Do you know that the Georgian verb “to be” can have also short form? Maybe you have seen a mysterious -a added in the end of a word? Read this post and learn how to use the short form of the verb to be!
The verb “to be” in Georgian does not focus only about the conjugation and knowing the pronouns. The word “is”, so the 3rd person singular in present tense offers you also an useful surprise. One can shorten it to just one letter and it still works as a full verb.
Maybe as many foreigners at beginning you will not be convinced that it’s a helpful option. As for now just trust me a bit with it and keep in mind that many Georgians use it on daily basis. Especially in spoken Georgian.
How does this short form of a verb to be look like?
As you already know we are talking here only about the 3rd person singular, only in present tense. So the full form looks like this:
ის არის
Which means he/she/ it is
Sometimes instead of using the whole word “არის”, one just uses -ა. Please remember that no other verb behaves like this. The short form is only for the word “არის”.
How to use the short form of "is" in Georgian?
Instead of adding separate word არის one adds one, small but mighty letter -ა, so the short form of the verb to be. That’s the theory but how does it look in practice?
Look at this simple sentence:
ეს ტურისტი არის.
The same Georgian sentence, but with short ofrm of არის looks as follows:
ეს ტურისტია.
It does not matter if the word to which you attach the letter -ა ends with ი or any other vowel. It will look the same.
There is a difference however, if the word ends with consonant. In that case you add double ა.
For example instead of saying
ეს არის (this is)
one may say
ესაა.
This rule is used not only in case of words in Nominative case, but all ended with consonant. Therefore you have to remember to add to be ending also when the word is declined in Georgian cases or has postpositions.
Which rules to follow when using short form of Georgian verb to be?
As you may see, the usage of this form is not really complex and mastering it may be quite easy. However, especially at the beggining it’s beneficial to follow few simple rules.
Firstly, keep in mind that each sentence should have minimum one verb. Maybe it sounds obvious. Nevertheless, because one shortens the verb to a single letter, especially at the beginning it’s common to forget even to add it at all.
Secondly, when reading the sentence in Georgian you cannot find any verb, try looking at the end of each word. Maybe there you will find it in the short form of Georgian letter -ა.
Thirdly, this short form usually is attached to the main word in the sentence. Therefore you may remember to add it to the word you want to underline in your sentence. Compare the below 3 sentences to find slight differnces in meaning:
ეს – this
მანქანა – a car
ჩემი – my
ეს ჩემი მანქანაა.
ეს მანქანა ჩემია.
ესაა ჩემი მანქანა.
As you may have noticed the word არის can be attached to different words and each time the meaning of the sentence changes a bit. If you do not feel the difference try to translate it literary, word after word.
The last remark is that please remember not each letter ა added to the word means “is”, especially if there is a verb already in the sentence. The example is a phrase: როგორა ხარ? About which we’ll tell you in other post.
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