vajadzēt

Latvian

Etymology

Borrowed from Livonian vajāg (“necessary”); cf. Estonian vaja (“necessary; need; lack”), Finnish vajaa (“incomplete, inadequate; need”), Veps vajag (“incomplete”). In 16th-18th century texts, the word (in the older form vaijaga) is used as an adjective, often accompanied by the copula (vaijaga ir... “it is necessary”), following the original Livonian pattern. From the 17th century on, it began occurring also by itself in a dative construction (man vajag... “I need”), from which it was reinterpreted as a verb, so that further forms — an infinitive vajadzēt, a past tense vajadzēja, a future tense vajadzēs, a conditional form vajadzētu, etc. — were created by analogy (compare tecēt (“to flow”), third person present tek, third person past tecēja, etc.). Some participial forms, however, are lacking, and others (vajagošs) are barely attested.

Pronunciation

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Verb

vajadzēt (intransitive + dative, 3rd conjugation, only 3rd person, present vajag, past vajadzēja)

1. to be necessary, to be needed, to be desired

   vajag paveikt iesākto ― it is necessary to finish what was started

   man vajag padoma ― I need (some) advice

   ko tev vajag? ― what do you need?

   viņam vajadzēja daudz strādāt ― he needed, had to work a lot

   mājai vajadzētu jaunu jumtu ― the house would need (= should get) a new roof

   mums vajadzētu satikties ― we would need (= should) meet

   vajadzēt vairāk brīva laika ― to need more free time

2. (with an infinitive verb) must, should (expressing confidence about the existence or occurrence of something)

   ezeram vajadzēja būt tepat netālu ― the lake must, should be here nearby

   viņam drīz vajag nākt ― he must, should come soon (= I think he will come soon)

   vajadzēja būt pagājušai jau kādai stundai ― an hour must have already passed

   drīz vajag būt rītam ― it should soon be morning

Usage notes

The arguments of this verb are: a dative, for the person to whom something is necessary, and an accusative or genitive, for the thing that is necessary; e.g.: man vajag naudu or man vajag naudas “I(dat.) need money(acc. or gen.).” The accusative has more widespread use, though the genitive is not infrequent, often with a partitive sense (“I need some money”).

Conjugation

Derived terms

• vajadzēties
• vajadzība
• vajadzīgs

References