Table of noun declension endings

Each Lithuanian consonant (except [j]) has two forms: palatalized and non-palatalized ([bʲ]-[b], [dʲ]-[d], [ɡʲ]-[ɡ] and so on). The consonants preceding vowels [i] and [e] are always moderately palatalized.

The letter i represents either the sound similar to i in the English lit or is a palatalization marker – softens the preceding consonant (ia = like e, iu = ü, io = ö; all samples where i is a softening marker are ia (ią), iu (iū, ių), io). But ie is a diphthong and there are no combinations ię and iė. Other diphthongs are: uo, ai, ei, oi (this one is used only in foreign words; in Lithuanian-derivation it is present when a word kojinė 'sock, stocking' is pronounced shorter as koinė), ui, au (palatalized iuo, iai, iui, iau; there is no iei combination because ei is already soft and same to iai; a combination ie is only a diphthong and in use is succeeded by a consonant).

Feminine nouns ending in -a, and masculine ending in -us have their palatal forms: -ia, -ius (the latter is declined in the first paradigm in its plural). The nominative singular ending -ias (sg. nom.; the first paradigm) alone is a palatal variant of -as, but -ias pattern, differently from -ia, -ius, are not palatalized counterpart for -as (unpalatalized equivalent in sg. nominative) and there is no palatalized counterpart for -as type. The -ias pattern is a type of -ys pattern, its words are declined like -ys words, except sg. nom. -ias and, for some of the words, vocative -iau. There are only a few words of -ias type.

There are two consonants in Lithuanian, d and t, that become respectively dž [dʒ] and č [tʃ] when they precede a palatalization marker i (so, this does not include the softer sounds: i, į, y, ie, ė, e, ę) and they still have to be pronounced softer, like all other consonants preceding the palatalization marker. Examples: masc. sg. nom. svẽčias 'guest', fem. sg. nom. valdžià 'power (on somebody); government', m. sg. nom. skaĩčius 'number'; pavyzdỹs 'example', pãvyzdžio, pãvyzdžiui, pãvyzdį; kėdė̃ 'chair', kėdžių̃ etc. (Compare how T in English is pronounced like "sh" when followed by -ion in words like "station", "revolution", or how "due"/ "dew" and "Jew" are pronounced identically by many English speakers).

• I-st declension. Ending in -as (nom. sg.): rýtas – morning, var̃das – name. Ending in -is: brólis – brother, aũkštis – height. Ending in -ys: pavyzdỹs – example, dagỹs – thistle. Ending in -ias: kẽlias – road, élnias – deer. A word mė́nuo – month, moon, or mė́nesis, which uo ending form is of the V-th declension type, belongs to the first paradigm: nom. sg. mėnuo / mėnesis, gen. sg. mė́nesio etc.
• II. Ending in -a: várna – crow, líepa – linden; July, gijà – thread, ply; palatalized: valià – will, galià – power, pradžià – beginning. Lithuanian vowel o [oː] derives from an older ā [aː]: nom. sg. mótina (mother) < *mātina < *mātinā, gen. sg. mótinos < *mātinās. Ending in -ė: prẽkė – commodity, item, ẽglė – spruce.
• III. Examples: pilìs f – castle, vagìs m – thief. There are many nouns of this paradigm which have -ų in pl. gen.: žąsìs f – žąsų̃ 'goose', naktìs f – naktų̃ 'night', debesìs m – debesų̃ 'cloud'. This declension is very similar to the fifth, except the singular nominative, genitive, instrumental and plural genitive for a part of nouns.
• IV. Ending in -us: sūnùs – son, alùs – beer, rytojus – tomorrow; palatalized: karalius – king, procesorius – processor. The plural forms of the palatalized variant are of the first declension, the same to -is, -ys, -ias.
• V. Nouns of this paradigm has a sg. nom. ending -uo and a suffix -en- in the other cases. Examples: vanduõ – water, akmuõ – stone. Words made with a suffix -m-: duomuõ 'a single item of a data' ← duoti 'to give', skaitmuõ 'digit' ← skaičiuoti 'to count, calculate'. There are two feminine nouns of the fifth declension, sesuõ – sister and duktė̃ – daughter, the second with an irregular ending. A word moteris – woman, having the same suffix as duktė and sesuo is declined in the third declension.

