana. Ji yra studentė.
This is my friend, Anna. She is a student.
Lesson 2
Jis taip pat miega. Ji nemiega.
He is also sleeping. She isn't.
Lesson 16
Aš myliu juos, o jie myli mane.
I love them and they love me.
Lesson 32

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