Georgian grammar
Georgian grammar explained in plain words. No gender, no capital letters, weak stress that never trips you up. What is harder: consonant clusters and a verb that agrees with several persons at once.
Notes
- 📐The person is built into the verbThe Georgian verb itself says who is acting — a pronoun is almost never needed.
- 📐Postpositions: 'in Tbilisi' is one wordGeorgian has no prepositions at all. In their place work ending-postpositions: they glue themselves to the end of the…
- 📐No gender, no articlesWhat torments you in other European languages is simply absent from Georgian:
- 📐Two ways to say 'have': მაქვს and მყავსGeorgian splits 'I have' in two, according to one question: alive or not.
- 📐Comparison: one word instead of a whole set of endingsIn English the word itself changes: cheap — cheaper — the cheapest. Georgian takes another road: the adjective stays…
- 📐Plural: one ending, -ები, for everythingThe Georgian plural feels like a gift: there is a single ending, -ები, and it works almost everywhere.
- 📐Where, and where to: location lives at the end of the wordGeorgian has none of the little prepositions English leans on — location is glued onto the word itself. It flashed by…
- 📐Yesterday: the past tense of simple verbsThe past tense (Georgian grammar calls it the aorist) of a few dozen everyday verbs assembles by a tidy pattern, and…
- 📐Politeness: the letter თ and the phrase 'if possible'Politeness in Georgian rests on a single letter. -თ at the end of the verb, and you have switched to the polite 'you'…
- 📐Tomorrow: the future tense of simple verbsUntil now you could speak about what is happening now and what happened yesterday. One thing was missing, and without…
- 📐'To me' and 'to you' live inside the verbIn English 'to me' and 'to you' are separate words you can move around the sentence. Georgian keeps the recipient…
- 📐That very room: definiteness without an articleThere is no article in Georgian — that was settled back in the first unit. The question left over: how then do you tell…
- 📐How many: -ები, pairs and counting wordsThere is one plural in Georgian, the ending -ები, and that was covered in the home unit. What matters here is the…
- 📐'Must' and 'can': უნდა and შემიძლიაTwo words no day goes by without: უნდა — must, have to, and შემიძლია — I can. They are built differently, and the…
- 📐ეს, ეგ, ის: this, that one by you, and that one over thereEnglish points with two words, 'this' and 'that'. Georgian has three, and they are divided not by distance from the…
- 📐ჩემი დედა and დედაჩემი: possession two waysPossessives in Georgian are simple adjective-like words on '-ი': ჩემი (my), შენი (your), მისი (his, her), ჩვენი (our)…
- 📐ძალიან, მეტისმეტად, ალბათ: how strongly, and how sure you areTwo different questions are answered by look-alike little words, and that is why they get confused. The first: how…
- 📐Who does it — nobody: impersonal constructionsSome sentences have no actor at all, and Georgian assembles them differently from English. Three kinds cover almost…
- 📐რომ, რადგან, თუ, როცა: two thoughts in one sentenceUntil now the course held to short sentences. Further on there is no getting past conjunctions: 'I was late because…
- 📐ბევრი, ცოტა, რამდენიმე: how much — and why it all stays singularThe great surprise of Georgian quantifiers is not the words themselves but what stands after them. After 'many', 'few'…
- 📐რომელიც: attaching a whole sentence to a nounUntil now a description in Georgian was one word before the noun: 'ახალი ბინა', 'რთული გამოცდა'. At B1 that is not…
- 📐ძალიან, საკმაოდ, ზედმეტად: exactly how muchYou have known 'very' since the first unit: ძალიან. What follows is what this note is here for: between 'good' and…
- 📐თუ and რომ: if it will be — and if it wereEnglish 'if' covers both 'if there is time, I will come' and 'if there were time, I would come', with the grammar of…
