Grammar 2.2 :

2.2.1 MAKING OF PLURALS. With this lesson we are beginning to make (derive) new declensional case forms from the already given principal parts. We will do this with the nouns and regular pronouns.

2.2.11 NOUN DECLENSIONAL STEMS. We have had (so far) four different patterns of inflections that get attached to the noun bases

THE VOWEL THAT APPEARS IN ALL DATIVE ENDINGS IS CALLED THE DECLENSIONAL STEM VOWEL.

The nouns get labeled according to their steam vowels. Thus zē*ns, zē*nam is classified as a masculine a-stem noun, and meitene, meitenei as a feminine e-stem noun. The stem identification has the utmost importance in making other case forms from the principal parts of the nouns. You'll see this right away in the processes explained below.

2.2.12 THE NOMINATIVE PLURALS OF THE FEMININE NOUNS are made by adding -s to the stem vowel:

2.2.13 THE DATIVE PLURALS OF THE FEMININE NOUNS are made by adding -m to the lengthened stem vowel:

Note that in the dative plural forms before the -m, -a- lengthens to -ā- and -e- to -ē-.

2.2.14 THE NOMINATIVE PLURALS OF THE MASCULINE NOUNS are made by adding -i to the noun base, i.e. by replacing the principal parts suffixes with -i. There are two ways how this is done:

a. The a-stem nouns replace the suffixes in a straightforward fashion:

b. The i-stem nouns, along with the ending replacement, receive a base-end palatalization, through which -l- becomes -ļ-

So far we have only this i-stem noun:

2.2.14 THE DATIVE PLURALS OF THE MASCULINE NOUNS are made by adding -iem to the noun base. Again, the i-stem nouns receive a base-end palatalization:

2.2.16 THE REGULAR PRONOUNS AND NUMERALS HAVE THE SAME SHAPES AS THE a-STEM NOUNS. They make-their plural forms in the patterns described above.

a. The feminine (a-stem) pattern:

And similarly

See 2.2.12 and .13 above

b. The masculine (a-stem) pattern:

And similarly

See 2.2.14 and .15 above.

c. The nominative plural form trīs '3' has no gender marker and is used with nouns of both genders:

The dative forms are:

There is also the dative form trim that can be used with both genders.

2.2.17 THE 1ST AND 2ND PERSON PRONOUNS have the plural shapes of their own; hence, they must be considered not regular, and all their forms should be-learned by heart. See their nominative and dative (plural) forms in the vocabulary.

2.2.18 ADDITIONAL NOTES:

a. In plural, the nominative forms are used for a direct address (there are no special vocative plural forms):

b. The question words kas?, kam?, ko? (like in English who?, whom?, what?) remain the same also in the plural contexts:

c. The principal parts of the regular pronouns and numerals are their nominative singular forms, both masculine and feminine:

Words not used in the singular are entered with the corresponding plural forms as their principal parts:

d. The word draugs 'friend' must be pronounced [drauks]. The ending -s makes the adjoining -g- sound like, [k]. Before a vowel the [g] stays: draugam.

2.2.2 AGREEMENT OF THE MODIFIERS WITH THEIR NOUNS in the number, gender and case is an important feature, of the Latvian phrase structure. It stems from the fact that not only the nouns, but also the pronouns, numerals and adjectives have the declensional suffixes. Note how this agreement works with [NOUN + NUMERAL]:

In this sample both nouns are a-stem, and for this reason the agreement of the declensional suffixes in every phrase was exact even phonologically.

2.2.21 However, NOT ALL NOUNS ARE OF THE a-STEM PATTERN. You must always remember that it is the function of the declensional suffix, not its exact shape, that matters in this type of agreement. Each noun follows its own declensional pattern, but the modifier stays in the a-stem pattern with any type of noun.

The same principles hold when a noun has more than one modifier:

2.2.22 WHEN A NOUN GETS REPLACED WITH A REGULAR PRONOUN, the latter must take on the same number gender and case that the noun would have had:

2.2.23 'COMMON GENDER' RULES. When a pronoun reference is made to both genders collectively, the masculine forms are used to indicate a common gender:

2.2.3 THE SENTENCE STRESS USED FOR EMPHASIS. The main stress lies on the final word of the Latvian sentence. This is the reason why the pronouns and other weakly stressed words avoid the final position. Thus the correct word order is to place the pronoun object before, not after the verb:

2.2.31 The pronoun may, however, be placed in the final position, but then it must be done deliberately for emphasis: Zē*ns atbild man. In this version the pronoun receives the main stress, and the sentence must now be translated as 'It is to me that the boy is answering'.

2.2.32 Since in Latvian the declensional suffixes, not the word order, indicate the syntactic functions, even the sentence subject can be placed in the final position: Man atbild zē*ns. Again, this is an emphatic use of the subject and now the sentence reads: 'It is the boy who is answering me'.

2.2.4 COMPOSITE SENTENCES. The sentences that have just one subject-verb sequence are called simple sentences. When the contents of two simple sentences are somehow related, the two simple sentences can be joined into a single compound sentence. The compounding is often aided by the connectives, such as un 'and', bet 'but' and others.

TWO SIMPLE SENTENCES:
Tu esi mans brālis. Es esmu tava māsa.

INTO ONE COMPOUND SENTENCE:
Tu esi mans brālis, un es esmu tava māsa.
You are my brother, and I am your sister.

2.2.5 CONJUGATION CONTINUED IN PLURAL. In the previous lesson (see GR. 2.1.41) we learned the singular forms of the verbs būt and nebūt:

NOW WE CONTINUE:

2.2.51 NOTE THAT THE THIRD PERSON HAS THE SAME FORMS IN SINGULAR AND PLURAL. This is true of all Latvian verbs in all tenses and conjugations. For this reason we will call the 3rd verb person "THE THIRD COMMON PERSON" and enter it in our conjugation tables only once:

In the future, this will be the sequence of verb persons in all our conjugation tables.

2.2.6 PREFIXED VERBS make their 1st appearance: aiziet 'go away' and atnākt 'come hither'. Literally they mean "away/go" and "hithercome"—formations known in English in a few native verbs like outdo or undergo, and many borrowings from Latin: conform, inform, reform, perform; discount, recount, etc.