Lesson Nineteen

Dialogue nineteen: Making the most of a monolingual situation

Language skills will quickly multiply when you use Pukhto to elicit more information. Here are some useful phrases to memorise that will allow you to get help from anyone.

Pronunciation drill

Practice this tongue twister:

An intransitive verb in different tenses

From imperfective and perfective roots

NOTE:

The continuous past verbs can also be said in a shorter form without the ل - l. For example, you can say either پوهېدلم - pohedúlum or پوهېدم - pohedúm.

Ability / Possibility

Present potential

I can understand, etc.

From the Past Participle پوه شوے - pooy shíway

Past Participle

NOTE:

The adjective پوه - poh is often pronounced پوی - pooy in spoken language, and we’ve written it that way in the phonetics.

More intransitive stative compound verbs

Here are some examples of other compound verbs built with کېدل - to become

NOTE:

The word سور - sor (riding, mounted) is irregualar. The masculine plural form is سوارهٔ - swaarú and the feminine singual form is سوره - swara.

Practice with these sentences:

Regular intransitive verbs that take an و - oo / w prefix in the simple past tenses

The verbs we saw above used the irregular perfective stem شول - swhul in the simple past tense. شول - shwul is an irregular perfective stem of کېدل - kedul (to become).

Other regular transitive verbs simply add a و - oo / w prefix to the infinitive to make the perfective stem. Just like with the irregalar perfect stems we saw earlier, we use the perfective stems to make the simple past forms of the verb.

The verb رسېدل - rasedul (to reach, arrive) provides a good example of one of these regular intransitive verbs.

To make the perfective root of a regular verb we simply:

1. Add a و - oo / w prefix.
2. Shift the accent to the front of the word.

Then to make the simple past forms, we add the past person endings onto the perfective root.

NOTES:

1. Like other verbs that imply direction, the directional prefixes are used:

2. Notice the important differences between the sentences below. You have arrived late to work: a) would be used in a discussion in the office; b) would be used when you are out of the office; and c) is what the boss says to you the next day:

Some more examples of verbs that add و - oo / w for the simple past

Examples of simple past sentences with regular intrasnitive verbs that take the و - oo / w prefix

NOTES:

1. The verb ودرېدل - oodredúl already starts with a و - oo so we can't add a و - oo prefix. We still do move the emphasis to the beginning of the word though.

2. To make simple past sentences negative, add the negative marker نهٔ - nu between the و - oo and ethe verb, for example:

👆 This takes some practice, so have your helper make simple past sentences for you to make negative.

Irregular intransitive verbs

We’ve seen that simple past forms are based on the perfective roots of verbs.

We’ve seen verbs like پوهېدل - pohedul (to understand) or ماتېدل - maatedul (to break) which are compound verbs based on کېدل - kedul (to become), which uses the perfective root شول - shwul.

We’ve alse seen regular verbs like رسېدل - rasedul and ګرځېدل - gurzedul that add a و - oo to the infinitive and move the accent forword to make the perfective root.

But some verbs have completely irregular perfective roots. For example:

1. “To go”

The verb تلل - tlul (to go) has an irregular perfective root: لاړل - laaRul.

NOTE:

To make the verb negative, use the construction لا نهٔ ړل - laa-nu-Rul as in the example 'I did not go to school’.

2. “To come”

The infinitive راتلل - raatlul (to come) uses the perfective root راغلل - raaghlul in the simple past.

To say “He came” an irregular ending is used: راغے - ráaghay.

The use of adjectives in the comparative degree

An adjective in the “comparative degree” is used when comparing two things or persons. In English grammar this often done by adding / -er / or / -ier / to the adjective, as in the example, “Today’s weather is warm-er than yesterday’s.”

Practice the sentences below to become familiar with the way comparisons are made in Pukhto.

The use of adjectives in the superlative degree

An adjective in the “superlative degree” is used when comparing three or more things or persons. In English grammar this often done by adding / -est / to the adjective, as in the example, “Of all of your children, which is the young-est?” Drill the sentences below and experiment with different adjectives to familiarise yourself with how the superlative degree is used in Pukhto.

General comparisons

Memorising moments

matalóona

Exercises for Lesson Nineteen

1. Change the following sentences into the simple past tense:

NOTE:

The sentence in the last question زما په خبرو پوهېدې؟ - zmaa pu khaburo pohede?, is in the continuous (imperfective) past tense, meaning roughly "Were you understanding my words?"

2. Using the verbs listed earlier on in this lesson, have your helper call out a verb in the infinitive. You should then make positive and negative sentences in the simple past tense.