Lingofly-ობა, სი-…-ე, უ-…-ობა: nouns you cannot touch
Society, poverty, inequality, unemployment — these are nouns you cannot touch, and Georgian makes them out of simple words in three ways. For example: “სიღარიბე (sigharibe) და (da) უმუშევრობა (umushevroba) ერთმანეთს (ertmanets) მოსდევს” — Poverty and unemployment follow one another. A rule from the Georgian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Society, poverty, inequality, unemployment — these are nouns you cannot touch, and Georgian makes them out of simple words in three ways.
-ობა turns a noun into a notion. It attaches to a word for a person or a thing. ბავშვი (bavshvi) (child) → ბავშვობა (bavshvoba) (childhood). მეგობარი (megobari) (friend) → მეგობრობა (megobroba) (friendship). მოსახლე (resident) → მოსახლეობა (mosakhleoba) (population).
სი-…-ე turns a quality into a property. The adjective is framed on both sides: ღარიბი (gharibi) (poor) → სიღარიბე (sigharibe) (poverty), ლამაზი (lamazi) (beautiful) → სილამაზე (beauty). English does the same with '-ness'.
უ- is a denial inside the word. The prefix means 'without' and usually comes together with -ობა: მუშაობა (mushaoba) (work) → უმუშევრობა (umushevroba) (unemployment). Meet a long word, trim both ends, and a short root is almost certainly inside.
Table
| stem | what it means | abstract noun | in English |
|---|---|---|---|
| ბავშვი (bavshvi) | child | ბავშვობა (bavshvoba) | childhood |
| მოსახლე | resident | მოსახლეობა (mosakhleoba) | population |
| ხელი (kheli) | hand | ხელობა (kheloba) | craft |
| ღარიბი (gharibi) | poor | სიღარიბე (sigharibe) | poverty |
| მდიდარი (mdidari) | rich | სიმდიდრე | wealth |
| მუშაობა (mushaoba) | work | უმუშევრობა (umushevroba) | unemployment |
| თანასწორი | equal | უთანასწორობა (utanastsoroba) | inequality |
| საფრთხე | danger | უსაფრთხოება (usaprtkhoeba) | safety |
| ვარჯიში (varjishi) | training | სავარჯიშო (savarjisho) | gym |
| სტვენა | whistling | სასტვენი (sastveni) | whistle |
By example
- sigharibe da umushevroba ertmanets mosdevsPoverty and unemployment follow one another
- ქართული სტუმართმოყვარეობა ბავშვობიდან ისწავლებაkartuli stumartmoqvareoba bavshvobidan istsavlebaGeorgian hospitality is learned from childhood
- მოსახლეობის უმრავლესობა ქალაქში ცხოვრობსmosakhleobis umravlesoba kalakshi tskhovrobsThe majority of the population lives in the city
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.
Frequently asked
nouns you cannot touch: how does it work in Georgian?
Society, poverty, inequality, unemployment — these are nouns you cannot touch, and Georgian makes them out of simple words in three ways.
What does it look like in a Georgian example sentence?
“სიღარიბე (sigharibe) და (da) უმუშევრობა (umushevroba) ერთმანეთს (ertmanets) მოსდევს” (sigharibe da umushevroba ertmanets mosdevs) — Poverty and unemployment follow one another. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.