Kashmiri/Lesson 3

Simple Future

Kashmiri possesses three future tenses — simple, progressive, and perfect. Like Spanish, Hindustani, and Russian, Kashmiri verbs are conjugated. The simple future tense is the simplest of all tenses in Kashmiri, since it is very regular.

Infinitives and Stems

Nearly all infinitives (the dictionary form of verbs) end in -un. The infinitival form of the verb can also function as a noun. Without the -un, what you’re left with is the stem to which you can add endings to denote various grammatical features, tense being one of them.

Here are some examples of common verbs and their respective stems.

Verb	Meaning	Stem
karun	to do	kar-
chalun	to wash, clean	chal-
duorun	to run	duor-
vúchun	to watch, view	vuch-
ranun	to cook	ran-
tsalun	to flee, leave, exit	tsal-

Endings

n order to create the future tense of these verbs, all you have to do is add these endings.

Person	Endings	Person	Endings
I	-ú	We	-av
You (sg.), thou	-akh	You (pl.)	-iv
He, she, it	-i	They	-an

As you can see, gender of the subject isn’t relevant isn’t the basic Simple Future tense and that’s one of the things that makes it the easiest tense to learn. Here are some English sentences with their Kashmiri counterparts:

I will go. Bú gatshu tot.

You (sg.) will see me. Tsú vúchakh me.

He will cook something. Su rani kenh.

We will run. Ásy duorav.

You (pl.) will wash clothes. Tuhy cheliv palav.

They will leave now. Tim tsalan vany.

Irregular Verbs

There are some irregular verbs. Adding the future simple suffixes to these would lead to some vowel clusters, some of which are not allowed in Kashmiri. So an epenthetic vowel is inserted — either ‘m’ or ‘y’.

Remember that palatalisation is not indicated before an ‘e’ or an ‘i’ since the preceding consonant is considered to be always palatalised when followed by these two sounds.

yun ‘to come’

yimú

yikh

yiyi

yimav

yiyiv

yin

dyun ‘to give’

dimú

dikh

diyi

dimav

diyiv

din

khyon ‘to eat’

kheme

khekh

kheyi

khemav

kheyiv

khen

cyon ‘to drink’

ceme

cekh

ceyi

cemav

ceyiv

cen

Again, some examples sentences:

I will eat everything. Bú khyame suoruy.

You (sg.) will give me everything. Tsú dikh me suoruy.

She will drink water. Swa ceyi triesh.

He will give everything. Su diyi suoruy.

We will come tomorrow. Ásy yimav pagah.

You (pl.) will eat now. Tuhy kheyiv vany.

They will drink milk. Tim cen dwad.

New Vocabulary

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Exercises

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