Remember that there are three types of verbs based on their last vowel in the dictionary form: a-verbs, e-verbs, and и-verbs, i.e. those ending in a, e, and и, respectively, in the form found in the dictionary. Remember also that based on their aspect, there are two types of verbs: imperfective and perfective. In forming the past tenses, three questions need to be kept in mind:
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- what is the aspect of the verb,
- whether the last vowel of the dictionary form changes (and if so, to what), and
- what the endings are.
The aorist (минато определено свршено време - МОС) is the second past tense you will learn about. It is made from perfective verbs. For forming the aorist from perfective verbs that end in e in the dictionary, you also need to know (memorize) which subgroup a particular verb falls into. The two subgroups you learn about in this tutorial exhibit the change of the vowel from e to a. For verbs that end in -epe, the first of these "e"s is dropped, and the second e changes to a. For example:
- помине (dictionary form) > помина (final e>a)
- разбере (dictionary form) > разбрe (first e of the -epe part is dropped) > разбра (the final e>a)
After making these transformations, to make the aorist, the following endings are added
- јас -в
- ти, тој, таа, тоа -
- ние -вме
- вие -вте
- тие -а
where the - represents the form reflecting the abovementioned transformations.
In this lesson, you see that you can sometimes leave off a possessive adjective (мој, твој, негов, нејзин, etc.) and just use a definite article to convey the same (possessive) meaning. This is possible:
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- if the possessor is the person to whom a statement or question is addressed. For example,
- Како беше одморот? How was the vacation? (implying your - singular or plural)
- Како е ќерката? How is the daughter? (implying your - singular or plural)
- in response to a question containing an assumed possessive. For example,
- Семејството е добро. The family is fine (implying my or our).