|
| Category |
Typical
formal contrasts |
Typical
meanings conveyed |
Examples |
| aspect |
perfect |
completeness |
j'ai
chanté |
| (verbs) |
imperfect |
habituality |
je chantais |
|
|
duration |
I used
to sing |
|
|
continuousness |
I often
(always) sang |
|
|
progressiveness |
|
|
|
|
|
| case |
nominative |
subject |
|
| (nouns,
pronouns, adjectives) |
dative |
motion
towards |
to town |
|
accusative |
object |
|
|
genitive |
possession |
boy's,
girl's |
|
vocative |
being
addressed |
oh moon...! |
|
|
|
|
| gender |
masculine |
male |
el muchacho |
| (nouns,
verbs, etc.) |
feminine |
female |
la muchacha |
|
neuter |
sexless |
das
Ende |
|
animate |
living |
|
|
inanimate |
non-living |
|
|
|
|
|
| mood |
indicative |
factuality |
I am |
| (verbs) |
subjunctive |
possibility,
uncertainty |
I may
be |
|
imperative |
commands |
Go! |
|
optative |
wishing |
I wish
I were |
|
conditional |
on condition
that |
if I
were |
|
|
|
|
| number |
singular |
one |
a car |
| (nouns,
etc.) |
dual |
two |
oulua
(you two) Samoan |
|
trial |
three |
|
|
plural |
more
than one, two, or three |
cars |
|
|
|
|
| person |
1st
person |
speaker |
I love/we
love |
| (pronouns,
etc.) |
2nd
person |
addressee |
you
love/you (pl.) love |
|
3rd
person |
third
party |
s/he
loves/they love |
|
4th
person |
fourth
party |
|
|
|
|
|
| tense |
present |
|
we walk,
we're walking |
| (verbs) |
past |
|
we walked,
we did walk, we have walked |
|
future |
|
we will
walk, we're going to walk |
|
conditional |
|
we would
walk |
|
|
|
|
| voice |
active |
who
did the action |
they
teach |
| (verbs) |
passive |
what
was acted upon |
they
were taught |
|
middle |
|
I got
myself taught (Classical Greek) 'didaskomai' |
|
causative |
what
caused action |
he caused
to kill (Tigrinya) ?agtale |
|
