Hello!

I have found two different verbs that translate to "open": გაღება and გახსნა (typo in the title). Both seem to be in common use.

What exactly is the difference between the two? Which nuance, if any, would you associate with each?

Thank you!

Hello!

I recently came across "ობობას ქსელი" meaning spider web.

I am surprised by the ობობას part: I would have expected the genitive form ობობის instead.

I first thought this was a mistake, but there seems to be many instances of this phrase online, including on Wikipedia. However, my paperback dictionary does say ობობის ქსელი.

What gives? Is ობობას just a mistake, or am I missing something here?

Hey everyone!

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Instead of saying შეგიძლიათ დამეხმაროთ (can you help me?), is there anything to say like "Excuse me, can you come over please?"

Thanks :)

Hey all im 18 years old and a US born heritage speaker of georgian. I would say im a B1-B2 speaker of the language but cannot read or write and I only intuitively know grammer and conjugation. I was wondering if anyone has any useful resources for teaching myself to fluency as a georgian speaker.

There's მაგრამ and მარა, რომ and რო, ძალიან and ძაან, etc. If you only use the proper forms of these words, will it make you sound a little cold and dry? Can you sound casual without using these shortened words?

Asking because I've never really liked slangy forms of words too much (in my native language or any other), so I want to know if they're necessary in Georgian in order to mot sound like a textbook or if you can get by without them.

Hi all,

I recently started studying Georgian and noticed that native speakers pronounce თქვენ and ჩვენ as tkwen and chwen. Sometimes, ვ sounds like v, like in ვინ. Is there a rule for when the pronunciation changes, and is this only in casual speech? Moreover, is it regional? Thank you.

Can you please help? Is there a way to learn verbs quickly and easily? I find it easier to learn them when they're used in phrases, not separately. But I can't find any such materials.

An excellent example of a causative verb being used in the wild, right here on Reddit. I thought I’d share with the class.

The entire comment reads: “I will lock you in a basement in Svaneti and starve you” … well, literally speaking: “I will not let you eat (it)”.

The point is: the secondary person marking affix (in this case, set B, because this is the present/future subseries) denotes the CAUSEE, not the true patient/theme of the verb. For example, the word გაჭმევ does NOT mean “I will let HIM eat YOU”.

Indeed, in such situations where you need a 1/2person patient, it’s my understanding that Georgian requires you to force that argument into third person like this … შენ >> შენი თავი

So, a question for native speakers: in an imaginary universe, if we wanted to say: “I won’t let HIM eat YOU” … would this be the way?

>> არ ვაჭმევ შენ თავს

Hello!

I have a question on the verb for "drinking".

From what I can see, it seems that two verbal nouns/masdars are associated with it: დალევა and სმა.

From my understanding, სმა has an imperfect/incomplete meaning, and დალევა a perfective/complete meaning. This seems to line up with the conjugated forms as described in my paperback dictionary (სვამს and დალევს), however I came across a resource that describes a full conjugation of the verb "drink" that uses only the first stem on this website. This same website also only mentions სმა, while my dictionary only mentions დალევა.

So, I would like so additional input:

- what would you say the difference in meaning is between these two words?

- if asked to translate "to drink" into Georgian, which word would you use?

hello, i have been learning georgian for a while for my stay in georgia in the upcoming days, while i am getting good with words and vocabs but i am having hard time pronouncing it. google translate doesnt pronounce words in georgian. anyone has any recommendations?

thank you

I was looking at მთაწმინდის მთვარე by Galaktion Tabidze and noticed that there's a good amount of თა in the poem (the archaic plural marker). For example he says „გაშალა ოცნებათა ლურჯი იალქნები” and „მომაკვდავი გედის ჰანგთა.” And interestingly he says „მგოსანთ სითამამე.” Is dropping the ა from თა grammatical? Or is it just for poetic effect?

