Verbs

Ruritanian verbs are conjugated for person, number, and tense; they also have infinitive, imperative, and participle forms. The citation form of every verb is the infinitive, which ends in -ir: faquir “do”, caufir “buy”, savir “know”.

Verb forms

Present tense

The present tense is a simple conjugation, with six endings.

	1st	2nd	3rd
Sing	-o	-es	-e
Pl	-em	-et	-en

Thus, the present tense forms of savir “know” are:

	1st	2nd	3rd
Sing	savo	sáves	save
Pl	sávem	sávet	sáven

The stress in the present tense stays on the root; thus, forms whose endings contain a consonant require an accent mark over the root.

Verbs whose roots end in /k/ or /g/ alternate their spelling based on the ending, but the underlying phoneme remains the same:

faquir “do”
	1st	2nd	3rd
Sing	faco	fáques	faque
Pl	fáquem	fáquet	fáquen

This holds true throughout the various tenses and conjugations. There are a few exceptions, which are considered irregular and are marked in the dictionary (the most common irregular verbs are discussed below).

Past tense

The past tense is likewise a simple conjugation. A past tense suffix, -ta or a variation thereon, is attached to the regular present tense suffix; the stress is shifted to the penultimate syllable.

	1st	2nd	3rd
Sing	-ota	-esta	-eta
Pl	-empta	-etza	-enta

For example, the past tense forms of savir are:

	1st	2nd	3rd
Sing	savota	savesta	saveta
Pl	savempta	savetza	saventa

Future tense

Unlike the past and present, the future tense is not a simple form; rather, it is constructed with the modal vilir. This word is conjugated using the regular present tense conjugations, and the main verb appears in its infinitive form at the end of the clause or sentence.

• Ya caufota uni narangi “I bought some oranges”
• Ya caufo uni narangi “I’m buying some oranges” or “I buy oranges”
• Ya vilo uni narangi caufir “I will buy some oranges”

In contrast to English, however, the future is also consistently used with “if” statements when talking about events that haven’t happened yet: se moreta el “if he died [already; recently; in the past]”, but se vile el morir “if he dies”, literally “if he will die”.

Imperative

The imperative is used to give commands or requests. The second-person forms are used to tell the listener(s) to do something; the singular form -a is used when addressing one person, and the plural -i when addressing two or more people. The first person plural form -enos is used to declare that both the speaker and the listener(s) should do something; it is essentially the same as the English construction “let’s [do something]”. The stress in all imperative forms remains on the root.

• lega lo libro “read the book” (addressed to one person)
• legui lo libro “read the book” (addressed to multiple people)
• léguenos lo libro “let’s read the book”

Though it is never required, a subject can be stated along with an imperative either for emphasis or for clarity (e.g. specifying which of several possible listeners you are referring to). If the subject is a pronoun, or a group of pronouns, it immediately follows the verb (e.g. feci tu i ela lo cano “you and her, fetch the dog”); if it is a noun phrase, or a combination of noun and pronouns, it immediately precedes the verb and is set off with a comma (e.g. tu i Mariya, esciangi dati cladi smutzi “you and Mariya, change those dirty clothes”).

Gerund

Verbs also have gerund forms that are used as nouns. English typically uses constructions like “to see” or “seeing”; the Ruritanian practice is to suffix the infinitive with -o, turning the verb into a masculine noun: lo vidiro est lo crediro “seeing is believing”.

If the verb is modified by an adverb that itself is derived from an adjective (whether through -e or -amente; see below), the adverb is converted back into an adjective and agrees with the noun: nos vívem bone “we live well”; lo viviro bono “to live well, living well”.

Participles

Participles are special forms of verbs that function grammatically as adjectives, although they have significant use in verbal constructions as well.

Past participle

Past participles are formed with the suffix -ato, which declines like any other adjective to agree with the noun. When used attributively, its meaning is passive: las blumas aquatas “the watered flowers” means the flowers have been watered.

The past participle can be used in conjunction with the verb havir “have” (irregular; see below) to form the perfect aspect; when used in this fashion, the participle (which agrees with the subject) appears at the end of the sentence: ela ha lo libro scion legata “she has already read the book”. Havir can be in the past tense to form the past perfect: ven vaquempta nos, dan hadenta eli scion exgangati “when we woke up, they had already left”. It can also be combined with the future: se vílem nos tarde exir, dan vílen eli scion etati havir ven vílem nos der venir “if we leave late, they will already have eaten when we get there”.

The other major function of past participles is forming passive sentences. This construction uses the verb estir “be” (which is also irregular; see below). As with the perfect, the participle in this construction is moved to the end: la casa est lesata “the house is (being) rented out”. It can be combined with other modals and constructions: multi libri vílen regarde lea scrivati estir “many books will be written about her”; la monta ha nive montata stata “the mountain has never been climbed”. The preposition por is used to form attributions: esta torta vere por Zelda bacata “this cake was baked by Zelda”; as a corollary, attributions of authorship, such as on book covers, use the preposition por as well.

Present participle

The present participle is formed with the suffix -indo (which, again, must agree with the subject in gender and number). Its primary use is as an attributive adjective, generally corresponding to the -ing form in English: lo andro dansindo “the dancing man”.

When paired with estir, the present participle indicates the progressive aspect. However, this is encountered far less often than in English. It is generally used only when emphasizing the immediacy or temporariness of a state or action. The sentence “I’m reading the book” is normally rendered with the simple present: ya lego lo libro. However, if the speaker is responding to someone telling them to read the book they're already reading, they might respond with an exasperated ya sum lo libro leguindo! Similarly, the sentence “I live here” is normally ya vono her. But the progressive construction can be used to emphasize that the living situation is temporary: ya sum her voninda sole vaile studio ya bi la universida “I’m only living here while I study at the university.”

