Daug Laiko A Lot Of Time

Hi there, I'm Jack and I'm Romas and welcome back to Lithuanian Out Loud where we offer the world the Lithuanian language.

According to the article named, "Take a trolleybus around Kaunas," there was once a beautiful young woman named Milda who lived there. She wasn't interested in any men who were interested in her. Finally, a young man named Daugerutis who had the voice of a nightingale won her heart. But, her stepmother told the gods and Daugerutis was ordered to be burned alive. The priest Auskaras hid them but unfortunately while they were hiding the Holy Eternal Fire went out and now both the lovers were ordered to die by flames. The priest Auskaras hid them below the fire in a cave for years where they bore and raised a son named Kaunas who would later found a city.

Here are some nouns such as salt, amber, steel or water. You don't count water, you might count bottles of water or liters of water but you don't count water itself. Same goes for courage, concrete or gold. You don't have three courages, four concretes or five golds. Nouns like these have only a singular form. These nouns don't have a plural form. Here's a short list of a few of these nouns…

iron

geležis

tea

arbata

gold

auksas

cement

betonas

concrete

cementas

sugar

cukrus

vodka

degtinė

salt

druska

amber

gintaras

time

laikas

sour cream

grietinė

clay

molis

honey

medus

milk

pienas

steel

plienas

butter

sviestas

water

vanduo

cottage cheese

varškė

fear

baimė

evil

blogis

morality

dora

courage

drąsa

discipline

drausmė

behavior

elgesys

essence

esmė

honor

garbė

beauty

grožis

faithfulness

ištikimybė

patience

kantrybė

creativity

kūryba

time

laikas

equality

lygybė

bravery

narsa

premonition

nuojauta

envy, jealousy

pavydas

conscience

sąžinė

peace (after war)

taika

Attention! Dėmėsio! If a noun does not have a plural form it doesn't use the plural genitive. If a noun has no plural it has no plural genitive.

No plural form – no plural genitive.

Expressions like daug, ne daug or per daug describe an unspecific amount. If we're talking about an unspecific amount of a noun that is uncountable, we use the genitive singular. Remember – no plural form – no plural genitive – use the singular.

Just as a reminder, let's combine daug with some countable nouns first.

many books

daug knygų

many people

daug žmonių

many cities

daug miestų

many bicycles

daug dviračių

Now let's combine daug with uncountable nouns

a lot, many

daug

a lot of tea

daug arbatos

a lot of gold

daug aukso

a lot of cement

daug betono

a lot of concrete

daug cemento

a lot of sugar

daug cukraus

a lot of whiskey

daug viskio

a lot of salt

daug druskos

a lot of amber

daug gintaro

a lot of sour cream

daug grietinės

a lot of clay

daug molio

a lot of honey

daug medaus

a lot of milk

daug pieno

too much steel

per daug plieno

too much butter

per daug sviesto

too much water

per daug vandens

not a lot of cottage cheese

nedaug varškės

not much courage

nedaug drąsos

a lot of patience

daug kantrybės

a lot of bravery

daug narsos

a lot of time

daug laiko

plenty of time

daug laiko

Šiek tiek translates as "a little." Again, this is an unspecified amount.

information

informacija

time

laikas

history

istorija

hope

viltis

humor

humoras

alcohol

alkoholis

news

žinios

milk

pienas

a little

šiek tiek

a little information

šiek tiek informacijos

a little time

šiek tiek laiko

a little history

šiek tiek istorijos

a little hope

šiek tiek vilties

a little humor

šiek tiek humoro

a little milk

šiek tiek pieno

Another way to express an unknown amount of something is to simply use the genitive, like we just did.

In this case the genitive would basically translate as, "some."

some tea

arbatos

some gold

aukso

some cement

betono

some concrete

cemento

some sugar

cukraus

some whiskey

viskio

some salt

druskos

some amber

gintaro

some sour cream

grietinės

some clay

molio

some honey

medaus

some milk

pieno

some steel

plieno

some butter

sviesto

some water

vandens

some cottage cheese

varškės

some courage

drąsos

some patience

kantrybės

some bravery

narsos

now some sentences

do you want some tea?

ar nori arbatos?

I'd like some tea

norėčiau arbatos

do you want some sugar?

ar nori cukraus?

I'd like some sugar

norėčiau cukraus

want some whiskey?

nori viskio?

yes, some whiskey, please

taip, viskio, prašau

do you want some butter?

ar nori sviesto?

yes, some butter, please

taip, sviesto, prašau

do you want some cream?

ar nori grietinės?

no, some milk, please

ne, pieno, prašau

So, to recap this episode, if we're talking about an unspecified number of a COUNTABLE object we use the genitive plural. If we're talking about an unspecified amount of an UNCOUNTABLE object we use the genitive singular.

Šaunuoliai! Great! You made it to the end of another episode! Šaunuoliai!

Take a trolleybus around Kaunas

http://kaunas.karalyte.com/where.html