Udmurt grammar
Introduction This article deals with the grammar of the Udmurt language.
Pronouns Udmurt pronouns are inflected much in the same way that their referent nouns are. However, personal pronouns are only inflected in the grammatical cases and cannot be inflected in the locative cases.===Personal pronouns===Somewhat like in English, Udmurt personal pronouns are used to refer to human beings only. However, the third person singular can be referred to ''it''. Udmurt personal pronouns only inflect in the grammatical cases and the allative case. The nominative case of personal pronouns are listed in the following table:+ Personal pronouns Singular Plural 1st person   2nd person   3rd person  ===Reflexive pronouns===Udmurt reflexive pronouns only inflect in the grammatical cases and the allative case. The nominative case of reflexive pronouns are listed in the following table:+ Reflexive pronouns Singular Plural 1st person   2nd person   3rd person  ===Interrogative pronouns===Udmurt interrogative pronouns inflect in all cases. However, the inanimate interrogative pronouns 'what' in the locative cases have the base form ''-''. The nominative case of interrogative pronouns are listed in the following table:+ Interrogative pronouns (nominative case)  Singular Plural what     who    The following table shows Udmurt interrogative pronouns in all the cases :+ Interrogative pronouns (all cases) Case  -   English  -/-   English Nominative     who     what Accusative     whom     what Genitive    whose      of what Ablative     from whom    from what Dative     to whom     to what Instructive    with whom     with what Abessive     without whom     without what Adverbial     in whose way      in what way Inessive  –  –     where Illative  –  –     to where Elative  –  –     from where Egressive  –  –     start from where Terminative  –  –     end up where Prolative  –  –     along where Allative*    towards whom     towards whereThe allative case is commonly called "approximative" when talking about Udmurt and Komi.
Noun forms Udmurt does not distinguish gender in nouns or even in personal pronouns: '' = 'he' or 'she' depending on the referent.===Cases===Udmurt has fifteen noun cases: eight grammatical cases and seven locative cases. Notice that the word in a given locative case modifies the verb, not a noun. The locative cases can only be used with inanimate references with the exception of the allative case. Alternative forms containing  can only be used after the plural suffix (i.e. the illative singular , but plural ). The less common accusative suffix  is used after the plural suffix, in addition to more common . Udmurt cases Case  Suffix  English prep. Example  Translation Grammatical nominative  –  –    village genitive -   of / 's      of a village / village's accusative  -/-/-/-   –     village (as an object) ablative -   from     from a village dative -   to/for     to a village instrumental -/-/-   with/by means of     by means of a village abessive -   without     without a village adverbial -   in a way     in a village way Locative cases inessive  -   in     in a village illative  -/-/-   into     into a village (or house) elative  -   from     from a village egressive  -   starting from     starting from a village terminative  -    end up     end up at a village prolative   -/-/-/-   along     along a villageallative* -   towards     towards a villageThe allative case is commonly called "approximative" when talking about Udmurt and Komi.Udmurt case endings affix directly to nouns quite regularly with the exception of a few lexemes of Uralic origin. These lexemes have stem changes when declining in the locative cases whose endings begin with a vowel: Examples of lexemes with varied stems Lexeme  Stem  Inessive  English  Original stem form  Cognate example    -      (in an) eye  *''--'' → *''--''  Finnish: '''' 'eye'    -      (in the) sky  Finnish: '''' 'air'    -      (in the) hips  *''-''-  Erzya: '''' 'rump'    -      (in the) forest     -       two; second  *''--''  Northern Sami: '''' 'two'The personal pronouns, however, have irregularities in comparison to the declension of other nouns: Udmurt personal pronoun declensions Case  1st pers. sing. 2nd pers. sing. 3rd pers. sing. 1st pers. pl  2nd pers. pl. 3rd pers pl. nominative                   genitive                   accusative            ~     ~   ~     ~  ablative                dative                   instrumental   ~     ~        ~     ~       abessive                   adverbial                  allative                ===Plural===There are two types of nominal plurals in Udmurt. One is the plural for nouns ''-'' (after vowels)/''-'' (after consonants)/''-'' (after certain consonants to avoid palatalization) and the other is the plural for adjectives ''-/-''.====Nominal plural====The noun is always in plural. In attributive plural phrases, the adjective is not required to be in the plural:+ Attributive plural Udmurt  English   (the) beautiful ''girls''The plural marker always comes before other endings (i.e. cases and possessive suffixes) in the morphological structure of plural nominal.