Dec 3, 2007
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…