Mood: mood
| Values: | Cnd | Imp | Ind | Nec | Sub |
Mood is a feature that expresses modality and subclassifies finite verb forms. Some mood markers also interact with tense and aspect of the verb.
Ind: indicative
The indicative can be considered the default mood. A verb in the indicative merely states that something happens, has happened or will happen, without adding any attitude of the speaker.
Examples
- վազելու եմ/vazelow em “I am going to run”,
- վազելու էի/vazelow ēi “I was going to run”,
- վազելու եղա/vazelow eġa “(if) I intended to run”,
- տուն ունեմ/town ownem “I have a house”,
- տուն ունեի/town ownei “I had a house”,
- տուն ունեցա/town ownecʼa “I got a house”,
- գնացի տուն/gnacʼi town “I went home”
Imp: imperative
The speaker uses the imperative to order or ask the addressee to do the action of the verb.
Examples
- գնա՛ տուն/gna՛ town “go home!”,
- գնացե՛ք տուն/gnacʼe՛kʼ town “go home!” (plural),
- եղի՛ր առողջ/eġi՛r aṙoġǰ “be healthy!”,
- եղե՛ք առողջ/eġe՛kʼ aṙoġǰ “be healthy!” (plural)
Cnd: conditional
The conditional mood is used to express actions that would have taken place under some circumstances but they actually did not / do not happen. In Armenian, it combines with two different tenses (present and imperfect).
The negation of conditional mood is formed periphrastically using the special form of main verb (traditionally called negative participle) and negated auxiliary չեմ “not to be”. The main verb is marked as Connegative.
Examples
- կգնայի տուն/kgnayi town “I would go home, (if)”,
- կգնամ տուն/kgnam town “I will go home, (if)”,
- չեմ գնա տուն/čem gna town “I will not go home, (if)”,
- չէի գնա տուն/čēi gna town “I would not go home, (if)”,
- վազելու կլինեի/vazelow klinei “I would be going to run, (if)”,
- վազելու կլինեմ/vazelow klinem “I will be going to run, (if)”,
- տուն կունենայի/town kownenayi “I would have a house, (if)”,
- տուն կունենամ/town kownenam “I will have a house, (if)”
Sub: subjunctive / conjunctive / optative
The subjunctive mood is used primarily in subordinate clauses, typically for actions that are subjective or otherwise uncertain. In some contexts the mood expresses also the desire that the action happens; it is thus close to both optative and jussive. In Armenian, it combines with two different tenses (imperfect and present).
Examples
- գնայի տուն/gnayi town “(I wish) I could go home”,
- գնամ տուն/gnam town “I’d (better) go home”,
- վազելու լինեի/vazelow linei “(if) I would intend to run”,
- վազելու լինեմ/vazelow linem “(if) I intend to run”,
- տուն ունենայի/town ownenayi “I wish I had a house”,
- տուն ունենամ/town ownenam “I’d (better) have a house; (if) I have a house”
Nec: necessitative
The necessitative mood expresses necessity and corresponds to the modal verbs “must, should, have to”.
Armenian has present and imperfect necessitative forms, both formed periphrastically using the mood particle պիտի/piti or the impersonal predicative պետք է/petkʼ ē. The content verb expresses person, number, tense, aspect, voice and is in subjunctive mood.
The mood particle պիտի/piti is historically the present tense of the verb պիտիմ/pitim (Ind, Sing, Person=3) “to be necessary, useful”. The impersonal predicative պետք է “lit: is needed” accompanied by subjunctive finite form of verbs is used as a variant of mood particle. This expresses compulsory, obligative necessity.
The content verb is not marked as necessitative because it can also be used in present or imperfect subjunctive.
Note, that the mood particles are viewed as AUX and can inflect for Polarity (e.g. չպիտի, չպետք է). They will have Mood=Nec.
Examples
- Նա պիտի (պետք է) գնա տուն/Na piti (petkʼ ē) gna town “He must go home”,
- Նա պիտի (պետք է) գնար տուն “He had to go home”
Mood in other languages: [ab] [akk] [arr] [axm] [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [ctn] [cy] [el] [eme] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [fr] [ga] [gd] [gn] [gub] [ha] [hbo] [hu] [hy] [it] [jaa] [ka] [ky] [mdf] [myv] [naq] [nmf] [oge] [ota] [pal] [pcm] [ps] [qpm] [qtd] [quc] [ru] [ruc] [say] [sl] [sv] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [ug] [uk] [urb] [urj] [xcl] [xmf] [yrk]