+ Morphological order Udmurt  English   to the girls   to/in their villages====Predicative plural====As in Hungarian, if the subject is plural, the adjective is always plural when it functions as the sentence's predicative:+ Attributive plural Udmurt  English   the girls are ''beautiful''   the winters are ''cold''====Following numerals====Nouns are ordinarily in the singular when following cardinal numbers. However, a living being as the sentence's subject may be in the plural. In this case, the predicate verb must be in congruency with the subject. Udmurt  English   There are ''fifty-six houses'' in this village   There are ''ten students'' sitting in the lecture hall===Possessive suffixes=======Nominal possessive suffixes====Udmurt possessive suffixes are added to the end of nouns either before or after a case ending. The possessive suffixes vary in the nominative and accusative cases and with case endings. The consonant of the second and third person plural depends on if the last phoneme of the word is voiced or unvoiced.+ Nominative possessive suffix Suffix ending  Udmurt  English -/-    my friend -/-    your friend -/-    his/her friend -    our friend -/-    your (pl) friend -/-    their friendCertain lexemes of Finno-Ugric origin (especially those ending with a vowel or meaning an inalienable object) contain the vowel ''--'' in the first, second and third person singular nominative possessive suffixes:+ Nominative possessive suffix Suffix ending  Udmurt  Finnish equivalent  English -      my hand -      your hand -      his/her hand====Accusative possessive suffixes====Accusative possessive suffixes are shown in the following table. The consonant of the second and third person singular and plural depends on if the last phoneme of the word is voiced or unvoiced. Accusative possessive suffix Suffix ending  Udmurt  English -    my friend -/-    your friend -/-    his/her friend -    our friend -/-    your (pl) friend -/-    their friend====Possessive suffixes with case endings, singular====The morphological placement of possessive suffixes with other endings depends on the case. Possessive suffixes are the same as nominative suffixes after which the genitive, ablative, dative, abessive, adverbial and allative cases agglutinates. Possessive suffixes with case endings Case  Udmurt (first person singular)  English nominative    my village genitive    my village's/of my village ablative    from my village dative     for my village abessive    without my village adverbial    across my village allative   towards my villageThe possessive suffix follows the instrumental, inessive, illative, elative egressive, terminative and prolative cases and the vowel reduces to '''' in the singular persons. An '''', an old Uralic first person singular marker, appears in the first person singular. When adding a possessive suffix, the inessive and illative forms change to '''' and the elative form changes to ''--''. The '''' does not appear in the inessive, illative, terminative and prolative cases where the case ends with a vowel. Possessive suffixes with case endings person  instrumental   inessive  illative  elative  egressive  terminative  prolative Singular first  ''''''             second                third                Plural first                second                third               ====Possessive suffixes with case endings, plural====As in the singular, possessive suffixes precede the genitive, ablative, dative, abessive, adverbial and allative cases. However, the vowel of the singular persons reduce to '''': Possessive suffixes with case endings Case  Udmurt (first person singular)  English nominative    my villages genitive    my villages'/of my villages ablative    from my villages dative     for my villages abessive    without my villages adverbial    across my villages allative   towards my villagesAs in the singular, possessive suffixes follow the instrumental, inessive, illative, elative, egressive, terminative and prolative cases. The suffix forms follow the same structure as in the singular. The same exceptions appear in the plural as in the singular with the added exception of the instrumental '''' reducing to '''' and the prolative '''' not used. Possessive suffixes with case endings Case  Udmurt (first person singular)  English instrumental    by means of my villages inessive    in my villages illative    to my villages elative     from my villages egressive    starting from my villages terminative 	   ending up at my villages prolative    along my villagesSome words can be used as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs without a change in form. For example,    means "cleanliness", "clean", and "clearly".The third person singular possessive suffix also acts as a definite article:   ("the Udmurt language is nice" – literally "Udmurt language's nice").
