Lithuanian Out Loud 0039 - Paukščio Namas Birdhouse

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…