Why should a Georgian verb meaning to sit or to sit down be of special interest to a student of the Georgian language? After all, everybody needs to sit many times a day and why should this be any different in Georgia? Well, there is something peculiar about sitting in Georgian.
Let's say, you want to express that somebody is sitting somewhere, say on a chair. The conjugation in the present indicative would be:
ქართული | English | German |
---|---|---|
მე ვზივარ | I am sitting | ich sitze |
შენ ზიხარ | you are sitting | du sitzt |
ის ზის ის სხდეს |
he is sitting | er sitzt |
ჩვენ ვსხედვართ | we are sitting | wir sitzen |
თქვენ სხედხართ | you are sitting | ihr sitzt |
ისინი სხედან | they are sitting | sie sitzen |
Can you see, what is peculiar about it? Normally any Georgian verb is based on a verb root, which does not change throughout the conjugation. Here it is -ზი- but only for subjects in singular, whereas the root for plural subjects is -სხედ-. Why is this? Well, in Georgian actually two verbs are used to express to sit, the verb ჯდომა with the root -ზი- for singular subjects (e.g. ვზივარ, ზის etc.) and the verb სხდომა with the root -სხედ- for plural subjects (e.g. ვსხედვართ, სხედან). The two conjugation tables would look like this:
ჯდომა | სხდომა |
---|---|
-- singular only -- | -- plural only -- |
მე ვზივარ | - |
შენ ზიხარ | - |
ის ზის | (ის სხდეს) |
- | ჩვენ ვსხედვართ |
- | თქვენ სხედხართ |
- | ისინი სხედან |
Not very difficult, right? You can choose, how you want to memorize this, as two verbs or as one conjugation like it is shown at the beginning of the page.
There is one more complication to this, however. You have probably noticed the word სხდეს in the second table. According to the rules just mentioned it should not be there because სხდომა only applies to plural subjects. Well, the exception here is the use with collective subjects like a group, a family etc. which in the grammatical sense is a singular subject (one group, one family) but in the logical sense it consists of several parts (a group of three people, a family with mother, father and children). Such collective subjects are used with სხდეს because they are kind of plural subjects. It is as if you would say in English the group are sitting or the family are sitting: ჯგუფი სხდეს - the group is sitting. ოჯახი სხდეს - the family is sitting.
The case is similar with the Georgian expression of to sit down. One verb (დაჯდება) is used for singular subjects; and another verb (სხდებიან) is used for plural subjects.
ქართული | English | German |
---|---|---|
მე ვჯდები | I am sitting down | ich setze mich |
შენ ჯდები | you are sitting down | du setzt dich |
ის ჯდება ის სხდება |
he is sitting down | er setzt sich |
ჩვენ ვსხდებით | we are sitting down | wir setzen uns |
თქვენ სხდებით | you are sitting down | ihr setzt euch |
ისინი სხდებიან | they are sitting down | sie setzen sich |
When offering other persons a seat, it is quite common among friends to use the aorist of the verb დაჯდება in its imperative function: დაჯექი მეგო! Sit down, friend! // Setz dich, Kumpel! In more formal situations or with strangers on the minibus, this would be considered somewhat impolite – though not a big problem with foreigners trying to speak Georgian, of course! The polite and formal invitation do sit down would be: დაბრძანდით! Feel free to take a seat! // Bitte nehmen Sie Platz! The verb ბრძანდება is worth checking out and memorizing a few phrases with it. You will earn many smiles in the streets of Tbilisi!
If you want to express to set something down or to put something down // etwas hinsetzen, absetzen, say on a table, you can use the verb დადებს: მე დავდებ კატას მაგიდაზე - I put the cat on the table // ich setze die Katze auf den Tisch.