Colloquial Lithuanian

The Complete Course for Beginners

Meilute Ramoniere, Ian Press, Meilutė Ramonienė

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138949911
• eBook ISBN: 9781317306153
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

COLLOQUIAL LITHUANIAN is easy to use and completely up to date!

Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, the course offers a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Lithuanian. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

What makes COLLOQUIAL LITHUANIAN your best choice in personal language learning?

• Interactive – lots of exercises for regular practice
• Clear – concise grammar notes
• Practical – useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide
• Complete – including answer key and reference section

By the end of this rewarding course, you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in Lithuanian in a broad range of everyday situations.

Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.

Unit One

Naujas draugas

A new friend

In this unit you will learn about:

• the verb būti ‘to be’
• genders
  personal pronouns
• accent
• saying ‘Hello!’ and ‘Goodbye!’
• asking some basic questions
• asking people where they are from: iš ‘from’ + the genitive case
• present tense verb forms

During the first six or so units we suggest you concentrate on practising the pronunciation of Lithuanian. You will find the recordings extremely useful, since, particularly as regards the nuances of the vowels in Lithuanian, there really is little substitute for actually hearing the words pronounced. Overall we use a standard Lithuanian pronunciation, which you will find extremely useful — a good and confidence-boosting basis on which to build once you hear the wider range of accents which you will meet in Lithuania itself — but the recordings do reflect some of the real variety in Lithuanian pronunciation. Keep referring back to the section on the alphabet and pronunciation in the Guide. For the moment, work through the alphabet and practise pronouncing the individual letters in isolation, in addition to repeating the dialogues in this unit. The vocabulary lists after the various parts of the units are there to give you immediate help — the words and expressions there are provided with minimal grammatical information; full information can be found in the Lithuanian–English glossary, where all the words and expressions are, we hope, listed, and in a good dictionary. Words are very likely to be repeated in these lists throughout the course. Other words in the units will have the accentuation marked, but not normally the accent class. The English–Lithuanian glossary, which also has the full information, is meant to be minimal in its contents, and to help with the exercises where appropriate.

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Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital

Dialogue 1

SusitikimasThe meeting (Audio 1:12)

Bill (Bilas in Lithuanian) is an English student visiting Lithuania for the first time, and upon arrival in the capital city, Vilnius, he meets a Lithuanian student named Aldona.

ALDONA	Laba diena!
BILL	Laba diena!
ALDONA	Aš esu Aldona, studentė. O jūs?
BILL	Aš esu Bilas, aš irgi esu studentas.
ALDONA	Labai malonu.

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ALDONA	Hello!
BILL	Hello!
ALDONA	I am Aldona, (I’m) a student. And (how about) you?
BILL	I am Bill, (I’m) also a student.
ALDONA	Very pleased (to meet you).

Listen carefully to the recording. Try to imitate it as closely as possible, paying particular attention to the vowels.

Note that in the reference section and in the glossaries accentual information is given. See the reference section for a survey of the Lithuanian accentual system (not every word and e...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• A guide to the alphabet and pronunciation
• 1 Naujas draugas: A new friend
• 2 Ar tu kalbi lietuviškai?: Do you speak Lithuanian?
• 3 Atsiprašau, kaip nueiti į …?: Excuse me, how do I get to …?
• 4 Kvietimas į svečius: Inviting someone to come on a visit
• 5 Svečiuose: On a visit
• 6 Pasivaikščiojimas po Vilnių: A walk around Vilnius
• 7 Pakeliaukime po Lietuvą: Let’s travel around Lithuania
• 8 Teatre: At the theatre
• 9 Skanaus!: Bon appétit!
• 10 Koks oras Lietuvoje?: What’s the weather like in Lithuania?
• 11 Geros sveikatos!: The best of health!
• 12 Reikia pasipuošti: Got to get smartly dressed
• 13 Pietūs restorane: Dinner in a restaurant
• 14 Važiuojame į pajūrį: We go to the seaside
• 15 Kaime: In the countryside
• 16 Gamta, sportas, televizija: Nature, sport, and television
• Reference section
• Key to the exercises
• Lithuanian–English glossary
• English–Lithuanian glossary
• Index