First declension

-as, -is, -ys (masculine)

Note that the -e ending for the vocative singular applies only to common nouns; proper nouns take the ending -ai. So, for example Jonas = 'John' [nominative] and Jonai! = 'John!' [vocative]

Second declension

-a, -ė, -ti (feminine)

Only two nouns end in -i: pati 'wife' and marti 'daughter-in-law'. Their declension is same to the second adjective feminine declension.

The noun pati has the same form as the pronoun pati 'herself; myself (feminine); itself (for feminine nouns)'.

Third declension

-is (masculine and feminine)

The only difference in masculine and feminine nouns of this declension is between the dative singular forms.

Fourth declension

-us, -ius (masculine)

The palatalized variant of this declension has the forms of the first declension.

Fifth declension

-uo (masculine)

There are also two feminine nouns of the fifth declension: sesuo (sister) and duktė (daughter).

Table of adjective declension endings

Pronominal forms

Examples

Shifts in declension

There are few words which are sometimes declined mistakenly in other declensions. But some of the shifts are not rare: a word pats besides sg. gen. paties is often said pačio and these two forms of sg. gen. are equal. Some words have parallel forms from other declensions with a little change in a meaning: dukra, dukros; sesė, sesės; palikuonis, -io, palikuonė, -ės. The forms sesė and dukra are more like unformal, than duktė, -ers and sesuo, -ers. For the word moteris the form motera were existent in dialects, but it is, differently from dukra, sesė cases, only a formal shift of declension without a meaning variation and such word would be perceived as a vernacularism and obsolete.

The forms from the two more declensions sometimes occur in a speech for the masculine words of the fifth declension: of the third and of the first declensions. Similar case is with the masculine words of the third declension – they are sometimes declined in the first declension (because singular nominative is the same). Such a shift is a mistake of declension. For example, a word akmuo, akmens can have the forms (third d.) (sg. nom., sg. gen.) akmenis, akmenies – more like older dialectal not used widely and a little likely to be heard in a speech – and (first d.) akmenis, akmenio; akmenys, akmenio; akmenas, akmeno – sometimes said by the speakers, who don't know the fifth declension well, for example, children. But these variants are possibly also present as dialectal forms. The other examples which are sometimes used by some, but not fit are: rudenio (rudens), šunio (šuns, šunies) etc. Examples of migrants from the third declension (-is, -ies) are, for example, dantis, dančio instead of dantis, danties. Such use like akmenas, akmeno; dančio; šunio; rudenio; is a clear mistake and is not accepted. A case of petys, pečio instead of petys, peties is also a mistake, but petys is the only one -ys (instead of -is) form declined in the third declension and consequentely tends to be declined like all other -ys words (of the first declension).

For the word mėnuo / mėnesis the proper form is sg. gen. mėnesio etc. (sg. gen. mėnesies is known in dialects). The genitive of the word pats is paties, but it is also frequently said pačio. Some of the cases of the word pats are of the third adjectival declension, some – sg. nom. -s (< -is), sg. gen. -ies (also -io, like in respective adjectives) and pl. nom. -ys – of the third noun declension.

Some of the nouns occur in another declensional type only in one case. All these cases are more like dialectal and older. For example, seseris can be said seseria in dialects, but the genitive remains sesers; (older) motė, moters, but also a migrant form: (older) motė, motės. The dialectal and older form sesuva (a type of sesuo), for example, can remain in the original paradigm with sg. gen. sesers or shift to the -a declension: sesuva, sesuvos.

