Lithuanian Learning Community and Resources

Labas! 

You have probably already heard about the Lithuanian language and how authentic and complicated it is.

That’s true. 

However, just like people worldwide, in Lithuania, we use many international words to help you get the point quickly. 

So, how do you understand Lithuanian without actually understanding the language?

Roots of Lithuanian language

The Lithuanian language is one of two living languages of the Baltic group of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Lithuania and by Lithuanian communities abroad. 

This beautiful language has many common phonetic and grammatical structures with Sanskrit. It is one of the oldest (about 5000 y.o.) living Indo-European languages, retaining many archaic features that help researchers study the evolution of the Indo-European languages. This is why you can study Lithuanian at universities like the University of Florence, Milano, Berlin, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Washington, and others.

Nowadays, about 3.6 million people in the world speak Lithuanian. This number is comparable to the population of Berlin, which was approximately 3.57 million in 2023. So, speaking Lithuanian can be seen as having quite a unique superpower.

How to recognize international words in Lithuanian

This article is not a grammar class, so I won’t go into too much detail. However, some things have to be mentioned.

So.

In the Lithuanian language, endings are added to the root of a word to form various word forms - this is the primary way of expressing grammatical categories such as cases, genders, numbers, persons, tenses, and moods. The endings change the form of the word, indicating the word's usage in the sentence (e.g., the use of a noun in different cases or the person or tense of a verb). This is characteristic of inflected languages, to which Lithuanian belongs.

Noun endings in different cases help indicate the function of the noun in the sentence – subject, object, possession, etc. In Lithuanian, the most common noun endings are -as, -is, -ius (sing. masculine), and -ė, -a (sing. feminine). Knowing this, you can start using some Lithuanian words instead of saying them in English. 

Check out the table of some words that I gathered for you:

I hope you got the point!  

How do you find the Lithuanian language yourself? Can you already say something in Lithuanian? I’m so eager to learn more about your experiences. Share them in the comments, and let’s discuss!

Karolina, OLS Community Manager – Lithuanian