Adjectives There is no congruency between adjectives and nouns in neutral Udmurt noun phrases, i.e. there is no adjective declension as in the inessive noun phrase '''', 'in a large/big village' (cf. Finnish inessive phrase '''' 'in a large/big village', in which '''' 'big/large' is inflected according to the head noun). However, as stated earlier, Udmurt adjectives in neutral attributive (non-predicative) noun phrases may have a plural marker when the noun is pluralised.===Determinative===Udmurt does have an emphasising determinative suffix. Its function is to place emphasis on the features of the referent, defining and separating it from a group of other similar referents. The third person singular possessive suffix '''' and '''' and plural '''' acts as the determinative suffix. The determinative adjective conjugates as in the third person singular or plural and the noun conjugates without any other marker. Determinative suffix Case  neutral  English  determinative  English Singular nominative    (a) big village    (specifically) a big village inessive    in a big village    in the (specifically) big village illative    to a big village    to the (specifically) big village elative    from a big village    from the (specifically) big village Plural nominative    (the) big villages    the (specifically) big villages inessive    in the big villages    in the (specifically) big villages illative    to the big villages    to the (specifically) big villages elative    from a big village  б  from the (specifically) big village===Comparative===Comparative is used when two referents are compared to each other but the subject of comparison does not necessarily need to be expressed.The comparative suffix in Udmurt is ''''. The subject of comparison can be expressed either in the ablative case or with the postposition '''' structure. If the subject of comparison it is shown the comparative suffix can be left out. Comparative Udmurt  English  A cow is larger than a sheep===Superlative===There is no superlative suffix in Udmurt. Superlative is expressed with the Russian particle '''' or indefinitive expressions '''', '''' or ''''. Superlative Udmurt  English   biggest (of them all)   newest (of them all)    cleanest (of them all)
Postpositions Udmurt makes use of postpositions rather than prepositions. A large percentage of the stems of Udmurt postpositions have a locative meaning and can conjugate in the local cases. For example, '''' means 'top' and also 'surface' and can inflect in all the locative cases: (inessive) '''', (elative) '''', (illative) '''', (prolative) '''', (egressive) '''', (terminative) '''' and (allative) ''''.However less than the seven locative cases are included in paradigm inflection of many of the postpositions. The paradigm usually consists of the inessive, elative and illative cases. Like nominals of foreign Uralic origin, some postpositions have a consonant in their stem. such as '''', 'between'.Some common postpositions are: Postpositions Stem  Example (inessive)  English     in front of     on top of     next to, at     in back of/behind     at the end of     underThe illative case can vary between '''' and ''''. The illative form of the postposition '''' 'side' is '''' 'to the side of'. Postpositions Stem  Example (illative)  English ''''     to the front of     to the top of     to the end of     under ''''     next to, at     to the centre of     to the behind of     betweenThere is also a small group of non-inflecting postpositions in addition to those inflecting in the locative cases (cf. Finnish '''' "with (a person)" that always takes the genitive case: '''' "with a friend"). A few examples of these are: Postposition  English   next to   after   all, each   together; because of, due to   during   along   in the way of/ -wise   about   within   togetherMost of the nouns in Udmurt postposition phrases are inflected in the nominative but there are a few postpositions that require the noun to be in the dative, ablative or instrumental cases: Example  English Nominative   on top of a/the table   from behind a/the tree   about (a) mother   after university   because of you Dative   every year   against the wind Ablative   before this Instrumental   with mother   because of it   next to me
