Language/Georgian/Grammar/Preverbs-and-their-functions
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Preverbs and their functions in Georgian
a) Preverbs show the direction of a verbal act.[edit | edit source]
მი- | away (from the I person) | მიდის | “he/she/it goes” |
მო- | towards (to the I person) | მოდის | “he/she/it comes” |
ა- | up | ადის | “he/she/it rises/goes up” |
და- | down; sometimes an intensive act | დადის | “he/she/it walks”; “it goes down” (e.g. temperature) |
ჩა- | down inside | ჩადის | “he/she/it descends/goes down(hill)” |
შე- | from outside to inside | შედის | “he/she/it enters/goes in” |
გა- | from inside to outside | გადის | “he/she/it goes out” (e.g. from the house) |
გადა- | over a barrier | გადადის | “he/she/it crosses/goes over (something)” |
წა- | away | წავიდა | “he/she/it left/went away” |
All these preverbs show the direction away from the I person except “მო-”. They are simple preverbs, but they can have “მო-” added to become complex preverbs. By adding “მო-” the direction becomes orientated towards the I person. So, all complex preverbs show the direction to the I person.
ამო- | up | ამოდის | “he/she/it rises/comes up” |
ჩამო- | down inside | ჩამოდის | “he/she/it arrives/comes down” |
შემო- | from outside to inside | შემოდის | “he/she/it enters/comes in” |
გამო- | from inside to outside | გამოდის | “he/she/it emerges/comes out” |
გადმო- | over a barrier | გადმოდის | “he/she/it comes across/over” |
წამო- | towards the I person | წამოვიდა | “he/she/it came over/out” |
b) When preverbs produce new rows of conjugation in the I series, then they don’t show any direction.[edit | edit source]
ხატავს | “he/she/it paints” | დახატავს | “he/she/it will paint” |
წერს | “he/she/it writes” | დაწერს | “he/she/it will write” No verbal direction is exposed here. |
c) Preverbs don’t show direction while producing the perfective aspect.[edit | edit source]
Compare:
Imperfective | Perfective | ||
---|---|---|---|
ვხატე | “I was painting” | დავხატე | “I painted” |
ვწერე | “I was writing” | დავწერე | “I wrote” |
d) Sometimes preverbs change the meaning of a word[edit | edit source]
მოიგო | “he/she won [it]” (e.g. the game or money) |
გაიგო | “he/she understood [it]” |
წააგო | “he/she lost [it]” |
მიხვდა | “he/she realized/understood [it]” |
მოხვდა | “he/she got [it]” |
შეხვდა | “he/she met [him/her/them]” |
დახვდა | “he/she met (ran into) [it/him/her/them]” |
Sources[edit | edit source]
http://eprints.iliauni.edu.ge/3071/1/Basic-Georgian%202%20bolo%20versia.pdf
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Orthography Words ending at “—ს”, “—მ”, “—ზ” and “—შ”
- Nouns with “many”, “much” and “a few”
- Expression “traveling by...”
- Types of Verbs
- Conjugation of the verb “to want” ნდომა in the Present Tense
- That (რომ)
- Gender
- The Conjugation System
- Questions
- “to be” ყოფნა Present Tense