People, gender and being

A pronoun is a word for a person: es, I; tu, familiar you; viņš/viņa, he/she; mēs, we; jūs, polite or plural you; viņi/viņas, they. Singular means one; plural means more than one. The subject is the person or thing the sentence talks about.

The present tense of būt, to be, is esmu, esi, ir, esam, esat, ir. Third-person singular and plural share ir. Negation means saying no: neesmu, neesi, nav, neesam, neesat, nav.

Gender is the masculine or feminine class of a noun. An adjective describes a noun and agrees with it: jauns kaimiņš, masculine, and jauna kaimiņiene, feminine. The nominative is the subject or basic form; a case is a form showing a noun’s role. Possessives agree with the owned noun: mans kaķis, mana māja. To call someone, use the vocative: Muris → Muri!. Polite jūs uses a plural verb, but a single learner’s describing word stays singular and matches that learner’s gender.

• Es esmu kaimiņš.I am a neighbour.

  Es esmu kaimiņiene.I am a neighbour.

• Tu esi kaimiņš.You are a neighbour, familiar.

  Tu esi kaimiņiene.You are a neighbour, familiar.

• Viņš ir kaimiņš.He is a neighbour.

• Mēs esam kaimiņi.We are neighbours.

• Jūs esat kaimiņš.You are a neighbour, polite.

  Jūs esat kaimiņiene.You are a neighbour, polite.

• Viņi ir kaimiņi.They are neighbours.

• Es neesmu kaimiņš.I am not a neighbour.

  Es neesmu kaimiņiene.I am not a neighbour.

• Jūs neesat kaimiņš.You are not a neighbour, polite.

  Jūs neesat kaimiņiene.You are not a neighbour, polite.

The scene asks about the expected newcomer with jaunais kaimiņš or jaunā kaimiņiene. These particular-person forms are useful whole expressions now; definite describing endings are taught fully in module seven.