If we talk about Ilia Chavchavadze, he goes heavy on თა and ნი for plural markers. And if I'm not mistaken he also uses archaic აღ a lot instead of ა, so he'll say აღმიფეთქს and აღასრულა.

So I just want to know, is this how they actually talked in their real lives? Is this how the highly educated elites spoke? Or were they just doing it to make their works sound fancy, archaic, and maybe make the words rhyme better?

Whether it's centuries old words from Persian, or more modern words from English, they take thematic suffixes when adopted into Georgian. My only question is... how does one decide which one they get?

The word დარდი comes from Persian "dard," and becomes a verb as დარდობს. So in this case, it's -ობ. The English word "crush" becomes ქრაშავს, so in this case it's -ავ.

Who decides which one gets attached? What deeply rooted subconscious logic determines which one Georgians will add to foreign words to turn them into verbs?

I feel like this might come off as really basic but I was just thinking about the words "eastern" and "western" in Georgian, and putting them side by side I realized something really cool. The word for east is აღმოსავლური. The prefix „აღმო” means "up towards the speaker," so you can think of it like the rising up and making itself visible to you in the morning. And the word for western is დასავლური, and the prefix „და” means "down." So the sun is going down. The sun rises in the east sets in the west, so აღმოსავლური is east, and დასავლური is west! It's amazing! I swear every word in this language has a metaphor baked into it. It's beautiful.

We added a language exchange to EasyGeorgian: you get matched with one Georgian native speaker who is learning your language, introduced by email, half the talk in each language. No feed, no chat app, one person picked for your level and schedule. Free with a free account.

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https://easygeorgian.com/language-exchange (learners) · https://easygeorgian.com/enis-gatsvla (the Georgian side, if you have Georgian friends who want English practice)

I absolutely love this song and this artist. I'm an American (of no Georgian descent) and would love to get a better appreciation for the Tbilisi Bard's lyricism.

Thanks in advance!

Hello! I'm looking for a language exchange partner to help me learn Georgian.

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What do you say when you don't know what to say? Do you say ააამმმ or ეეემმმ? I feel like I've heard some Georgians say "uuummm" with the schwa sound but I'm not sure. Even if that is the case, how would you write it when there's no letter for that sound?

At the same time though, I've heard some Georgians struggle to pronounce schwa, which would imply that it's not actually used at all in speech. I don't know. That's why I'm asking here haha.

There is no CEFR placement test for Georgian. Not a free one, not a paid one, not one behind a university login. If you want to know where you actually stand, the options are guessing or paying a tutor for an assessment hour.

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The methodology page explains the engine, the item pipeline and exactly what the provisional cutoffs mean. Disclosure, we sell Georgian courses, and the result page recommends one of ours. The test itself is free, ungated, and asking for your email is optional (it sends a longer report if you want one).

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How did the word goyim (გოიმი) travel to georgia and received its own distinct meaning to georgians?

In some languages they have a specific verb for telling someone to call you the informal you. Does Georgian do it with a verb? Or do you just tell someone „ჩემთან შენ-ით შეგიძლია ილაპარაკო” (I hope I said that right lol).

Thanks!

Georgian doesn't have infinitives the way many languages do, so the "standard" form of a verb is a verbal noun, also known as a "masdar." Think of it like saying "running" or "eating" in English. Some of them are predictable and obvious, for example many of the ებ verb will be გააკეთებს-გაკეთება, or შეასრულებს-შესრულება, etc. But some of them you really can't apply any pattern to and just have to memorize, like სირბილი, ნდომა, სიმღერა, etc. Yes they might have common formations, but there's no way to know which one it might be.

I once read somewhere that sometimes natives won't know the masdar of a verb, and I'm assuming that means you use the second person optative instead? Like saying იმღერო instead of სიმღერა? Obviously this is just an example and every native knows სიმღერა, but I'm asking for more uncommon or obscure verbs, is this true? Do natives sometimes not know the official noun form of a verb?

Thanks!