Mood: mood
| Values: | Ind | Imp | Sub | Cnd |
Mood is a verbal feature that expresses modality and subclassifies finite verb forms.
Pashto has person-specific sets of forms for three basic moods: indicative, imperative and subjunctive.
There is also an invariable conditional form, marked Mood=Cnd, used to express conditional or potential mood.
The Mood feature occurs with verbs (VERB and AUX).
Pashto implements various strategies to express the modal meaning similar to the English modal verbs:
- modal verb followed by subjunctive of the content verb
- modal particle followed by subjunctive of the content verb
- compound verb forms including subjunctive or conditional of the content verb
For overview of verb stems and verb endings mentioned below see Pashto verbal system.
Ind: indicative
The indicative can be considered the default, neutral mood. A verb in the indicative merely states that something happens, has happened or will happen, without adding any attitude of the speaker. The indicative is the only finite form distinguishing the Tense (see there for endings overview).
Simple uses and formation
The indicative mood includes three sets of simple finite forms for these tenses and aspects:
- present imperfective: present imperfective stem + present endings
- past imperfective: past imperfective stem + past endings
- past perfective: past perfective stem + past endings7
The analogically formed present perfective forms are used for the subjunctive, as the punctual events cannot happen at the present point.
Compound uses
- future imperfective: auxiliary word بۀ bë (with aux:fut relation) + present imperfective
- past habitual: auxiliary word بۀ bë (with aux:hab relation) + past imperfective (see also Aspect for details).
Examples
- present imperfective: لیک لرلم lik lwalë́m “I am reading the letter”
- past imperfective: کور ته راتلو kor ta râtlú “we were coming home”
- past perfective: ما کتاب ونه لیکۀ mâ kitấb wë́likë “I did write the book”
- future imperfective: دا کتاب بۀ لولم dâ kitấb bë likë́m “I will read this book” or “I will be reading this book”
- past habitual:
Imp: imperative
The imperative mood is to used express orders or requests for the second person. Pashto verbs have imperative forms for both numbers, although the plural form is always identical with its indicative counterpart. The affirmative imperative distinguishes both aspects, while negative imperative is used only in the imperfective aspect. Unlike for all other verb forms, the negative particle for the imperative is مه má (see also Polarity).
Formation
- imperfective imperative: present imperfective stem + imperative endings
- perfective imperative: present perfective stem + imperative endings The imperative endings are:
- second person singular: ه- -a
- second person plural: ئ- -ëy (identical with the corresponding present indicative ending)
Examples
- singluar, perfective, affirmative: لیک ولرله lik wë́lwala “read the letter”
- plural, imperfective, negative: دا کتاب مه لیکئ dâ kitấb má likëy “do not write that book”
Sub: subjunctive
The subjunctive mood does not distinguish tense and aspect.
Simple uses
- purpose in subordinate purpose sentences
- orders, requests, wishes or judgements (often with the particle دې de “let, should”)
- the orders and requests are used only for the first and the third person, as the imperative is used for the second person
- will (after the verb غوښتل ġux̌të́l “to want to”)
- necessity or obligation (after particles like باید bâyád “must, have to, should, necessary”
- present habitual (this holds only for the present subjunctive form for the third person وي wi of the verb ول wël “to be”)
Formation
Its forms are formally present perfective, which do not have any other use on their own:
- subjunctive: present perfective stem + present endings
Compound uses
Apart from the basic meanings, the subjunctive is used in several compound verb forms:
- future perfective: auxiliary word بۀ bë (with aux:fut relation) + subjunctive
- potential (longer forms, see below): shorter potential forms of کول kawë́l “to do” (with aux:pot relation) + subjunctive of the content verb
Examples
- purpose:
- order:
- wish:
- will:
- necessity:
- present habitual:
- future perfective: به دا کتاب ولولم bë dâ kitấb wë́likëm “I will read this book” or “I will have read this book”
- potential: کولای شم ولیکم kawë́lây šëm wë́likëm “I can/may write”, “I am able/allowed to write” or “I know how to write”
Cnd: conditional
The conditional form is invariable for all persons and both numbers, but distinguishes the aspect. It is used on its own or in compound forms to express the conditional mood or in compound forms to express the potential mood.
Formation
- imperfective conditional: past imperfective stem + ending لای- -ë́lây
- perfective conditional: past perfective stem + ending لای- -ëlây
Simple conditional use
The conditional form is used to express irreal conditions and their consequences. In this case it is used without the auxiliary verb in personal forms, thus missing any personal information and probably requiring the use of a personal pronoun. The bare conditional form is used in this way inly for transitive verbs.
Compound conditional uses
- intransitive verbs: conditional of the content verb + conditional وای wây of the verb ول wël “to be”
- irreal consequence in the main sentence: auxiliary word بۀ bë + conditional
The words وای wây and بۀ bë both with aux:cnd relation.
Compound potential use
- shorter forms (auxiliary verb کېدل kedë́l “to become”)
- present potential: conditional of the content verb + subjunctive of the auxiliary verb
- future potential: conditional of the content verb + future perfective the auxiliary verb
- past potential: conditional of the content verb + conditional of the auxiliary verb
- longer forms: shorter potential forms of کول kawë́l “to do” + subjunctive of the content verb
The auxiliaries کېدل kedë́l and کول kawë́l both with aux:pot relation.
To combine both uses, the conditional and the potential, the perfective conditional form شوای šwây of the auxiliary verb کېدل kedë́l “to become” is added to the conditional form (for transitive verbs) or it replaces the auxliary وای wây (for intransitive verbs).
Examples
- conditional, intransitive:
- conditional, transitive:
- potential, present, short: لیکلای شم likë́lây šëm “I can/may write”, “I am able/allowed to write” or “I know how to write”
- potential, present, long: کولای شم ولیکم kawë́lây šëm wë́likëm “I can/may write”, “I am able/allowed to write” or “I know how to write”
- potential, future, short: لیکلای ببۀ شم likë́lây bë šëm “I will be able/allowed to write” or “I will know how to write”
- potential, past, long: کولای شوای ولیکم kawë́lây šwây wë́likëm “I could/might write”, “I was able/allowed to write” or “I knew how to write”
- potential conditional, intransitive:
- potential conditional, transitive:
Mood in other languages: [ab] [akk] [arr] [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [ctn] [cy] [el] [eme] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [fr] [ga] [gd] [gn] [gub] [hbo] [hu] [hy] [it] [jaa] [ka] [ky] [mdf] [myv] [naq] [nmf] [pcm] [ps] [qpm] [qtd] [quc] [ru] [say] [sl] [sv] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [ug] [uk] [urb] [urj] [xcl] [xmf] [yrk]