Ēezar Kurti

LEARN ALBANIAN

To my parents and my sister Bardha

 

 

MĖSIMI I TRETĖ - LESSON 3

 

I. NJOHJA - INTRODUCTION (II)

 

A.

Xhon Smithi: - Tungjatjeta, Marin! (Hello, how are you, Marin!)

Marin Drini: - Tungjatjeta, Xhon! (How do you do, John!)

Xhon Smithi: - Po kjo kush ėshtė? (And who is she?)

Marin Drini: - Ah, mė falni! Njihuni, ju lutem. Kjo zonjusha ėshtė Zana Kodra. Ajo ėshtė shqiptare, pėrkthyese. Zana, ky ėshtė zoti Xhon Smith. Ai ėshtė amerikan. Ai ėshtė gazetar. (Oh, I beg your pardon! Let me introduce you, please! This young woman is Zana Kodra. She is Albanian and she is an interpreter. Zana, this gentleman is John Smith. He is American. He is a reporter.)

Zana Kodra: - Gėzohem qė u njohėm! (It’s my pleasure to meet you.)

Xhon Smithi: - Gėzohem gjithashtu! (It’s my pleasure, too!)

Marin Drini: - Zoti Smith di pak shqip. Ai po mėson ēdo ditė. Unė po e ndihmoj. (Mister Smith has a little knowledge of Albanian. He is learning every day. I am helping him.)

Zana Kodra: - Sa mirė! Tani mė falni, po shkoj. Shoqėroj disa turistė anglezė dhe ata mė presin. Mirupafshim! (Very nice! And now, excuse me, I have to go. I am accompanying some English tourists and they are waiting for me. See you again!)

Marin Drini: - Mirupafshim, Zana! (Bye-bye, Zana!)

Xhon Smithi: - Mirupafshim! (Good bye!)

B.

- Kush ėshtė kjo zonjushė? (Who is this young woman?)

- Kjo ėshtė Zana Kodra. (She is Zana Kodra.)

- Ēfarė ėshtė ajo? (Who is she?)

- Ajo ėshtė shqiptare. Ajo ėshtė pėrkthyese. (She is Albanian. She is an interpreter.)

- Po ai zotnia kush ėshtė? (And who is that gentleman?)

- Ai ėshtė Xhon Smith. (He is John Smith.)

- Ēfarė ėshtė ai? (Who is he?)

- Ai ėshtė amerikan. Ai ėshtė gazetar. (He is American. He is a reporter.)

 

II. GRAMMAR

  1. THE INDEFINITE FORM OF NOUNS

The albanian nouns have indefinite and definite forms.

In the preceding dialogue we have used the indefinite forms of the nouns as the predicate nominative:

ajo ėshtė shqiptare, pėrkthyese; ai ėshtė amerikan, gazetar

(she is Albanian, interpreter; he is American, reporter).

The indefinite form of nouns indicates persons or things generally, without distinguishing them from groups of persons or things:

Kush ėshtė ai? Ai ėshtė gazetar (njė gazetar).

Who is he? He is a reporter.

The indefinite form of the nouns is used with or without the indefinite article njė (in English a - an) in singular:

gazetar - njė gazetar (reporter - a reporter)

and disa (ca) (some) in plural:

gazetarė - disa (ca) gazetarė (reporters - some reporters)

The plural indefinite form of the noun is formed by adding to the singular indefinite the ending -ė or -a for masculine and -e or -a for feminine:

njė shok - disa shokė (m.) - a friend - some friends

njė laps - disa lapsa (m.) - a pencil - some pencils

njė italjane - disa italjane (f.) - an Italian woman - some Italian women

njė dhomė - disa dhoma (f.) - a room - some rooms

Here are some examples:

Singular                                               Plural

shoqe - njė shoqe (f.) a friend              shoqe - disa shoqe - some friends<

shqiptar - njė shqiptar                           shqiptarė - disa shqiptarė

shqiptare - njė shqiptare                        shqiptare - disa shqiptare

amerikan - njė amerikan                        amerikanė - disa amerikanė

amerikane - njė amerikane                    amerikane - disa amerikane

libėr - njė libėr libra - disa libra

pėrkthyese - njė pėrkthyese                  pėrkthyese - disa pėrkthyese

ditė - njė ditė ditė - disa ditė

 

Exercise 1.