Verbs Udmurt verbs are divided into two groups or two conjugations, both having the infinitive marker ''''. The conjugation I type verb is structured with '''' as in '''', 'to go'. The conjugation II type verb features an '''' in the infinitive as in '''', 'to work'. The conjugation I verb can also have two stems, a full stem as in '''' and a short stem as in ''''.There are three verbal moods in Udmurt: indicative, conditional and imperative. There is also an optative mood used in certain dialects. The indicative mood has four tenses: present, future, and two past tenses. In addition there are four past tense structures which include auxiliary verbs. Verbs are negated by use of an auxiliary negative verb that conjugates with personal endings. Separate personal pronouns are not required in verb phrases.The basic verbal personal markers in Udmurt are (with some exceptions): Personal endings of verbs Person  Ending Singular 1st  -Ø 2nd  - 3rd  - Plural 1st  - 2nd  - 3rd  -===Present tense===Present tense in Udmurt, in all but the third person, is marked with ''''. Third person singular is marked with '''' (conjugation I) or unmarked (conjugation II) and third person plural is marked with '''' (conjugation I) or '''' (conjugation II). Present tense Person   (conjugation I)  English   (conjugation II)  English Singular 1st    I know    I sing/I am singing 2nd    you know    you sing/you are singing 3rd    he/she knows    he/she sings / he/she is singing Plural 1st    we know    we sing/we are singing 2nd     you know     you sing/you are singing 3rd     they know     they sing/they are singingThe negative indicative present is formed by the auxiliary '''' negative verb and the marker '''' in the first and second person singular or '''' in the first and second plural of the main verb. The third person singular main verb is either marked by the full stem (conjugation I) or unmarked (conjugation II). The third person plural is marked with '''' (conjugation I) or '''' (conjugation II).The negative verb conjugates with the ending '''' in first and third person singular and third person plural. Second person singular and plural both conjugate with the ending '''' and first person plural with ''''. Present tense negative Person   (conjugation I)  English   (conjugation II)  English Singular 1st    I do not know    I do not sing/I am not singing 2nd    you do not know    you do not sing/you are not singing 3rd    he/she does not know    he/she does not sing / he/she is not singing Plural 1st    we do not know    we do not sing/we are not singing 2nd     you do notknow     you do not sing/you are not singing 3rd     they do not know     they do not sing/they are not singing===Future tense===The future tense in Udmurt is marked with '''' in conjugation I verbs and '''' in conjugation II verbs. Future tense Person   (conjugation I)  English   (conjugation II)  English Singular 1st    I will know    I will sing/I will be singing 2nd    you will know    you will sing/you will be singing 3rd    he/she will know    he/she will sing / he/she will be singing Plural 1st    we will know    we will sing/we will be singing 2nd     you will know     you will sing/you will be singing 3rd     they will know     they will sing/they will be singingThe negative indicative future is formed by the auxiliary '''' negative verb and the stem of the main verb in singular persons. The plural persons are marked either with '''' (conjugation I) or '''' (conjugation II)The negative verb conjugates with the ending '''' in first person singular. Third person singular and third person plural have the ending '''' and the remaining are as in present negative. Future tense negative Person   (conjugation I)  English   (conjugation II)  English Singular 1st    I will not know    I will not sing/I will not be singing 2nd    you will not know    you will not sing/you will not be singing 3rd  )  he/she will not know    he/she will not sing / he/she will not be singing Plural 1st    we will not know    we will not sing/we will not be singing 2nd     you will not know     you will not sing/you will not be singing 3rd     they will not know     they will not sing/they will not be singing===Past tense===The conventionally used designations ''preterite'' and ''perfect'' are used with denotations which are divergent from their usual meanings in the grammar of other languages.====Preterite I====The first preterite can be compared with the simple past in English. Preterite I is marked with '''' in conjugation I. There is no past tense marker in conjugation II verbs with the exception of '''' in the first person singular. Preterite I Person   (conjugation I)  English   (conjugation II)  English Singular 1st    I knew    I sang 2nd    you knew    you sang 3rd    he/she knew    he/she sang Plural 1st    we knew    we sang 2nd     you knew     you sang 3rd     they knew     they sangThe negative preterite I is formed by the auxiliary '''' negative verb and the stem of the main verb in singular persons. The plural persons are marked either with '''' (conjugation I) or '''' (conjugation II)The negative verb conjugates with the ending '''' in first person singular. Third person singular and third person plural have the ending '''' and the remaining are as in present negative. Preterite I negative Person   (conjugation I)  English   (conjugation II)  English Singular 1st    I did not know    I did not sing 2nd    you did not know    you did not sing 3rd    he/she did not know    he/she did not sing Plural 1st    we did not know    we did not sing 2nd     you did not know     you did not sing 3rd     they did not know     they did not sing====Preterite II====The second preterite is a past tense with an evidentiality distinction. It