It’s time to learn this simple and quite useful phrase in Georgian about what to drink during supra. Therefore, in today’s lesson you’ll learn to understand this question, conjugate the verb „to drink” in the future tense and you’ll learn to answer it (in various options).
In this lesson we’ll focus on linguistic issues, without going into the history of supra and the traditions associated with it. I’ll only add that supra is a form of Georgian party, seated at the table. And the word supra in Georgian also means a set table. Remember that not every Georgian party or event is a supra.
How to say ‘I will drink’ in Georgian?
To conjugate the verb to drink in Georgian, you need one piece of useful information. And it is the infinitive. In the case of the verb to drink, these are two words: სმა and დალევა. We usually include both words because the whole word changes from the future tense form, not just the ending as is the case with other verbs in the future forms.
If you don’t know how to conjugate the verb to drink in the present tense, this article about a Georgian restaurant will help you. There you will also find the verb to eat in Georgian.
Now let’s look at the conjugation of to drink in the future tense.
მე დავლევ
შენ დალევ
ის დალევს
ჩვენ დავლევთ
თქვენ დალევთ
ისინი დალევენ
As you can see, the endings of this verb are typical for this type of conjugation. Only the whole word changes compared to the present and past imperfect tenses. Therefore, we already know that in Georgian we’ll say მე დავლევ meaning ‘I will drink’. And you can use this phrase in response to your interlocutor’s question.
So what does the whole question ‘What will you drink during supra?’ look like, which our friends may ask us at the beginning of such a sit-down party?
You also need the ‘what’ word which is რა, only in the 3rd case. The ‘what’ word declined by the 3rd Georgian case produces რას. Everything we drink will be in the 3rd case, just as it was in the present tense. If you don’t know 3rd case in Georgian yet, this Georgian lesson will be right for you.
For this we also need the supra word, სუფრა, combined with the particle –ზე, meaning ‘on something’, ‘about something’. So from this combination the სუფრაზე word is formed. The entire ‘What will you drink during supra?’ sentence will sound like this:
რას დალევ სუფრაზე?
What can you drink during supra?
Now that we have the question and some of the answer, let’s look at options for adding beverage-related words. As you already know, all these words should be in the 3rd case in our ‘I will drink’ sentence. Therefore, below you will find words in the 1st case (as they are in the dictionary), and next to them declined by the mentioned 3rd case.
შავი ღვინო – შავ ღვინოს – red wine (lit. black wine)
თეთრი ღვინო – თეთრ ღვინოს – white wine
არაყი – არაყს – vodka
ლიმონათი – ლიმონათს – a lemonade
ლუდი – ლუდს – a beer
წყალი – წყალს – water
წვენი – წვენს – juice
არაფერი – არაფერს – nothing
Here we provide you with a broader list than just the traditional Georgian wines that are often present at supras. Perhaps you will find opportunities to use other names for drinks, not only Georgian alcohols. Even you are prepard to say 'nothing’ to a question on what to drink during supra.
Is it possible not to drink during supra?
This is how we will end today’s lesson in a slightly different way. We often get this question from people who are traveling to Georgia or visiting it for the first time. The simplest answer is ‘of course’. That’s why we’ll add a phrase in today’s lesson that may help you say in Georgian that you can’t drink alcohol (for various reasons).
The easiest way to do this is through the negative form meaning ‘I can’t (I’m not able to)’, i.e. ვერ. It’s a negative like ‘no’, but it shows that it’s not that you just don’t want to, but you can’t.
So the entire ‘I can’t drink’ answer will be ვერ დავლევ in Georgian. Then, of course, you can add what you can’t drink according to the pattern above.
If you already know more words, you can also add a reason, e.g. for health or religious reasons. Here the word „გამო” comes to your aid, which can be translated ‘because of’. We put it before the word denoting the reason according to the pattern
(word in the 4th case) + გამო
So now all you have to do is practice and repeat first the new verb conjugation and then the sentences you can create with it. So what do you plan to drink during supra?
If you want to know the conjugation of the „to drink” verb in Georgian in the most frequently used forms and tenses, you will find it in our Georgian verbs learning guide ‘50 Georgian verbs’. And if you are just starting your adventure with Georgian, we invite you to our series of Georgian textbooks and online courses ‘Let’s study Georgian’.