Change to the indefinite form with the indefinite article:

Examples: libėr - njė libėr (book - a book):

mėsim -                        shqiptar -          <shqiptare -

laps (pencil) -    amerikan -       amerikane -

fjalė (word) -                italian -              italiane -

libėr (book) -                anglez -             angleze -

 

Exercise 2.

Change to the indefinite plural form :

Examples: njė shok - disa shokė, njė shoqe - disa shoqe.     

           

njė shqiptar -     njė shqiptare -

njė turist -                     njė turiste -      

njė gazetar -                 njė gazetare -   

njė anglez                     njė angleze -

njė pėrkthyes                njė pėrkthyese

njė fjalė -

njė mėsim -

njė cigare -

 

B. NUMERALS

The cardinal numbers in Albanian are:

Njė (1), dy (2), tre (3), katėr (4), pesė (5), gjashtė (6), shtatė (7), tetė

(8), nėntė (9), dhjetė (10), njėmbėdhjetė (11), dymbėdhjetė (12), tre-

mbėdhjetė (13), katėrmbėdhjetė (14), pesėmbėdhjetė (15), gjashtė-mbėdhjetė (16), shtatėmbėdhjetė (17), tetėmbėdhjetė (18), nėntėmbė-dhjetė (19), njėzet (20), njėzet e njė (21), njėzet e dy (22), njėzet e tre (23), njėzet e katėr (24), njėzet e pesė (25) etj., tridhjetė (30), tridhjetė e njė (1), tridhjetė e dy (32) etj. dyzet (40), pesėdhjetė (50), gjashtėdhjetė (60), shtatėdhjetė (70), tetėdhjetė (80), nėntėdhjetė (90), njėqind (100), njėqindenjė (101), njėqindedy (102), dyqind (200), treqind (300), katėrqind (400), pesėqind (500), gjashtėqind (600), shtatėqind (700), tetėqind (800), nėntėqind (900), njėmijė (1000), njėmijenjė (1001), njėmijedy (1002) etj.

 

Exercise 3.

Translate into English:

njė, gjashtė, dhjetė, pesėmbėdhjetė, njėzet, njėzetenjė, tridhjetė, shtatė, trembėdhjetė, dyzet, pesėqind, treqind, pesė, pesėdhjetė, njėmijė

 

Exercise 4.

Translate these cardinal numerals into Albanian:

2, 5, 7, 10, 100, 50, 30, 300, 1000, 101, 8, 18, 6, 60.

 

Vocabulary

mėsimi i tretė - third lesson

po ky zotėria kush ėshtė - and who is this gentleman

po kjo zonjusha kush ėshtė - and who is this young woman

mė falni - I beg your pardon, excuse me

ju lutem - please

ky ėshtė(m.) - this is

kjo ėshtė (f.) - this is

pėrkthyes (m) - translator

pėrkthyese (f) - translator

gazetar (m.) - reporter, writer

gazetare (f.) - reporter, writer

gėzohem qė u njohėm - It’s my pleasure to meet you, I am pleased to know you

gėzohem gjithashtu - I am pleased, too

di shqip - he knows Albanian

pak - a little

mėson - to learn

ēdo ditė - every day

e ndihmoj - I help him

sa mirė - very well, so good

po shkoj - I am going

shoqėroj - to accompany

turist (m.) - tourist

turiste (f.) - tourist

libėr - book

laps - pencil

mė presin - they are waiting for me

 

Note: The vocabulary words are listed not by alphabetical order, but in order of their appearance in the text.

 

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Ēezar Kurti — "Learn Albanian — Mėsoni shqip" — Legas, (P.O. Box 040328, Brooklyn, New York 11204), 1996.

Copyright©1997 by Ēezar Kurti.