Lithuanian Out Loud 0039 - Paukščio Namas Birdhouse

When you greet a Lithuanian at his or her house, flat or say the front door of a restaurant, whatever you do, don’t shake hands across the threshold of the doorway.  Yeah, that one surprised me too but I was brusquely corrected on it recently.

Now, of course, you can greet each other as your guest opens the door but the physical shaking of hands must be done either inside or outside the threshold.  If you do it wrong – baaaad luck! Same goes for kissing on the cheek with close friends.  Either the person who is at home opening the door must step out through the door and past the threshold or the guest or guests have to come all the way inside before kisses can be shared.  Same as a handshake – if you do it wrong, it’s bad luck.  Who makes this stuff up, anyway?  How do you kiss Raminta?  Do you kiss on the left cheek first or right cheek first?  Straight to the lips!  But, really, traditionally.  Really?  With your girlfriend?  With the girlfriend.  Tradition – to the lips…oho…okay, something I didn’t notice…bad luck…like with the kissing…but if I didn’t see her for a little bit so on the right, on the left and then to the lips!  I see, oh, cool, okay.

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On this lesson we’re going to stick with genitive declensions – had enough yet?  No, you haven’t! - but this will be a relatively simple episode.  A new word we’ll use today, amongst others, is the word for “price," as in the newspaper’s price. 

please repeat prašom pakartoti

kaina                           price

kaina                           a price

kaina                           the price

If a word ends in –tis or –dis then it has a slightly unusual declension in the genitive case or kilmininkas.  To do this lesson we’ll have to learn some new vocabulary.

First, let’s start with a word we learned back in episode 25.

Amerikietis                     an American male

In the genitive a word that ends in –tis or “t-i-s" as this word does, changes to “-čio."

So, Amerikietis would change to Amerkiečio.

the American man’s name         Amerikiečio vardas

the American man’s house        Amerikiečio namas

the American man’s wife           Amerikiečio žmona

A man from Chicago might be called a Chicagoan.  A male from New York City might be called a “New Yorker."  A male who’s from Vilnius -  “Vilnietis"

the Vilnius man                    Vilnietis

the man from Vilnius            Vilnietis

So, the “Vilnius man’s dog" would be… Vilniečio šuo

the Vilnius man’s car           Vilniečio mašina

the Vilnius man’s name        Vilniečio vardas

Vytis is a man’s name           Vytis

Vytis’ daughter                      Vyčio duktė

Vytis’ house                         Vyčio namas

The word for hotel is viešbutis

viešbutis                       hotel

viešbutis                       hotel

viešbutis                       hotel

the hotel restaurant         viešbučio restoranas

the hotel room                viešbučio kambarys

the hotel restroom           viešbučio tualetas

the word for newspaper is laikraštis

laikraštis                         newspaper

laikraštis                         the newspaper

laikraštis                          a newspaper

the newspaper’s price       laikraščio kaina

the newspaper’s quality    laikraščio kokybė

the word for “bird" is paukštis

paukštis                        bird

paukštis                        a bird

paukštis                        the bird

the bird’s color              paukščio spalva

the bird’s name             paukščio vardas

the bird’s house             paukščio namas

the word for bicycle is dviratis

dviratis                        bicycle

dviratis                        a bicycle

dviratis                        the bicycle

the bicycle’s color         dviračio spalva

the bicycle’s location     dviračio vieta

the bicycle’s quality       dviračio kokybė

Now let’s go over some words that end in –dis or “d – i – s." The word for tree is medis

medis                           tree

medis                           a tree

medis                           the tree

the tree’s color               medžio spalva

the tree’s location           medžio vieta

the tree’s name              medžio vardas

If we could…let’s talk about how you would name your aspen right in the front yard!

The word for pigeon or the month of April is balandis.

balandis                        pigeon

balandis                        the pigeon

balandis                        April

the pigeon’s color           balandžio spalva

the pigeon’s location       balandžio vieta

…on the roof, in the balcony…

an April day                   balandžio diena

the word for December is gruodis

gruodis                         December

gruodis                         December

gruodis                         December

a December day             Gruodžio diena

a December morning      Gruodžio rytas

a December afternoon    Gruodžio vakaras

the word for watch or clock is laikrodis

laikrodis                       a watch

laikrodis                       a clock

laikrodis                       the wristwatch

the watch’s color            laikrodžio spalva

the watch’s quality          laikrodžio kokybė

the watch’s price            laikrodžio kaina

…might be bad…