The Indicative Mood
The Indicative Mood
The Indicative Mood
In the indicative mood, there are 8 tenses: there is one present tense, there are 5 past tenses, and 2
future tenses. Of the above 8 tenses, 4 are simple, and 4 are 'compound' -- there are 3 compound
past tenses and 1 compound future tense. The compound tenses are created with the help of the
modal verb 'kam'.
1. Koha e tashme of Albanian corresponds to the 'present' and 'present continuous' tenses of
English. When po is placed in front of an Albanian verb that is in the present tense, the 'present
continuous' is the English tense that better reflects the meaning. Examples:
The sentence
is translated in English as
I don't speak Albanian.
However,
I am not speaking Albanian.
As you see, the difference between 'to be' and 'to have' is that one has a 'j' and the other has a 'k'
instead. ('është' is another difference, but 'është' is probably a loan-word from Latin.)
Koha e pakryer.
This is the imperfect tense of Albanian. This tense is used for incompleted or habitual actions in
the past. Examples:
The sentence
is translated in English as
As you see, the difference between the imperfect tenses of 'to be' and 'to have' is that 'to have' has
a 'k' more than 'to be'.
Koha e kryer e thjeshtë. This is the 'simple perfect' tense of Albanian. This tense is used for
actions that have been completed in the past.
Examples:
The sentence
is translated in English as
Examples:
The sentence
is translated in English as
Koha më se e kryer. This is a compound tense. It is formed by adding the imperfect ('e pakryer')
tense of 'kam' to the past participle of a verb. This tense is used for actions that had been
completed in the past.
Examples:
The sentence
is translated in English as
I had read 2 chapters.
Koha e kryer e tejshkuar. This is a compound tense as well. It is formed by adding the 'simple
perfect' tense of 'kam' to the past participle of a verb. This tense is used for actions that had been
completed in the past.
Examples:
The sentence
is translated in English as
3. The future tenses. These are koha e ardhme (the simple future tense), and koha e ardhme e
përparme (the compound future tense).
Koha e ardhme.
This is very similar to the future tense of English. It is formed by putting 'do të' (or less formally
simply 'do') before a verb. Examples:
The sentence
is translated in English as
or
The sentence
is translated in English as
June 8, 2003.