vajadzēt
Latvian
Etymology
Borrowed from Livonian vajāg (“necessary”); cf. Estonian vaja (“necessary; need; lack”), Finnish vajaa (“incomplete, inadequate; need”), Veps vajag (“incomplete”). In 16th-18th century texts, the word (in the older form vaijaga) is used as an adjective, often accompanied by the copula (vaijaga ir... “it is necessary”), following the original (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Livonian pattern. From the 17th century on, it began occurring also by itself in a dative construction (man vajag... “I need”), from which it was reinterpreted as a verb, so that further forms — an infinitive vajadzēt, a past tense vajadzēja, a future tense vajadzēs, a conditional form vajadzētu, etc. — were created by analogy (compare tecēt (“to flow”), third person present tek, third person past tecēja, etc.). Some participial forms, however, are lacking, and others (vajagošs) are barely attested.[1]
Pronunciation
Verb
vajadzēt (intransitive + dative, 3rd conjugation, only 3rd person, present vajag, past vajadzēja)
- to be necessary, to be needed, to be desired
- vajag paveikt iesākto ― it is necessary to finish what was started
- man vajag padoma ― I need (some) advice
- ko tev vajag? ― what do you need?
- viņam vajadzēja daudz strādāt ― he needed, had to work a lot
- mājai vajadzētu jaunu jumtu ― the house would need (= should get) a new roof
- mums vajadzētu satikties ― we would need (= should) meet
- vajadzēt vairāk brīva laika ― to need more free time
- (with an infinitive verb) must, should (expressing confidence about the existence or occurrence of something)
- ezeram vajadzēja būt tepat netālu ― the lake must, should be here nearby
- viņam drīz vajag nākt ― he must, should come soon (= I think he will come soon)
- vajadzēja būt pagājušai jau kādai stundai ― an hour must have already passed
- drīz vajag būt rītam ― it should soon be morning
Usage notes
The arguments of this verb are: a dative, for the person to whom something is necessary, and an accusative or genitive, for the thing that is necessary; e.g.: man vajag naudu or man vajag naudas “I(dat.) need money(acc. or gen.).” The accusative has more widespread use, though the genitive is not infrequent, often with a partitive sense (“I need some money”).
Declension
INDICATIVE (īstenības izteiksme) | IMPERATIVE (pavēles izteiksme) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Present (tagadne) |
Past (pagātne) |
Future (nākotne) | |||
1st pers. sg. | es | — | — | — | — |
2nd pers. sg. | tu | — | — | — | — |
3rd pers. sg. | viņš, viņa | vajag | vajadzēja | vajadzēs | lai vajag |
1st pers. pl. | mēs | — | — | — | — |
2nd pers. pl. | jūs | — | — | — | — |
3rd pers. pl. | viņi, viņas | vajag | vajadzēja | vajadzēs | lai vajag |
RENARRATIVE (atstāstījuma izteiksme) | PARTICIPLES (divdabji) | ||||
Present | vajagot | Present Active 1 (Adj.) | vajagošs | ||
Past | esot vajadzējis | Present Active 2 (Adv.) | — | ||
Future | vajadzēšot | Present Active 3 (Adv.) | — | ||
Imperative | lai vajagot | Present Active 4 (Obj.) | — | ||
CONDITIONAL (vēlējuma izteiksme) | Past Active | vajadzējis | |||
Present | vajadzētu | Present Passive | — | ||
Past | būtu vajadzējis | Past Passive | vajadzēts | ||
DEBITIVE (vajadzības izteiksme) | NOMINAL FORMS | ||||
Indicative | (būt) jāvajag | Infinitive (nenoteiksme) | vajadzēt | ||
Conjunctive 1 | esot jāvajag | Negative Infinitive | nevajadzēt | ||
Conjunctive 2 | jāvajagot | Verbal noun | vajadzēšana |
Derived terms
References
- Latvian terms borrowed from Livonian
- Latvian terms derived from Livonian
- Latvian intransitive verbs
- Latvian intransitive verbs with dative complements
- Latvian lemmas
- Latvian verbs
- Latvian terms with usage examples
- Latvian etymologies from LEV
- Latvian third conjugation verbs
- Latvian third conjugation verbs in -ēt
- Latvian third-person-only verbs