can be compared to the English perfect in which the speaker did not personally observe the past event. The preterite II is marked with '''', which is historically related to the third infinitive in Finnish.In addition to the normal personal endings, the present indicative marker '''' is featured in first persons and a frequentive verbal marker '''' is present in the second and third person plural. There is no personal ending in the third person singular and sometimes featured in the third person plural. Preterite II Person   (conjugation I)  English   (conjugation II)  English Singular 1st    I have evidently known    I have evidently sung 2nd    you have evidently known    you have evidently sung 3rd    he/she has evidently known    he/she has evidently sung Plural 1st    we have evidently known    we have evidently sung 2nd     you have evidently known     you have evidently sung 3rd     they have evidently known     they evidently sungThe negative preterite II is formed either by including the auxiliary copular negative verb '''' 'is not' or with the negation marker ''''. Preterite II negative Person   (conjugation I)  English   (conjugation II)  English Singular 1st     I have evidently not known    I have evidently not sung 2nd    you have evidently known    you have evidently not sung 3rd    he/she has evidently known    he/she has evidently not sung Plural 1st    we have evidently not known    we have evidently not sung 2nd    you have evidently not known    you have evidently not sung 3rd    they have evidently not known    they evidently not sung====Auxiliary past tenses====There are four past tenses in Udmurt which use a preterite form of the main verb and a preterite form of the auxiliary verb 'to be'.=====Pluperfect I=====The Udmurt pluperfect makes use of the preterite I main verb and the auxiliary '''', 'was' in third person singular, also in simple past. The pluperfect I tense expresses a process of action that has happened in the (distant) past. Pluperfect I Person   (conjugation I)  English   (conjugation II)  English Singular 1st    I had known    I had sung 2nd    you had known    you had sung 3rd    he/she had known    he/she had sung Plural 1st    we had known    we had sung 2nd     you had known     you had sung 3rd    they had known     they had sungThe negative Pluperfect I is formed by the negative preterite I negative plus the auxiliary ''''. Pluperfect I negative Person   (conjugation I)  English   (conjugation II)  English Singular 1st    I had not known    I had not sung 2nd    you had not known    you had not sung 3rd    he/she had not known    he/she had not sung Plural 1st    we had not known    we had not sung 2nd    you had not known    you had not sung 3rd    they had not known    they had not sung=====Pluperfect II=====There are two structures of the pluperfect II tense. One uses the preterite II third person singular form of the main verb inflected with a personal possessive suffix and the auxiliary ''''. The other is the preterite II of the main verb (with normal personal inflection) and the preterite I form of the 'to' be verb ''''. The pluperfect II tense expresses the result of an action that has been completed, but no one had seen. Pluperfect II () Person  Pluperfect II a   Pluperfect II b  English Singular 1st      I had evidently known 2nd      you had evidently known 3rd      he/she had evidently known Plural 1st      we had evidently known 2nd      you had evidently known 3rd      they had evidently knownThe negative pluperfect II is formed either by with the preterite II third person singular of the main verb in the negative (marked with '''') with a personal possessive suffix and the auxiliary verb '''' (pluperfect II a) or with the negative preterite II of the main verb marked with '''' with the preterite II auxiliary verb ''''. Preterite II negative () Person  Pluperfect II a   Pluperfect II b  English Singular 1st      I had evidently not known 2nd      you had evidently known 3rd      he/she had evidently known Plural 1st      we had evidently not known 2nd      you had evidently not known 3rd      they had evidently not known=====Durative preterite=====The durative preterite in Udmurt can be compared to the past progressive in English "was doing". Its function can be described as expressing a process in the past. The structure is the present tense of the main verb with either preterite of the auxiliary verb. The structure of the negative durative preterite is the negative present tense of the main verb with either preterite of the auxiliary verb. Durative preterite () Person  Affirmative  English  Negative  English Singular 1st    I was singing    I was not singing 2nd    you were singing    you were not singing 3rd    he/she was singing    he/she was not singing Plural 1st    we were singing    we were not singing 2nd    you were singing    you were not singing 3rd    they were singing     they were not singing=====Frequentative preterite=====The frequentative preterite in Udmurt