The present-tense conjugations of the indicative mood are used to talk about something that is true or currently happening. For example, the English phrase “I love baseball” includes the present tense form of the verb “to love”.
Conjugation of Regular Verbs
As you recall, the infinitive form of most Talossan verbs ends with the letters -arh. To form the present-tense conjugations, that ending is replaced by one of the endings shown below. The Talossan verb amarh (“to love”) is used for the examples.
- améu (= I love)
- amás (= you love)
- ama (= he/she/it loves)
- ament (= we/they love)
- ametz (= y’all love)
These simple word-ending changes apply to all Talossan verbs except those (discussed below) that have irregular present-tense conjugations.
For example, menxhéu is the form of the verb menxharh (= to eat), and thus means “I eat” or “I am eating”. So, menxhéu dels uois means “I am eating eggs”. Similarly, menxhás dels uois means “you are eating eggs”, and os non menxhent dels uois means “they are not eating eggs”. [If you’re wondering why del, which seems like it would make the sentence mean “I am eating of the eggs”, see the Webpage about Talossan’s articles.]
If the infinitive form of a verb ends with -carh, then the -éu, -ent, and -etz endings have the letter h included in writing, to preserve the hard c sound. For example, the verb pecarh (= to sin) has the forms pechéu (= I am sinning), pechent (= we/they are sinning), and pechetz (= y’all are sinning).
Irregular Present Tense Verbs
Fifteen Talossan verbs (including some of the more frequently used, like “to go”, “to have”, and “to be”), have irregular present-tense conjugations. Those verbs are listed below and these exceptions simply need to be memorised:
- credarh (= to believe) has the irregular forms créu (= I believe), creas (= you believe), and crea (= he/she/it believes)
- estarh (= to be) has the irregular forms sint (“I/we/they am/are”) and isch (“you/he/she/it are/is”)
- façarh (= to do, or to make) has the irregular form fäts (= he/she/it does/is doing or makes/is making)
- fóstarh (= to be obliged to [should, must]) has the irregular forms fost (= I/you/he/she/it have/has an obligation to) and fossent (= we/they/y’all have an obligation to)
- irh (the verb of motion; = to come/go) has the irregular forms véu (= I am “on the way”), vas (= you are “on the way”), va (= he/she/it is “on the way”), viennent (= we/they are “on the way”), and vetz (= y’all “are on the way”)
- moártarh (= to die) has the irregular forms moaréu (= I die/am dying), mortás (= you die/are dying), moara (= he/she/it dies/is dying), moarent (= we/they die/are dying), and moretz (= y’all die/are dying)
- pevarh (= to be able to [can]) has the irregular forms put (= I/you/he/she/it can) and povent (= we/they can)
- säparh (= to know, or to know how to) has the irregular forms säp (= I/he/she/it know) and säps (= you know)
- scríuarh (= to write”) has the irregular forms scríu (= I write/am writing), scríuas (= you write/are writing), scrivent (= we/they write/are writing), and scriitz (= y’all write/are writing)
- starh (= to be standing) has the irregular form stint (= we/they are standing)
- tirh (= to have) has the irregular forms téu (= I have), tent (= you/he/she/it have), tiennent (= we/they have), and tenetz (= y’all have)
- velarh (= to want) has the irregular forms volt (= I/you/he/she/it want(s)) and volent (= we/they want)
- vidarh (= to see) has the irregular forms víu (= I see), vías (= you see), and vía (= he/she/it sees)
- viénarh (the manitive and retrospective aspect modal verb) has the irregular forms viens (= I/you am/are about to/just did), vient (= he/she/it is about to/just did), viennent (= we/they are about to/just finished), and vetz (= y’all are about to/just finished)
- zirarh (= to say or tell) has the irregular forms zíu (= I say/am saying), zías (= you say/are saying), and zía (= he/she/it says/is saying)
For example, to say éu estéu, intending to mean “I am”, would be improper; the verb estarh must be conjugated as shown above, and not using the rules for regular conjugation that were given earlier. Thus, éu sint is proper for “I am”.
The student of Talossan should become familiar with the verbs that conjugate irregularly; luckily (as you can see above), Talossan does not have a huge number of them. Notice, however, that any verb that is an “extended” form of an irregular verb will follow the same irregular conjugations. For example, the verb previdarh (= to forecast) is an extended form of the verb vidarh (= to see) — extended by the addition of the suffix pre-. Therefore, éu previdéu is improper for “I forecast”; instead, éu prevíu is correct.
The Historic Merger of irh (= to go) and viénarh (= to come)
Notice that the we/they and y’all forms of the verbs irh (= to change location, to be “on the way”) and viénarh (= the manitive and retrospective aspect auxiliary verb) are identical. That is, os viennent means “they are on their way” while os viennent àð irh means “they are just about to be on their way”. This is due to the fact that these two particular verbs have undergone a merger, to the point where irh is now known as “the verb of motion”, and (after having adopted many of the conjugation forms of viénarh) now carries both senses “go” and “come”. Whenever any type of active motion is the sense, then the verb irh is used. The verb viénarh (which originally meant “to come”) now has adopted the special use of forming the manitive and retrospective aspects (the “just about to” and “just finished” senses).
This modified distinction in the meaning of these two verbs holds true in all tenses and moods, even those (like the future tense) where the verbs do not share their conjugated forms. That is, irh is always “the verb of motion”, meaning either “to go” or “to come” based on context, and viénarh is always the auxiliary verb used to form the manitive and retrospective aspects.
Since viénarh is only an auxiliary verb (that is, its only use is to provide a different verbal aspect to an infinitive that it introduces), this means that it is always followed by à or da and then an infinitive verb form. This separates it from irh, which is not an auxiliary verb at all; so consider how ambiguity is actually not an issue when the shared conjugated forms are seen: in os viennent da l’avendaziun (= they are on their way [“coming”] from the dinner), the verb viennent is a conjugation of irh, and in os viennent da zespartarh da l’avendaziun (= they just left the dinner), it is a conjugation of viénarh, forming the retrospective aspect. Notice how subtle the distinction is between these two example sentences, thus further explaining how these Talossan verbs managed to undergo this unique merger of conjugated forms and semantic shift.