- 📐ყველაზე: superlative — literally 'than all'The course showed the comparative in the market unit: უფრო … ვიდრე and the postposition -ზე ('ჩემზე მაღალია' — taller…
- 📐იყიდება, ქირავდება: how Georgian speaks without a doerHalf the signs in Georgia are written in a form the course has not shown yet. იყიდება — for sale (is sold), ქირავდება…
- 📐თქვა, რომ: reporting what someone saidA news story is nothing but reporting: 'the minister said that…', 'the witness claims that…'. Georgian does it with one…
- 📐უნდა, შეიძლება, მინდა: must, may, want — and what they do to the verbThree words without which not a single form gets filled in and not a single border crossed. They look simple, they…
- 📐ვწერდი, დავწერე, დამიწერია: three pasts and what each one tellsUntil now the course had a single past: 'წავედი', 'ვიყიდე'. At B1 there turn out to be three, and the choice between…
- 📐რადგან, რომ, სანამ, თუმცა: where the link goes, where the verb goesAt B1 the complex sentence stops being a luxury. There are not many connectors, but each has its own fixed place, and…
- 📐მაღალი კაცი and კაცი მაღალია: the adjective before the noun and in the predicateDescribing a person is almost all adjectives, and in Georgian they behave more simply than a newcomer expects — except…
- 📐დაჯექი and ნუ გეშინია: requests, commands and prohibitionsCheering someone up is mostly the imperative: 'hold on', 'don't be afraid', 'don't get upset'. It is not hard to build…
- 📐გა-, და-, ჩა-, მო-: the prefix that decides everythingThe kitchen is the best place to take preverbs apart: nearly every verb here lives by them. A preverb is a prefix in…
- 📐ვიყიდე or ვუყიდე: the vowel that says who it is forThe shopping unit is all 'bought it for myself', 'bought it for him', 'borrowed from him'. English handles this with…
- 📐სარეცხი, საყინულე, გამათბობელი: how Georgian names appliancesHalf of this unit need not be memorized — it can be taken apart. Georgian names for appliances are almost all built by…
- 📐ნისლი, ნისლმა, ნისლს: seven cases and what each one doesThe course has reached the point where the cases can no longer be postponed. You have seen them by the dozen already…
- 📐სკოლის პირდაპირ, სახლის უკან: postpositions that stayed separate wordsYou have known the ending-postpositions since the first waves: 'სახლში', 'მაგიდაზე', 'ხიდთან'. But there is a second…
- 📐სწავლა, გაზომვა, ჩაწერა: the verb's dictionary name and how to get a live form out of itYou have surely noticed that every 'to do' in this course was rendered by a word on '-ა', '-ება' or '-ვა' — 'სწავლა'…
- 📐ორშაბათს, ხუთ საათზე, ერთ წელიწადში: time without a single prepositionFixing a meeting is almost entirely time phrases, and Georgian builds them from the cases of the very word. There are…
- 📐ხომ, თუ, ნუთუ, -ც: little words the whole conversation rests onA conversation is made of particles as much as of words: they turn a statement into a question, a request into a polite…
- 📐მებაღე, მშენებელი, მექანიკოსი: how an activity becomes a personThe unit brings twenty names of professions, and memorizing them one by one is unnecessary. Almost all are assembled…
- 📐ოცდაათი, ორმოცი, ასი: Georgian counts by twentiesThe money unit demands numbers, and Georgian numbers are built differently from English ones. Up to twenty everything…
- 📐-ობა, სი-…-ე, უ-…-ობა: nouns you cannot touchThis unit is the first in the course with almost no objects in it. Society, population, poverty, inequality…
- 📐მომწონს, მტკივა, მენატრება: a subject that stands in the dativeYou have been saying მიყვარს (I love) and მინდა (I want) for a long time without asking why there is მ- inside — the…
- 📐არ, ვერ, ნუ, აღარ, ვეღარ: five ways to say noEnglish 'not' is one word for every case. Georgian has five negations, and choosing between them is not style: pick the…
- 📐ორი მეტრი, მეოთხედი, ორიოდე: measure, fraction and 'roughly that much'Until this unit the whole course had one measure — the kilogram — and nothing to measure with. Now there are a dozen…