expresses a repeated action in the past. The structure is the future tense of the main verb with either preterite of the auxiliary verb. The structure of the negative frequentative preterite is the negative future tense of the main verb with either preterite of the auxiliary verb. Frequentative preterite () Person  Affirmative  English  Negative  English Singular 1st    I  sang (always)   I did not sing (always) 2nd    you sang (always)     you did not sing (always) 3rd    he/she sang (always)    he/she did not sing (always) Plural 1st    we sang (always)    we did not sing (always) 2nd    you sang (always)    you did not sing (always) 3rd    they sang (always)     they did not sing (always)===Passive voice===Udmurt does not have a separate affix to express a passive voice. The plural third person of the verb is used as a personal form to express an unknown, non-determinative actor. Passive voice 3rd pers. pl  English  Passive voice  English   They are working     (People) are working here   They speak Udmurt    Udmurt is spoken here   They do not speak Russian    Russian is not spoken here===Moods=======Conditional====The conditional mood expresses an unrealistic action which the speaker considers to be supposed, possible or hopeful. The conditional marker is '''' and is attached to the stem of the verb (i.e. full stem of conjugation I verbs) along with personal endings. The third person singular, however, can function without a personal ending. The first person singular preterite I negative verb '''' is used in the negative conditional. Conditional () Person  Affirmative  English  Negative  English Singular 1st    I would do    I would not do 2nd    you would do    you would not do 3rd    he/she would do    he/she would not do Plural 1st    we would do    we would not do 2nd    you would do    you would not do 3rd    they would do    they would not do====Imperative====The stem of the verb is used for the second person singular imperative in Udmurt. If the stem of a conjugation I verb ends in one consonant or is one syllable and ends in a vowel, the short stem is the imperative. If the stem of a conjugation I verb ends in two consonants, the full stem is used.The second person plural infinitive is marked with '''' in conjugation I verbs and '''' in conjugation I verbs.The imperative negative auxiliary is '''' which precedes the infinitive form. Imperative Person   (conjugation I)  English   (conjugation I)  English   (conjugation II)  English Singular 2nd    eat! take/buy! talk/speak! Plural 2nd    eat! take/buy! talk/speak! Negative singular 2nd    do not eat! do not take/buy! do not talk/speak! Negative plural 2nd    do not eat! do not take/buy! do not talk/speak!====Optative====An optative mood is used in certain dialects.===Modals===Udmurt makes use of the morphosyntactic structure of inflected nominals and verbs with an auxiliary for modal expressions.To express ability, the verb '''', 'to be' is inflected in the third person singular (in all tenses) with the subject in the genitive case. The verb to which the subject directs ability is inflected with the past participle '''' (preterite II, third person singular) with a personal possessive suffix. Udmurt  English  Literal translation   You could come  "yours your came was"   The woman could not go to the store  "woman's to the store her went was not"====Desiderative====The desiderative modal expresses desire. The verb '''', 'to want' is inflected in the third person singular (in all tenses) with the subject in the genitive case. The verb to which the subject directs the desire is inflected with the past participle '''' (preterite II, third person singular) with a personal possessive suffix. Udmurt  English  Literal translation   I want to sleep  "mine my slept wants"   The woman does not want to go to the store  "woman's to the store her went not want"====Necessive====To express necessity, the word '''', 'necessary' is used with the copula verb inflected in the third person singular (in all tenses) with the subject in the dative case. The infinitive of the verb to which the subject directs necessity or an object is used. Udmurt  English  Literal translation   He/she needs to read a lot  "to him/her much to read necessity is"   I did not need a book  "to me book necessity is not"====Permissive====To express permissiveness, the verb '''', 'to suit/to be valid' is inflected in the third person singular (in all tenses) with the subject in the dative case. The infinitive of the verb to which the subject directs permissiveness is used. Udmurt  English  Literal translation   May I leave? "to me to leave suits?" You (pl) may not come in  "to you (pl) to come in does not suit"===Participles===Udmurt verbs have past, present and future participles. Participles can be used in different ways than ordinary adjectives. In addition to affirmative participles, Udmurt also has caritive participles.