Tables

In the tables below the words from the fifth and the third declensions are compared with the words from the other declensions. Table cells with the correct forms written are coloured (not white). In the right outside column the variant forms within the fifth and third declensions are given. They are older, dialectal and not used or used only in small areas. For example, among the variant forms of singular nominative sesuo within the fifth declension are archaic sesuoj, sesuon, sesuva. The first column is for the words of the fifth (-uo, -ens / -ers) declension and the second for the third (-is, -ies). These declensions are very similar. The words are given in the same column, when the forms are same. The column to the right from these, are for the forms of the first (-as, -is, -ys, -ias) and second (-a (-ia), -ė) declensions; one word, žmogus, is of the fourth in singular.

The proper forms of the word mėnuo / mėnesis is not of the fifth-third declension and the same is with the word žmogus, which historically had the form žmuo. A word judesys – move, is included for comparison with mėnesis (they have the same suffix -es- and are declined in the same declension, except sg. nom. of mėnuo / mėnesis).

Dukra and sesė are variants of duktė, sesuo of a different declension and meaning – dukra and sesė are more like informal.

A word palikuonis has two forms of different declensions: one of the third (original) – palikuonis, and other shifted to the first declension – palikuonis, -io palikuonė, -ės. There are few of -uonis words and only several of them have forms other than the original declension, but in a speech some of them are also sometimes declined in the first declension, for example, geluonis, -ies c – sting, can be understood as geluonis, -io m.

For the -uo words (except mėnuo) and the -is words (like dantis) the shift to the other declensions would be a mistake. When the shift is from the fifth to the third declension it can be understood as minor variation, but the shift to the first declension would be a clear mistake (however, some of the cases are the same, and that is one of the reasons why the shift can occur). But in speech some of the speakers say, for example, rudenio instead of rudens (this can come on dialectal base), dantis, dančio instead of dantis, danties. Besides these cases, there are shifts, which occur commonly in a speech: pačio instead of paties, pečio instead of peties (the original variants are not used less). A word šuo can also be said šuva (one of dialectal variants).

The words rūgštìs f 3 (1) – acid, and rū̃gštis 2 – sourness; acidity, are two words of different declensions, their meanings are different, but related.

a-paradigm

The a-paradigm is used to decline:

• nouns of the first declension
• adjectives of the first declension (masculine forms)
• adjectives of the third declension (masculine forms, palatalized sub-paradigm)
• all pronouns (masculine forms), except the pronoun pats – 'own, self'
• all passive (the main sub-paradigm) or active (the palatalized sub-paradigm) participles (masculine, - active participles have their specific nominatives)
• all ordinal numbers (masculine forms, adjective inflections)
• significant part of cardinal numbers (masculine, see the list below)

The a-paradigm is the most complex declension paradigm in Lithuanian. It has two different sub-paradigms, one of which is the main paradigm. The second sub-paradigm is called "palatalized", which means that the last consonant of the stem before the inflection is always palatalized. Note that in this case the palatalization mark (the letter "i") is marked as a part of the inflection. The a-paradigm is masculine.

Also note that inflection in the a-paradigm is different for nouns, adjectives, and pronouns in some cases. However, not every pronoun's declension uses the inflections from the "pronoun" column in the table below. Some pronouns, as well as every numeral of the a-paradigm, use the inflections from the "adjective" column.

u-paradigm

The u-paradigm is used to decline:

• nouns of the fourth declension
• adjectives of the second declension (their masculine forms)

The u-paradigm has two different sub-paradigms, the main and the palatalized. Note, that in this case the palatalization mark (the letter "i") is marked as a part of the inflection. The u-paradigm is masculine.

Inflections of the u-paradigm differ between nouns and adjectives in some cases.

o-paradigm

The o-paradigm is used to decline:

• part of nouns of the second declension (whose singular nominative ends with -a or -i)
• adjectives of the first declension (their feminine forms)
• adjectives of the second declension (their feminine forms, the palatalized sub-paradigm)
• all pronouns (their feminine forms)
• all passive (the main sub-paradigm) or active (the palatalized sub-paradigm) participles (feminine)
• all ordinal numbers (feminine forms, the main sub-paradigm)
• cardinal numbers from vienuolika - 'eleven', dvylika - 'twelve' to devyniolika - 'nineteen' (in singular)
• (feminine) cardinal numbers, that are used in plural, except a number trys - 'three'.