- 📐გადამაღებინა, დავალევინე: made, asked and let someone do itIn a hospital a person almost does nothing himself: they take his scan, do his tests, give him medicine to drink.…
- 📐გილოცავ, გისურვებ, გაგიმარჯოს: the form for congratulations and wishesA Georgian celebration is first of all things said out loud: congratulations at the door, wishes at the table, an…
- 📐-ო, -მეთქი, -თქო: other people's words without the word 'that'You took apart reporting with რომ, and it is correct. But living speech reports differently — with a particle glued…
- 📐-ად and -ით: how a noun becomes an adverb, then a postpositionThis unit is almost entirely made of words that English takes for adverbs and parenthetical phrases: 'mostly'…
- 📐ხორკლიანი, წებოვანი, უვარგისი: how an object becomes a qualityThe unit u50 brings two dozen adjectives, and memorizing them one by one is unnecessary: almost all are assembled from…
- 📐მი-, მო-, ჩა-, გადა-: the prefix decides where the action goesThe whole unit u51 rests on one device, and without it fifty verbs of motion would have to be crammed. The Georgian…
- 📐მესამედი, ორჯერ, ცალობით: fractions, multiples and 'how it is counted'You learned to count to a hundred earlier in the course. The unit u52 adds three things without which a figure cannot…
- 📐დასრულება or დავასრულე: the card heading and live speechThe unit u53 has fifty verbs, and on the card each stands in a form you will almost never hear in conversation. This is…
- 📐რომ, თუ, რადგან: sewing on a subordinate clauseThe unit u54 cannot be spoken in simple sentences: 'it turned out that…', 'on the grounds that…', 'it is unknown…
- 📐-მდე, -ის შემდეგ, -ის წინ: how Georgian places an event in timeThe unit u55 is all about time, and Georgian has no prepositions at all: their work is done by endings and…
- 📐განახლებადი, გადაშენებადი, შეუქცევადი: a quality made from a verbThe unit u56 is about what CAN happen to nature, and it hangs on one ending. English reaches for '-able', '-ible' and…
- 📐სიკეთე, ჯიუტობა, პატიოსნება: a trait noun from a quality wordThe character lesson (u59-l1) looks like ten new words, but it is really ten adjectives you already know, wrapped into…
- 📐მან თქვა, რომ…: reported speech without a tense shiftThe lesson u58-l5 retells someone else's story, and the main news here is pleasant: Georgian does not shift tenses in…
- 📐რომ … -ბდი: 'if only' about what never wasThe personal-experience lesson (u58-l4) cannot be told without it: 'if I had known', 'had it not happened', 'I wouldn't…
- 📐გამარჯობა and გაგიმარჯოს: the greeting and its answerგამარჯობა is both 'hello' and 'hi': Georgian does not split the polite from the friendly here — one word suits the boss…
- 📐უკაცრავად and ბოდიში: the two Georgian sorriesEnglish makes one word, 'sorry' or 'excuse me', do two jobs: asking forgiveness and hailing a stranger in the street.…
- 📐დიახ and ჰო: the polite yes and the colloquial oneGeorgian has two 'yeses', and the choice between them is the same choice as between the polite and the informal 'you'.…
- 📐მადლობა and გმადლობთ: thanks and I thank youმადლობა is the word 'thanks' itself, a noun from მადლი — grace, favour. It is the neutral form, fits almost everywhere…
What is hard about Georgian and what comes for free
Hard: consonant clusters and a verb that agrees with several persons at once.
Easy: no gender, no capital letters, weak stress that never trips you up.
This is not a verdict on the language but a hint on where to spend effort. The hard parts are best taken a little at a time and often; the easy parts — left alone while they work by themselves.
Frequently asked
Is the grammar of Georgian complicated?
Consonant clusters and a verb that agrees with several persons at once is the main difficulty. In return, no gender, no capital letters, weak stress that never trips you up.
Should grammar be learned separately?
Not as a separate course. A rule learned before you need it is forgotten before you meet it. It is more useful to work it out at the moment you stumble over it.