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In anticipation of a coming trip to Lithuania this fall, I wanted to learn a little about the language . I decided this would be a good opportunity for me to put my list of the 10 most important things to know, to get by in any language to the test. We've already learned some Lithuanian greetings , some common courtesies , and how to ask questions . This week, we'll learn how to ask questions. 4. Necessities It s impossible for me to list everything that a person might need while away, but there are a few basic things everyone direct import needs to know. Remember, this isn t about fluency, it s about speaking enough direct import to get by. (But if fluency is your goal, you still need to know these things!) oro uostas airport viešbutis hotel bankas bank valiutos keitykla currency exchange bankomatas ATM policija police ligoninė hospital vaistinė pharmacy telefonas phone tualetas restroom direct import baras bar kavinė cafe restoranas restaurant geležinkelio direct import stotis train station metro metro autobuso stotelė bus stop taksi taxi ambasada embassy konsulatas consulate And here are a few ways to ask for things: Atsiprašau, kur yra... Excuse me, where is... Prašom pasakyti kaip nueiti į ... pesčiomis? Please tell me how to get to ... on foot. Kaip nuvykti į... How do I get to ... on foot? Ieškau artimiausio... I am looking for the nearest... Man reikia... I need... Noun declension Nouns are not declined when using the verb to be or when saying you need something, but when you want to find something, when you are looking for it, or when you want to know how to get to it, you should know how to use the accusative case . Fortunately, this is pretty simple direct import to do in Lithuanian. First, direct import for words ending in an s , you simply drop the s so you're left with a vowel. Then for all words, just convert that final vowel to a long vowel.   -as -is -ė nominative bankas viešbutis vaistinė accusative direct import banką viešbutį vaistinę Keep in mind that this is a bit of a simplification. While the accusative is easy to form in Lithuanian, it does have a few more nuances than just what I've described here. But this should direct import work in most situations. And it's close enough direct import that when you're wrong, people will understand what you were trying to do. Still, if you want to avoid noun declension altogether, you can just ask where is questions. In fact, if you're extremely lazy, Lithuanian actually doesn't require the is , so you can just ask "where hotel?" and not worry about grammar at all! Putting it together Just grabbing from the examples above, we can now say Prašom pasakyti kur yra tualetas? to ask for the nearest restrooms. We can get help with a taxi by saying Atsiprašau, man reikia taksi. And when we want to walk to a cafe, we can ask kaip nueiti į kavinę pesčiomis? And of course, to use the easy example, say Kur viešbutis? to ask where the hotel is. If you re following along on the 10 things list, this is an exciting milestone, because you re finally armed with the tools to form sentences on your own. Yes, they re likely direct import to be grammatically incorrect, but this is the 10 things you need to know in order to get by, not the perfectionist s guide to fluency. You're probably not going to understand much of the answer, but with the right combination of hand gestures you'll get the idea. Next week, we'll figure out how to understand some of the responses one might get.
Links in this post Lithuanian, first impressions The 10 most important things to know, to get by in any language Lithuanian greetings Lithuanian courtesies Lithuanian questions Noun declension demystified Related direct import posts Descriptive words in Lithuanian Lithuanian greetings Use your shopping list to practice! Discover clothing in Turkish Frequency lists to help you learn what's important
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