====Present====The present participle is ''''. It is a participle which expresses continuous action. It is affixed to short stems in conjugation I verbs. The present participle caritive is '''' Affirmative  English  Caritive  English   a girl that reads    a girl that does not read   a boy that sings    a boy that does not singIn addition to functioning as regular attributive participles, the present participle also functions as a nominalising derivational suffix. as a participle  English  as a noun  English   a girl that studies    student   a girl that gets sick    patient   a girl that sings    singer====Past====The past participle is ''''. It is an attributive participle which expresses completed action. It is affixed to short stems in conjugation I verbs. The past participle caritive is ''''. Affirmative  English  Caritive  English   a guest that arrived    a guest who did not arrive   a tree that fell    a tree that did not fall   a book that has been read    a book that has not been readThe past participle can also be inflected with the inessive ending ''''. This is a predicative participle which expresses completed action. Udmurt  English . The guest has arrived. . The tree had fallen. . The book has been read.====Future====The modal-future participle is ''''. It is affixed to short stems in conjugation I verbs. The future participle caritive is '''' and expresses that which is unable to be done. Affirmative  English  Caritive  English   a woman who will give birth soon    a woman who will not be able to give birth   a book that will be read    a book that is not able to be readThere is also a modal participle similar to gerunds in function. It expresses the ability to do some action or that it is possible to do the action. The marker is '''' and it is affixed to short stems in conjugation I verbs. Udmurt  English   a job (work) which is possible to do   a house in which one can live===Gerunds===There are four  gerunds in Udmurt, one being a caritive. that are affixed to the verb's full stem. One gerund, which also has a caritive, is formed by the past participle '''' (preterite II, third person singular) with the instrumental or elative case.The "basic" '''' gerund (and its caritive '''') can be compared to the English present active participle ''-ing'' and Finnish second or third infinitives, however having more functions. They can express a way of doing something, a reason for the action or a certain condition.The temporal '''' gerund ('''' in southern dialects) expresses action or state of being which happens simultaneously with the action of the main verb of the clause.The fourth gerund is '''' which can express an action or an event that lasts to the starting or ending limit of the action expressed by the predicate verb of the sentence. The gerund also expresses the structure "instead of". In addition, possessive suffixes can be affixed after the '''' gerund. Gerunds Udmurt  English ''''   A person is going in a hurry (lit. rushing)   A person is going without rushing   The student sits (there) thinking   My father sat at the table when he came into the house (lit. when coming in) ''''   It (lit. the weather) gets warmer when it snows ''''   We were at the river bank today until sun set (lit. until the setting of the sun)   Finish this work by the time we get there (lit. until the time when we arrive)   Instead of idly sitting, why do not you read a book   Finish this work by the time I get there (lit. until the time when I arrive)The past participle gerund is inflected with either the instrumental '''' (caritive '''') or elative '''' (caritive '''') case, both having the basic same meaning of "because". In literary Udmurt, the gerund in the instrumental case is preferred. However, the gerund in the elative case is used with some verbs such as '''' 'to cease/stop'. Gerunds Udmurt  English ''''   because it (lit. the weather) stops raining ''''   because it (lit. the weather) stops raining   The patient stopped moaning (lit. from moaning) Caritive   because it (lit. the weather) did not stop rainingPersonal possessive suffixes can also be affixed to '''' gerunds: Udmurt  English Affirmative   I could not complete this work on time because I was sick Caritive   Other important things got delayed because I did not to this job on time===Interrogative suffix===If there are no interrogative (question) words (who, what, when etc. ), an interrogative phrase is formed by the suffix ''''. The interrogative suffix is affixed to the constituent to which the question is concerned. The suffix's placement can also vary according to dialect. Both southern and northern dialect forms are used in literary Udmurt. Interrogative suffix Udmurt  English   Are you going? Aren't you going? Are you drinking tea?/Do you drink tea? Don't you drink tea? Is it tea which you drink? (not e.g. coffee)   Is it tea which you do not drink? (not e.g. coffee)   Is the forest small? Is the forest small? (but not big)   Isn't Kolja a student? Was there a river there? Was the river close by? Was the river close by? (not far away)   Wasn't the river close by?
