In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories. All the different forms of the same verb constitute a lexeme and the form of the verb that is conventionally used to represent the canonical form of the verb (one as seen in dictionary entries) is a lemma. Inflection of nouns and adjectives is known as declension. Conjugated forms of a verb are called finite forms. In many languages there are also one or more forms that remain unchanged with all or most of grammatical categories: the non-finite forms, such as the infinitive or the gerund. A table giving all the conjugated variants of a verb in a given language is called a conjugation table or a verb paradigm. Although conjugation tables are a useful tool for the beginner in a foreign language, they fail in irregular verbs. This limitation is particularly prominent in Latin-derived languages like French and Italian. The availability of high power computers has made possible to replace the conjugation tables with conjugation algorithms, that can handle without difficulty the conjugation and the grammar analysis of any verb. However, these are much less useful in understanding the structure of the conjugation forms of a given language. A couple of well known verbs conjugators freely available on Internet are Le Conjugateur for the French language and DIC_IT: il Verbiario for the Italian language, and many others exist.

A regular verb has a set of conventions for conjugation (paradigm) that derives all forms from a few specific forms or principal parts (maybe only one, such as the infinitive in English), in spelling or pronunciation. A verb that has conjugations deviating from this convention is said to be an irregular verb. Typically the principal parts are the root and/or several modifications of it (stems). Conjugation is also the traditional name of a group of verbs that share a similar conjugation pattern in a particular language (a verb class). This is the sense in which teachers say that Latin has four conjugations of verbs. This means that any regular Latin verb can be conjugated in any person, number, tense, mood, and voice by knowing which of the four conjugation groups it belongs to, and its principal parts. Contents 1 Examples 2 Verbal agreement 2.1 Nonverbal person agreement 3 Factors that affect conjugation 4 See also 4.1 Conjugations by language 4.2 Related topics 5 Notes 6 External links // Examples Indo-European languages usually inflect verbs for several grammatical categories in complex paradigms, although some, like English, have simplified verb conjugation to a large extent. Afrikaans and Swedish have gone even further and virtually abandoned verb conjugation altogether. Below is the conjugation of the verb to be in the present tense, indicative mood, active voice, in English, German, Dutch, Afrikaans, Icelandic, Swedish, Latvian, Bulgarian, Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Polish, Slovenian, Hindi, Persian, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Albanian, Armenian, Ancient Attic Greek and Modern Greek. This is usually the most irregular verb. You may notice the similarities in corresponding verb forms. Some of the conjugations may be disused, like the English thou-form, or have additional meanings, like the English you-form, which can also stand for 2nd. person singular, or be impersonal. "To be" in several Indo-European languages Branch Germanic Italic Language English German Dutch Afrikaans Icelandic Swedish Latin Italian French Spanish Portuguese Romanian Infinitive be sein zijn wees vera vara esse essere être ser ser fi I (1st. sing.) am bin ben is er är sum sono suis soy sou sunt you/thou (2nd. sing.) are/art bist bent/zijt12 is ert är es sei es eres és ești he/she/it (3rd. sing.) is ist is is er är est è est es é este we (1st. plur.) are sind zijn is erum är (äro1) sumus siamo sommes somos somos suntem you/ye/y'all (2nd. plur.) are seid zijn/zijt12 is eruð är (äro1) estis siete êtes sois sois sunteți they (3rd. plur.) are sind zijn is eru är (äro1) sunt sono sont son são sunt Branch Greek Albanian Armenian9 Slavic Baltic Indo-Iranian Language Ancient (Attic)2 Modern3 Czech Polish Serbian4 Croatian Slovenian Bulgarian5 Macedonian13 Latvian Lithuanian Persian Hindi Infinitive eînai (eínai)7 none8 ĕllal10/linel11 být być biti (biti)1 biti e sum būti būti hona I (1st. sing.) eimí eímai jam em jsem jestem jesam, sam sam sem săm sum esmu esu hastam, -am hũũ thou (2nd. sing.) eî eísai je es jsi jesteś jesi, si si si si si esi esi hasti, -i hai he/she/it (3rd. sing.) estí eínai është/asht6 ē je jest jest(e), je je je e e ir yra hast, ast, -e hai we (1st. plur.) esmén eímaste jemi enk‘ jsme jesteśmy jesmo, smo smo smo sme sme esam esame hastim, -im hãĩ you (2nd. plur.) esté eíste jeni ēk‘10, ek‘11 jste jesteście jeste, ste ste ste ste ste esat esate hastid, -id ho they (3rd. plur.) eisí eínai janë en jsou są jesu, su su so să se ir yra hastand, -and hãĩ 1 Disused in the modern language. 2 The verbs have been transliterated, to facilitate the comparison with other languages. In the Greek alphabet, they are written as follows, from top to bottom: εἶναι, εἰμί, εἶ, ἐστί, ἐσμέν, ἐστέ, εἰσί. 3 The verbs have been transliterated, to facilitate the comparison with other languages. In the Greek alphabet, they are written as follows, from top to bottom: είμαι, είσαι, είναι, είμαστε, είστε, είναι. 4 The verbs have been transliterated, to facilitate the comparison with other languages. In the Cyrillic alphabet, they are written as follows, from top to bottom: бити, јесам/сам, јеси/си, јест(е)/је, јесмо/смо, јесте/сте, јесу/су. The latter forms are clitics. 5 The verbs have been transliterated, to facilitate the comparison with other languages. In the Cyrillic alphabet, they are written as follows, from top to bottom: бити, съм, си, е, сме, сте, са. 6 In the Tosk and Geg dialects, respectively. 7 Used as a noun ("being, existence"). 8 Ptc: qenë. 9 The verbs have been transliterated, to facilitate the comparison with other languages. In the Armenian alphabet, they are written as follows, from top to bottom: եմ, ես, է, ենք, էք10/եք11, են 10Denotes Western Armenian forms 11Denotes Eastern Armenian forms 12In Flemish dialects. 13 The verbs have been transliterated, to facilitate the comparison with other languages. In the Cyrillic alphabet, they are written as follows, from top to bottom: сум, сум, си, е, сме, сте, се. Verbal agreement

