Lithuanian Out Loud 0039 Beg - Paukscio Namas Birdhouse

Published: Dec. 3, 2007, 12:01 a.m.

When you greet a Lithuanian at his or her house, flat or say the front door of a restaurant, whatever you do, don’t shake hands across the threshold of the doorway.  Yeah, that one surprised me too but I was brusquely corrected on it recently.

Now, of course, you can greet each other as your guest opens the door but the physical shaking of hands must be done either inside or outside the threshold.  If you do it wrong – baaaad luck!
Same goes for kissing on the cheek with close friends.  Either the person who is at home opening the door must step out through the door and past the threshold or the guest or guests have to come all the way inside before kisses can be shared.  Same as a handshake – if you do it wrong, it’s bad luck.  Who makes this stuff up, anyway?  How do you kiss Raminta?  Do you kiss on the left cheek first or right cheek first?  Straight to the lips!  But, really, traditionally.  Really?  With your girlfriend?  With the girlfriend.  Tradition – to the lips…oho…okay, something I didn’t notice…bad luck…like with the kissing…but if I didn’t see her for a little bit so on the right, on the left and then to the lips!  I see, oh, cool, okay.

---

On this lesson we’re going to stick with genitive declensions – had enough yet?  No, you haven’t! - but this will be a relatively simple episode.  A new word we’ll use today, amongst others, is the word for “price," as in the newspaper’s price. 
Please repeat, prašom pakartoti…

kaina                           price
kaina                           a price
kaina                           the price

If a word ends in –tis or –dis then it has a slightly unusual declension in the genitive case or kilmininkas.  To do this lesson we’ll have to learn some new vocabulary.
First, let’s start with a word we learned back in episode 25.

Amerikietis                     an American male

In the genitive a word that ends in –tis or “t-i-s" as this word does, changes to “-čio."
So, Amerikietis would change to Amerkiečio.

the American man’s name         Amerikiečio vardas
the American man’s house        Amerikiečio namas
the American man’s wife          Amerikiečio žmona

A man from Chicago might be called a Chicagoan.  A male from New York City might be called a “New Yorker."  A male who’s from Vilnius -  “Vilnietis"

the Vilnius man                    Vilnietis
the man from Vilnius            Vilnietis

So, the “Vilnius man’s dog" would be…Vilniečio šuo

the Vilnius man’s car           Vilniečio mašina
the Vilnius man’s name        Vilniečio vardas

Vytis is a man’s name           Vytis

Vytis’ daughter                     Vyčio duktė
Vytis’ house                         Vyčio namas

The word for hotel is viešbutis

viešbutis                       hotel
viešbutis                       hotel
viešbutis                       hotel
the hotel restaurant        viešbučio restoranas
the hotel room               viešbučio kambarys
the hotel restroom          viešbučio tualetas

The word for newspaper is laikraštis

laikraštis                         newspaper
laikraštis                         the newspaper
laikraštis                         a newspaper
the newspaper’s price      laikraščio kaina
the newspaper’s quality   laikraščio kokybė

The word for “bird" is paukštis

paukštis                        bird
paukštis                        a bird
paukštis                        the bird
the bird’s color              paukščio spalva
the bird’s name             paukščio vardas
the bird’s house             paukščio namas

The word for bicycle is dviratis

dviratis                        bicycle
dviratis                        a bicycle
dviratis                        the bicycle
the bicycle’s color        dviračio spalva
the bicycle’s location    dviračio vieta
the bicycle’s quality      dviračio kokybė

Now let’s go over some words that end in –dis or “d – i – s."
The word for tree is medis

medis                           tree
medis                           a tree
medis                           the tree
the tree’s color              medžio spalva
the tree’s location          medžio vieta
the tree’s name              medžio vardas

If we could…let’s talk about how you would name your aspen right in the front yard!

The word for pigeon or the month of April is balandis.

balandis                        pigeon
balandis                        the pigeon
balandis                        April
the pigeon’s color          balandžio spalva
the pigeon’s location      balandžio vieta

…on the roof, in the balcony…

an April day                  balandžio diena

The word for December is gruodis

gruodis                         December
gruodis                         December
gruodis                         December
a December day            Gruodžio diena
a December morning      Gruodžio rytas
a December afternoon    Gruodžio vakaras

The word for watch or clock is laikrodis

laikrodis                       a watch
laikrodis                       a clock
laikrodis                       the wristwatch
the watch’s color           laikrodžio spalva
the watch’s quality         laikrodžio kokybė
the watch’s price            laikrodžio kaina

…might be bad…