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Table of Contents
Verb forms in various languages and in DZ Interset
This is not a complete list of verbal tenses found in all languages. It focuses on tenses that are expressed synthetically, i.e. using affixes in one word (as opposed to analytical expression, using combination of a main verb and an auxiliary verb). Morphological / part-of-speech tags usually only need to distinguish synthetical verb forms.
- infinitive
- finite verb
- indicative
- future
- present
- past
- aorist
- imperfect
- perfect
- pluperfect
- imperative
- subjunctive
- jussive
- participle
- present
- past
- passive
- transgressive
- gerund
- supine
| Arabic | imperfect verb, perfect verb; mood: indicative, subjunctive, subjunctive/jussive; voice: passive; infinitive |
| Bulgarian | nonpersonal verb (has 3rd person only), perfective vs. imperfective verb, auxiliary verb; transitive vs. intransitive verb; mood: indicative, imperative, subjunctive; tense: present, past, aorist, imperfect; participle, transgressive; voice: active, passive |
| Czech | infinitive, indicative (present, future), imperative, subjunctive, active past participle, passive participle |
| Danish | main verb, medial verb (deponent, reciprocal), mood: gerund, imperative, indicative, infinitive, participle; tense: past, present; voice: active, passive |
| English | modal verb, main verb; base form (infinitive but without “to”), gerund/present participle, past participle, non 3rd person singular present, 3rd person singular present |
| German | auxiliary verb, modal verb, main verb; finite (indicative), imperative, infinitive, infinitive with “zu”, perfect participle |
| Portuguese | infinitive, indicative, imperative, subjunctive, conditional, present, past, pluperfect |
| Swedish | indicative, imperative, subjunctive, infinitive; present, past, supine; active, passive |
Infinitive
Usually considered base form of the verb, appears in dictionaries. In text it appears as part of analytical verb forms and as argument of other words:
- future tense: bude dělat, er wird kommen
- argument of modal verb: musí dělat, er muss machen, he must do
- argument of some other verbs, subordinating conjunctions etc.: potřebuje odejít, er kommt um das zu beenden, he let us to do it, his intention to finish this
In some languages infinitive is marked by verb affixes:
- Czech infinitive ends in -t, -ti, -ct, -ci: dělat, dělati, říct, říci
- German infinitive ends in -en: machen, sagen
In some languages, the morpheme marking infinitive is separate word (English to). In English, the base form of the verb is not (full) infinitive. It becomes infinitive when combined with the infinitive mark (to do, to say). Without the mark, it can be used (in English) as imperative.
Both approaches can be combined. Although infinitives are recognizable by the -en suffix in German, the infinitive mark zu is used with infinitives in some contexts. Depending on the verb, zu is either a separate word, or a morpheme inserted between the verb prefix and stem (zu beenden vs. anzupassen).
- English infinitive mark is to
- German infinitive mark is zu
- Danish infinitive mark is at
- Swedish infinitive mark is att
In DZ Interset, infinitive is decoded as verbform = inf. Mood, tense and voice are usually empty. Czech infinitives set the feature negativeness. Portuguese infinitives can be mildly conjugated. I think I may have seen active/passive infinitives but I am not sure where.
Finite
Finite verb forms are those most frequently used. They are classified according to mood: the most ordinary mood is indicative, most languages also have imperative, some also have subjunctive and jussive.
Opposed to finite verbs are non-finite verb forms, namely infinitive, supine, participle, transgressive and gerund.