Verbal agreement or concord is a morpho-syntactic construct in which properties of the subject and/or objects of a verb are indicated by the verb form. Verbs are then said to agree with their subjects (resp. objects). Many English verbs exhibit subject agreement of the following sort: whereas I go, you go, we go, they go are all grammatical in standard English, she go is not. Instead, a special form of the verb to go has to be used to produce she goes. On the other hand I goes, you goes etc. are not grammatical in standard English. (Things are different in some English dialects that lack agreement.) A few English verbs have no special forms that indicate subject agreement (I may, you may, she may), and the verb to be has an additional form am that can only be used with the pronoun I as the subject. Verbs in written French exhibit more intensive agreement morphology than English verbs: je suis (I am), tu es ("you are", singular informal), elle est (she is), nous sommes (we are), vous êtes ("you are", plural), ils sont (they are). Historically, English used to have a similar verbal paradigm. Some historic verb forms are used by Shakespeare as slightly archaic or more formal variants (I do, thou dost, she doth, typically used by nobility) of the modern forms. Some languages with verbal agreement can leave certain subjects implicit when the subject is fully determined by the verb form. In Spanish, for instance, subject pronouns do not need to be explicitly present, even though in French, its close relative, they are obligatory. The Spanish equivalent to the French je suis (I am) can be simply soy (lit. "am"). The pronoun yo (I) in the explicit form yo soy is only required for emphasis or to clear ambiguity in complex texts.

Some languages have a richer agreement system in which verbs also agree with some or all of their objects. Ubykh exhibits verbal agreement for the subject, direct object, indirect object, benefaction and ablative objects (a.w3.s.xe.n.t'u.n, you gave it to him for me). Basque can show agreement not only for subject, direct object and indirect object, but it also on occasion exhibits agreement for the listener as the implicit benefactor: autoa ekarri digute means "they brought us the car" (neuter agreement for listener), but autoa ekarri ziguten means "they brought us the car" (agreement for feminine singular listener). Languages with a rich agreement morphology facilitate relatively free word order without leading to increased ambiguity. The canonical word order in Basque is Subject-Object-Verb. However, all permutations of subject, verb and object are permitted as well. Nonverbal person agreement In some languages,1 predicative adjectives and copular complements receive a form of person agreement that is distinct from that used on ordinary predicative verbs. Although this is a form of conjugation in that it refers back to the person of the subject, it is not “verbal” because it always derives from pronouns that have become cliticised to the nouns to which they refer.2 An example of nonverbal person agreement, along with contrasting verbal conjugation, can be found from Beja3 (person agreement morphemes in bold): wun.tu.wi, “you (fem.) are big” hadá.b.wa, “you (masc.) are a sheik” e.n.fór, “he flees”

Another example can be found from Ket4: fèmba.di, “I am a Tungus” dɨ.fen, “I am standing” In Turkic, and a few Uralic and Australian Aboriginal languages, predicative adjectives and copular complements take affixes that are identical to those used on predicative verbs, but their negation is different. For example, in Turkish: koş.uyor.sun “you are running” çavuš.sun “you are a sergeant” but under negation this becomes (negative morphemes boldface): koš.m.uyor.sun “you are not running” çavuş değil.sin “you are not a sergeant” For this reason, the person agreement morphemes used with predicative adjectives and nominals in Turkic languages are considered to be nonverbal in character. In some analyses, they are viewed as a form of verbal takeover by a copular strategy. Factors that affect conjugation Common grammatical categories according to which verbs can be conjugated are the following: Finite verb forms: Grammatical person Grammatical number Grammatical gender Grammatical tense Grammatical aspect Grammatical mood Grammatical voice Non-finite verb forms. Other factors which may affect conjugation are: Degree of formality (see T-V distinction, Honorific speech in Japanese) Inclusiveness and exclusiveness in the 1st. person plural Transitivity Valency See also Conjugations by language Category:Conjugations Indo-European copula Related topics Agreement (linguistics) Inflection Redundancy (language) Screeve Strong inflection Verb Verb argument Volition (linguistics) Weak inflection Notes Constructs such as ibid. and loc. cit. are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. ^ Stassen, Leon; Intransitive Predication (Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory); published 1997 by Oxford University Press; p. 39. ISBN 0199258932 ^ Stassen; Intransitive Predication; pp. 77 & 284-288 ^ Stassen, Intransitive Predication; p. 40 ^ Ibid. External links Conjugations at Wiktionary, Wikipedia's sister project the conjugation English,Spanish and French conjugator. Onoma Spanish conjugator. It provides information about the irregularities and conjugates invented verbs. Excellent English Verb Conjugation Site All verbs - all forms - all tenses, Many variants, No mistakes: www.conjugation.com English Verb Conjugations • English verb phonetic and orthographic constraints Lexicon of Linguistics: Conjugation Verbix (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, English, &c.) Multi-Language conjugation (English and Portuguese) French conjugation (More 12000 verbs) Italian Verbs Coniugator and Analyzer Regular and Irregular Verbs, and also Neologisms spanish.verbconjugation.net shows you how to conjugate Spanish verbs Korean conjugation A Korean verb conjugation tool that explains the conjugations for learners of Korean Online verb conjugation online English, Spanish, Italian, French and German verb conjugation Kaso Verb Conjugation System (FOSS) Side by side conjugations in English, Italian, and Spanish