Word formation There are a few main derivational suffixes in Udmurt word formation.===Nouns===Udmurt has the productive deverbalising nominal suffix ''''. '''' is affixed to the short stem of conjugation I verbs and '''' affixes directly to the stem of conjugation II verbs The function of this suffix is quite diverse. With this deverbalising affix, the nominal usually:1.expresses the action (deverbalised noun) set out by the base verb: Verb  English  Noun  English   to stand    (a) standing   to burn    (a) burning   to dry    (a) drying2.expresses the result of action: Verb  English  Noun  English   to win    a victory   to sing    a song3.expresses an instrument or tool denoted by an action: Verb  English  Noun  English   to drill    a drill4.expresses the focus of action: Verb  English  Noun  English   to eat    food   to drink    drinkMost of these derivations have both abstract and concrete meanings. The derivation can expresses both the action set out by the base verb or result or instrument: Verb  English  Noun  English   to sit    (a) sitting, a seat, a chair   to become ill    getting ill, a disease, an illness   to play    playing, play, a toy, a playthingDeverbalised nominal derivations can function as qualifiers of collocations, such as '''' 'reader, digest' or '''' 'drinking water'.===Adjectives===Udmurt has the denominalising adjectival suffixes '''' and carritive ''''. The adjectives formed by the suffix '''' express the condition of a quality, feature or phenomenon of the base word or possession of the referent. The adjectives formed by the suffix '''' express the lack of quality, feature, phenomenon or referent. This suffix can be compared to the prefix ''un-'' or suffix ''-less'' in English. Adjectival derivational suffixes Nominal  English  Example  English ''''   sense    a wise person   strength    a strong hand  luck    a lucky child   leaf    a leafy tree (a tree with leaves)   beard    a bearded man (a man with a beard) ''''   luck    an unlucky child   beard    a beardless man (a man with no beard)   child    a childless family (a family with no children)Adjectives formed by the '''' suffix can also have a qualifier: Nominal  English  Example  English   blue eye    a blue-eyed girl   long  arm    a long-armed person (a person with long arms) Udmurt also has moderative adjectival suffixes ('''', '''' and '''') which express a somewhat large, but not complete, amount of quality of an adjective base, usually a colour or flavour. They can be compared to the English suffix ''-ish''. The suffix '''' does not normally associate with flavour, but Southern dialect variant '''' does. Moderative adjectival derivational suffixes Nominal  English  Example  English   green    a greenish shirt   blue    a blueish scarf   black     blackish hair   bitter    a rather bitter cucumber===Verbs===In Udmurt grammar, the lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs is called verbal aspect. Udmurt verbs can be divided into two categories: momentane verbs and frequentative verbs. The transitivity or of a verb mainly relies on if the verb is frequentative or not.In Udmurt word formation, verbs can be derived by frequentative or causative deverbalising suffixes.====Momentane====The momentane aspect of Udmurt verbs expresses action (state of being or process) that happens only once. There is no transparent base momentane marker (cf. Finnish momentane verbs). For example, '''' 'to read (once)'. However a causative '''' denotes momentanity and those verbs can be derived into frequentative verbs.====Frequentative====The frequentative aspect expresses that the action (state of being or process) does not happen just one time. The action is continuous or frequent. There are various frequentative markers, usually containing an '''', for example '''' 'to read (frequently/often)'. The frequentative aspect, however, does not denote continuous repetitiveness as in e.g.some Finnish frequentative derivations.The frequentative deverbalising affixes in Udmurt are '''' (conjugation I), '''' (conjugation II) (both historically related to the Finnish frequentative derivational suffix '''') and '''' (conjugation I) which precede the infinitive marker ''''. Frequentative derivation Base  English   Derivation  English ''''   to read  →    to read (often)   to come  →    to come (often)   to drink  →    to drink (often) ''''   to work  →    to work (often)  to chop  →    to chop (often) ''''   to step inside  →    to step inside (often)   to step outside  →   to step outside (often)   to write  →    to write (often)Some verbal derivations, that follow the pattern '''' → '''', have parallel frequentative derivations, and '''' can be affixed to an already frequentative derivation:'''' 'to rise' → '''' 'to rise (often)''''' 'to rise' → '''' → '''' 'to rise (often)'Another frequentative verb affix is '''', which is historically related to the Finnish frequentative derivational suffix ''''. '''' frequentative verbs can be considered different from the above-mentioned derivations. '''' verbs do not semantically denote frequency in the same way; their "oftenness" is related to objective or non-objective relation. For example, the verb '''' ('to read') requires an object and the verb '''' does not. Udmurt  English   I like to read (generally)   I am reading a book
Syntax Udmurt is an SOV language.===Nominal sentence===The copular verb ( '''', – "to be") is omitted if the sentence is in the present tense:  '''' ("What day is it today?"). If the sentence expresses possession, the '''' can be part of the predicate:  '''' ("At you (plur. ), are there forests? ")===Existential sentences===These are sentences which introduce a new subject – they often begin with 'there is' or 'there are' in English. Udmurt  English  Literal translation   there are many forests in Finland  "in Finland many forests (is/are)"===Possessive sentences===As in most Uralic languages, ownership in Udmurt is expressed by inflection and sentence structure, rather than with a separate verb 'have'. The owner of the object and the possessed object are both inflected with a possessive suffix and used with the copula verb to express ownership. Udmurt  English  Literal translation  I have a book  "mine my book is"   I do not have a book  "mine my book is not"   I had a book  "mine my book was"   I did not have a book  "mine my book was not"
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