Ստիպված էի, կարելի էր: have to and can in yesterday and tomorrow

How it works

Wave 2 covered պետք է (petk' e), կարող եմ (karogh em) and արժե (arzhe), and all of it was about now. On an independent trip that is not enough: 'I had to wait', 'parking wasn't allowed', 'the car will have to be returned tomorrow' — modality almost always sits in yesterday or tomorrow. The good news: the modal words themselves never conjugate. The linker next to them is what moves.

Պետք է looks like this in all three times: պետք է գնամ (petk' e gnam) — I have to go, պետք էր գնայի — I had to go, պետք կլինի գնամ (petk' klini gnam) — I will have to go. Watch the past: not only does է (e) become էր (er), the verb also slips into the past (գնայի instead of գնամ (gnam)). Both halves move together, and changing only the first one is the classic learner's mistake.

Կարող եմ behaves like an ordinary verb, because it is one: կարող եմ — I can, կարող էի (karogh ei) — I could, կկարողանամ — I will be able. The impersonal կարելի է (kareli e) — 'it is allowed' — moves only its linker: կարելի էր (kareli er) — it was allowed, կարելի կլինի (kareli klini) — it will be allowed. The ban is չի կարելի (chi kareli) — not allowed — and in the past it sounds չէր կարելի (cher kareli).

Separately stands ստիպված (stipvats) — forced, from ստիպել — to force. This is exactly English 'had to': ստիպված էի սպասել (stipvats ei spasel) — I had to wait, ստիպված կլինեմ տաքսի վերցնել (stipvats klinem tak'si vertsnel) — I will have to take a taxi. The word itself does not change; person and tense live in լինել (linel). Next to it lives պարտավոր եմ — I am obliged: this is no longer circumstance but an obligation to someone, and in a contract it is exactly this word.

And a trap worth a whole rule. 'No need' and 'not allowed' are different things — in Armenian too. Պետք չէ շտապել (petk' che shtapel) — there is no need to hurry, nobody demands it. Չի կարելի շտապել (chi kareli shtapel) — you must not hurry, it is forbidden. Speakers confuse the two in English all the time ('you don't have to' versus 'you mustn't'); Armenian never does: one is about the absence of necessity, the other about the presence of a ban.

Table

By example

• ▶
  Ստիպված էի ամբողջ գիշեր օդանավակայանում սպասել

  stipvats ei amboghj gisher odanavakayanum spasel

  I had to wait at the airport all night
• ▶
  Այնտեղ կայանել չէր կարելի

  ayntegh kayanel cher kareli

  Parking was not allowed there
• ▶
  Վաղը պետք կլինի մեքենան վերադարձնեմ

  vaghə petk' klini mek'enan veradardznem

  Tomorrow the car will have to be returned

How the rule settles in your head

A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.

Next

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