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  • Unit 1
  • Unit 2
  • Unit 3
  • Unit 4
  • Unit 5
  • Unit 6
  • Unit 7
  • Unit 8
  • Unit 9
  • Unit 10
  • Unit 11
  • Unit 12
  • Unit 13
  • Unit 14
  • Unit 15
  • Unit 16
  • Unit 17
  • Unit 18
• Nouns
  • Pure A-Stems
  • Pure A-Stem Plurals
  • Masculine JA-Stems
  • Neuter JA-Stems
  • WA-Stems
  • Feminine Ō-Stems
  • JŌ-Stems; Decl. of Thousand
  • Masculine I-Stems
  • Feminine I-Stems
  • Irregular I-Stems
  • U-Stems
  • N-Stems
  • Minor Declensions
  • Personal Pronouns
  • Reflexive Pronoun
  • WH Pronouns
  • Relative Pronouns
  • Demonstrative Pronouns
  • Posessive Pronouns
  • Indefinite Pronouns
  • Negative Indef. Pronouns
  • Paradigm Tables
• Verbs
  • Present Personal Endings
  • Preterite of Strong Verbs
  • Preterite, Consonant Changes
  • Ablaut Table
  • Principal Parts of Strong Verbs
  • "To Be", Present Tense
  • "To Be", Preterite Tense
  • "To Will", Conjugation
  • Reduplicated Preterites
  • Class I Weak Verbs
  • Irregular Weak Verbs I
  • Class II Weak Verbs
  • Class III Weak Verbs
  • Class IV Weak Verbs
  • Preterite-Presents
  • Auxiliary Verbs
  • Passive Voice
  • Imperative
  • Subjunctive
  • Participles
  • Verbs Governing the Genitive
  • Verbs Governing the Dative
  • Verbs with Feeling
• Adjectives
  • Strong A-Stems
  • Strong JA-Stems
  • Strong WA-Stems
  • Strong I-Stems
  • Cardinals 1 to 10
  • Cardinals Beyond 10
  • Declension of Two and Three
  • Weak Declension
  • Gender of Groups of People
  • Ordinals
  • Comparatives
  • Superlatives
  • Adverbs
  • Adverb Compar. and Superl.
  • Participles
  • Adjectives Governing the Genitive
  • Adjectives Governing the Dative
• Misc
  • Prepositions
  • Conjunctions
  • Questions: Yes/No
  • Questions: WH
  • Cardinals 1 to 10
  • Cardinals Beyond 10
  • Months, Days of Week
  • Colors
  • Other Uses of Accusative
  • Other Uses of Genitive
  • Other Uses of Dative
  • Compound Formations
  • Prefixes
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Unit 6

6.1) Numbers Beyond Ten

Gothic numbers beyond 10 are formed in various ways. Not all numbers are attested.

6.2) JŌ-Stem Nouns and Declension of þūsundi

From the above table, it is clear that þūsundi is a noun with a j in the stem. In fact, it is a long-stem -jō feminine noun, which declines like the pure ō-stems such as giba, but with the nominative singular ending -i. Other feminine nouns of this declesion include bandi (band): bandi, bandja, bandjōs, bandjái , pl. bandjōs , etc; and nouns declined like bandi such as:

With this in mind, the datives of two more numbers are attested:

6.3) Declension of Twái and Þreis

The number twái (fem. twōs, neut. twa) has its own declension, probably partially left over from an earlier dual number of adjectives:

Whereas þreis is declined like so:

6.4) Preterite Tense

Gothic verbs form their past tenses in different ways. Just as in English we have "strong" verbs like give, gave, given and "weak" verbs like live, lived, lived, Gothic does too.

The past tenses in Gothic (including the perfect) are expressed by the preterite. For example, while the present tense "I see" is expressed as saíƕa (from the verb saíƕan, to see), the preterite is saƕ. This can mean I saw, I have seen, or I had seen. The full set of preterite endings, with pronouns for clarity, is:

Note the stem of the preterite singular differs from the stem of the preterite dual/plural. This happens here because saíƕan is a strong verb and strong verbs in Gothic have separate preterite singular and preterite non-singular stems.

6.5) Consonant Changes in the Preterite

Preterites of verbs whose stems end in b or d change b to f and d to þ, as in gaf (gave), from giban (to give); baþ (bade) from biudan (to bid).

The -t ending of the 2nd person singular causes certain consonants at the ends of stems to change. Stem p, b change to f, while stem t, d, or þ changes to s:

6.6) Example Conjugations

To cite a verb's conjugation, we have to know the infinitive stem, the preterite singular stem, the preterite plural stem, and the past participle stem. It is helpful to memorize each verb in all four principal parts. Here are conjugations for a few useful verbs:

Only six different conjugations (called classes) are represented in the above table. Altogether there are seven classes of strong verbs, numbered Class I thru Class VII. Some of the classes contain verbs that seem to differ from each other in cerain tenses. For example, skeinan is a Class I verb, and so is leiƕan (to lend). But the preterite plural of leiƕan is not **liƕum but laíƕum. Any time we would expect a short i before h, ƕ, or r, it changes to aí, and likewise short u changes to aú. Therefore the preterite plural of tiuhan (to lead), a Class II verb like liudan, is taúhum. Here are the full 4 parts for comparison:

6.7) Examples of Material from This Unit

Answers

6. You said that they awoke in the morning.

7. We ate and drank with the king.

8. He was sick but now he is healthy.

9. I saw that she became strong.

10. You (thou) threw a stone at the birds in the field.

Answers

11. Ni áiw saiis in þamma akra.

12. Ni saƕ aljata faírguni.

13. Ni qaþ twái waúrda du þamma láisarja.

14. Fōr du þizái kaldōn fērái jah nu siuka.

15. Sō þiudangardi ist fulgina nēƕa twáim faírgunjam.

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