Full conjugation

Here is the full conjugation of a verb, illustrated with caufir “buy”:

• Infinitive: caufir
• Present tense: caufo, cáufes caufe; cáufem, cáufet, cáufen
• Past tense: caufota, caufesta, caufeta; caufempta, caufetza, caufenta
• Imperative: caufa, caufi, cáufenos
• Gerund: caufiro (caufiri)
• Past participle: caufato (caufata, caufati, caufatas)
• Present participle: caufindo (caufinda, caufindi, caufindas)

Irregular verbs

Several common Ruritanian verbs are irregular; that is, some of their conjugation patterns don’t conform to the basic rules described above. They will be described here. Irregular portions of the conjugations will be highlighted in yellow to show the patterns within each verb paradigm.

Estir “be”

Estir “be” is by far the most commonly used irregular verb in the Ruritanian language; indeed, it is the most common verb at all. It is also highly irregular. Its full conjugation is as follows:

• Infinitive: estir
• Present tense: sum, es, est; somo, este, sono
• Past tense: vero, véres, vere; vérem, véret, véren
• Imperative: sta, sti, stos
• Gerund: estiro (estiri)
• Past participle: stato (stata, stati, statas)
• Present participle: sindo (sinda, sindi, sindas)

There are some patterns to the irregularities. The past tense conjugates as though it were the present tense of a verb *verir, while the past participle and most of the imperative forms are simply the “expected” regular forms with the initial e removed. Still, irregularities abound, particularly in the very frequently used present tense, and the entire paradigm must simply be memorized.

Donir “give”

The present tense and imperative conjugations of donir drop the -on-, in essence functioning as though it were a verb whose stem was simply d-.

• Infinitive: donir
• Present tense: do, des, de; dem, det, den
• Past tense: donota, donesta, doneta; donempta, donetza, donenta
• Imperative: da, di, dénos
• Gerund: doniro (doniri)
• Past participle: donato (donata, donati, donatas)
• Present participle: donindo (doninda, donindi, donindas)

Saguir “say, tell”

In the past and present tenses only, the /g/ becomes /dʒ/ before /e/ or /i/.

• Infinitive: saguir
• Present tense: sago, ságes, sage; ságem, ságet, ságen
• Past tense: sagota, sagesta, sageta; sagempta, sagetza, sagenta
• Imperative: saga, sagui, ságuenos
• Gerund: saguiro (saguiri)
• Past participle: sagato (sagata, sagati, sagatas)
• Present participle: saguindo (saguinda, saguindi, saguindas)

Ir “go, walk”; exir “leave, depart”

The verb ir essentially has three different forms throughout its conjugation. The infinitive, imperative, and gerund are based around ir (or arguably *irir for the imperative). The present tense and participle are conjugated as though the verb were *vayir. And the past tense and participle are conjugated as *ganguir. The verb exir “leave, depart” conjugates identically to ir but with the prefix ex-: ya exvayo, ya exgangota, etc.

• Infinitive: ir
• Present tense: vayo, váyes, vaye; váyem, váyet, váyen
• Past tense: gangota, ganguesta, gangueta; ganguempta, ganguetza, ganguenta
• Imperative: ira, iri,írenos
• Gerund: iro (iri)
• Past participle: gangato (gangata, gangati, gangatas)
• Present participle: vayindo (vayinda, vayindi, vayindas)

Havir “have”

The first- and third-person singular present forms are both ha rather than the expected *havo, *have. The past tense and past participle forms are built on the root *had-, and even here there are irregularities in the singular forms.

• Infinitive: havir
• Present tense: ha, has, ha; hávem, hávet, háven
• Past tense: hata, hasta, hata; hadempta, hadetza, hadenta
• Imperative: hava, havi, hávenos
• Gerund: haviro (haviri)
• Past participle: hadato (hadata, hadati, hadatas)
• Present participle: havindo (havinda, havindi, havindas)

Nimir “take”

The past tense and past participle forms are built on the root *nam-.

• Infinitive: nimir
• Present tense: nimo, nímes, nime; nímem, nímet, nímen
• Past tense: namota, namesta, nameta; namempta, nametza, namenta
• Imperative: nima, nimi, nímenos
• Gerund: nimiro (nimiri)
• Past participle: namato (namata, namati, namatas)
• Present participle: nimindo (niminda, nimindi, nimindas)

Adverbs

Adverbs that modify verbs typically follow the verb (although adverbs of time, e.g. “yesterday”, follow the direct and/or indirect objects if any). Adverbs can instead come immediately before the verb, in which case the subject must immediately follow the verb (see the chapter on syntax for more information). If a different word precedes the verb and the subject immediately follows, the adverb immediately follows the subject. If the main verb is at the end of the clause because of a modal, the adverb immediately precedes the main verb.

Adverbs can be formed from almost any adjective by attaching the suffix -mente to the feminine singular form of the adjective: corecto “correct”, corectamente “correctly”; stumpo “dull, blunt”, stumpamente “dully, bluntly”.

Some adjectives have corresponding adverbs that simply replace the adjective ending with -e: bono “good”, bone “well”. While there are a large number of these adverbs, this process is not productive; no new adjectives can be created by this method.

Comparatives and superlatives of adverbs are constructed similarly to those of adjectives, using the adverbs magiore, maxime, minore, minime. For example:

• ya coro alegramente “I run fast”
• tu córes alegramente magiore “you run faster”
• ela core alegramente maxime “she runs the fastest”
• eli córen alegramente minore “they run less fast”, i.e. “they don’t run as fast”
• el core alegramente minime “he runs the least fast”

Similarly, the comparative and superlative forms of bone and male are the suppletives betre, beste, varse, and varste.