ė-paradigm

The ė-paradigm is used to decline:

• part of nouns of the second declension (that end with -ė in the singular nominative)
• adjectives of the third declension (their feminine forms)

The words in the table:

• Didelė - 'big', upė - 'river'.

Note, that the inflection of the plural genitive is palatalized (-ių).

i-paradigm

The i-paradigm is used to decline:

• nouns of the third declension, which are mostly feminine (dantis - 'tooth', debesis - 'cloud', vagis - thief and few nouns that end with -uonis in the singular nominative are masculine exceptions)
• nouns of the fifth declension, which are mostly masculine (duktė - 'daughter', sesuo - 'sister' are feminine exceptions)
• pronoun pats - 'own, self' (masculine form)
• number trys - 'three' (has the plural only)

All these words use the unsuffixed sub-paradigm, except the nouns of the first declension, which apply the suffixed sub-paradigm

Dual number

The dual number has its specific inflections, that are similar with plural inflections with some specific differences:

• Nominative, accusative or vocative: masculine words end with -(i)u, feminine with -i
• Genitive and locatives are the same as in the plural.
• Dative has the inflection of the plural dative, but without the final -s, so -(i)ams, -iems, -(i)oms, -ėms, -ims in the plural give -(i)am, -iem, -(i)om, -ėm, -im in the dual respectively
• Instrumental has the same inflections as the dual dative, but they are pronounced in different intonation.

Other features:

• It depends on the paradigm, whether -(i) in the brackets is used or not. The masculine i-paradigm always has -iu as the nominative inflection.

Irregularities:

• A word du - 'two' has three modifications of the stem, d- (in nominative and accusative), dv- (in dative and instrumental) and dviej- (in genitive and locatives)
• Words mudu - 'we (both)', judu - 'you (both)', juodu - 'they (both)' (masculine), jiedvi - 'they (both)' (feminine), as well as šiuodu - 'these (both)', tuodu - 'that (both)', abudu - 'both' and their feminine counterparts have a specific paradigm, based on declension of a word du - 'two' (see an example in the paragraph about pronouns).

Shortened inflections

Inflections, that have two or more syllables, are often shortened in Lithuanian, eliding the final short vowel. Shortened inflections are especially used in the spoken language, while in the written language full inflections are preferred. The elision occur in:

• Singular locative. Inflections -ame, -yje, -oje, -ėje may be shortened to -am, -y(j), -oj, -ėj. Note, that a one-syllable inflection -e of the a-paradigm isn't a subject of the rule.
• Plural instrumental. Feminine inflections -omis, -ėmis, -imis may be shortened to -om, -ėm, -im. These inflections coincide with respective inflections of the dual number.
• Plural dative has one-syllable inflections, but sometimes they are shortened, skipping the final -s, to -am, -iem, -om, -ėm, -im. These inflections coincide with respective inflections of the dual number too.
• Plural locative. A masculine inflections -uose may be shortened to -uos. What however doesn't pertain to inflections -yse, -ose, -ėse, whose shortened variants would coincide with inflections of other cases.

Also there's just one occasion, when the whole one-syllable inflection may be skipped. This may be done with feminine active participles of the past tense (or of the past iterative tense) in the singular nominative. So a word dariusi - 'who was making, who has made' can be said as darius. Note, that this shortened form coincides with the sub-participle of the past tense.

Noun declension inter-linguistic comparison

The declension of Lithuanian nouns of the different declensional patterns are given compared with Latin, Sanskrit, Latvian (in a separate section), Old Prussian, Gothic, Ancient Greek and Russian. Because Old Prussian has left a limited literature with not all the cases of all the stems employed, the Prussian samples are not full in the tables (the cases which existed are most probably already reconstructed from various data by linguists). At the same time there were fewer cases in Prussian than in modern common Lithuanian and mixing the declension patterns was more common, what could develop in a context of a slow decline in the use of Old Prussian, as the Prussians adopted the languages of the others, particularly German. Lithuanian declension varied in dialects.

The first declension. Sg. nom. ends in -as, sg. acc. – in -ą. Latin words of this stem ends in -us in sg. nom., and -um in sg. acc. When these Latin endings succeeded a labial sound, their vowel was originally ŏ: equos – horse, equom; servos – slave, serf, servom. Sg. nom. in Prussian and Gothic is shortened: tavs, dags. Such shortening is present in western and northern Lithuanian dialects: tėvas, -o – father, and tėvs, -o; dagas, -o – heat of the sun (from degti – to burn), and dags, -o. In Prussian there existed only a shortened form, and it developed one step further in a part of the nouns: kaimis / kaimⁱs – village < kaims < kaimas (Lith. kaimas – village, kiemas – yard). There are no neuter nouns in Lithuanian and Latvian, differently from the other given here: Lith. butas – flat, living place, Prus. butan – the same meaning, Lat. aedificium – building. Lithuanian instrumental -u derives from an older -uo, what is seen, for example, in pronominal (definite) adjective forms, pronouns: gerù (nom. sg. gẽras – good) and gerúo-ju (nom. sg. geràsis – that good one), juõ (nom. sg. jis / is – he). Lithuanian diphthong uo corresponds to Latin ō. For dat. sg., an ending -uo is also known in dialects. Lithuanian acc. sg. and gen. pl. are written in the letters with an ogonek: ą and ų. An ogonek indicates that the sound is long. Historically these sounds were nasal: vilką < vilkan, vilkų < vilkun. The form with a sound -n is used in some places in north-west Samogitia today. Latin pl. dat.-abl. -īs corresponds to Ancient Greek pl. dat. -ois and Lithuanian pl. instr. -ais. Lithuanian sg. gen. corresponds to Slavic, for example, Lithuanian: vilko (also dial. vilkā) and Russian во́лка. Prussian sg. loc. was probably -ai, -ei: bītai (adverb) – in the evening, kvei – where;^[1] compare Lith. namiẽ – at home (namè – in the house).

The second declension. Lithuanian and Prussian o denotes a long ō. Narrowed more, it becomes ū. When more open, it is ā; ā was used in Catechisms in Prussian, o – in Elbing vocabulary. The ą, ę correspond to ų, į in dialects of eastern Lithuania and acc. sg. is kalbų (kalbą), gėlį (gėlę) in these dialects. The case of -ų corresponds to Latvian and Slavic languages: nom. sg. liepa (Lith.) – linden, liepa (Latv.), ли́па / lipa (Rus.) and acc. sg. liepą and liepų (Lith.), liepu (Latv.), ли́пу / lipu (Rus.).

Fifth declension. Among variant declensional forms are known: sg. dat. -i, -ie: akmeni, akmenie, seseri, seserie. Sg. gen. akmenes, pl. nom. akmenes, akmens. In a case of Old Prussian emen – name, e is dropped in other than sg. nom. cases (sg. acc. emnin instead of emenin). A drop can similarly occur in other languages, for example: Lith. vanduo – water, sg. gen. variants: vandens, vandenies, vandinies, vandenio, vandinio, vandnio. Gothic wato n – water: pl. forms, for example, nom.-acc. watna.

The third declension.

The fourth declension. Prussian sg. nom. -us is known from Elbing vocabulary, it was shortened to -s in Catechisms. Sg. gen. -us is an innovative form, known from Catechisms, the older form was -aus. A word сынъ is given in Old Slavonic cases.

The second declension, -ė type. Prussian -ē stems became -i in an unaccented position.