Numerals, Time, and Dates

The Cardinals One to Nine

79.The first nine numerals are adjectives in all but name: they have gender, they decline, and they agree with what they count (¶58). Vienas has a singular; the rest are plural in form, since two of a thing are more than one. Du is irregular in the feminine — dvi, not dva — and must be learnt by itself.

Turiu du brolius ir dvi seseris.

I have two brothers and two sisters. — the numeral takes the gender of its noun and the case of the sentence

Čia yra keturios kėdės.

There are four chairs here.

Reikia dviejų stiklinių vandens.

Two glasses of water are needed. — *reikia* puts everything after it in the genitive (¶69), the numeral included

Ten and Upwards

80.From ten the numerals stop agreeing and start governing: they stand unchanged and put the counted noun in the genitive plural, whatever the sentence would otherwise require (¶58). The tens are built on the units, the teens on the units with -lika, and šimtas and tūkstantis are ordinary nouns that happen to mean a hundred and a thousand.

Penkiolika knygų.

Fifteen books. — genitive plural, fixed

Šimtas eurų.

A hundred euros.

Dvidešimt vienas žmogus.

Twenty-one people. — singular, because *vienas* is the last word

The Ordinals

81.The ordinals — first, second, third — are adjectives outright, declined and agreeing like geras. They are what Lithuanian uses for floors, for the hour, and for the day of the month, so they are met far oftener than their English equivalents.

Aš gyvenu pirmame aukšte.

I live on the first floor. — locative, because the floor is a place

Tai antra knyga.

That is the second book.

Telling the Hour

82.The hour is a feminine ordinal agreeing with valanda, which is usually left out: pirma means one o'clock because pirma valanda does. The question is kelinta valanda?, literally the how-manieth hour? The half hour is pusė with the genitive of the hour coming, and the minutes before the hour are be with the genitive — the Lithuanian counts down to an hour it has not yet reached.

Kelinta valanda?

What time is it?

Dirbu nuo aštuntos iki penktos.

I work from eight until five. — *nuo* and *iki* both take the genitive (¶33)

Susitinkame antrą valandą.

We are meeting at two o'clock.

The Accusative of Time

83.A point of time and a stretch of time both stand in the accusative, with no preposition. This is the case that answers kada? for a single occasion — set it against the plural instrumental of ¶76, which answers the same question for a habit. Pirmadienį is on Monday, once; pirmadieniais is on Mondays, always.

Vieną dieną dirbu, kitą ilsiuosi.

One day I work, the next I rest.

Mes gyvenome Kaune metus.

We lived in Kaunas for a year. — duration; no *for* is needed

The Days of the Week

84.The names of the days are built transparently on the ordinals plus diena, day — the first day, the second day, and so on from Monday. Only Sunday breaks the pattern. They are masculine, they are written with a small letter, and pirmadienis being the first day is a reminder that the Lithuanian week begins on Monday.

Šeštadienį ir sekmadienį nedirbu.

On Saturday and Sunday I do not work. — accusative of time

Penktadieniais einame į kavinę.

On Fridays we go to a café.

The Months and the Date

85.The Lithuanian months are native words, not the international ones, and most of them name what the country is doing or what the weather is doing — birželis is the birch month, rugpjūtis the rye-cutting. A date is the genitive of the month followed by the ordinal of the day: sausio penkta, the fifth of January, literally January's fifth.

Šiandien kovo penkta.

Today is the fifth of March.

Susitinkame gegužės dešimtą.

We are meeting on the tenth of May. — accusative of time on the ordinal

The Year

86.A year stands in the instrumental plural with metais, and only the last element of the number is made an ordinal. This is the one construction of the level that looks alarming written out, and it is entirely mechanical: read the number as a cardinal until the final word, make that an ordinal, and put both into the instrumental plural.

Gimiau tūkstantis devyni šimtai devyniasdešimt penktaisiais metais.

I was born in 1995.

Du tūkstančiai dvidešimtaisiais metais.

In the year 2020.

• [1] In speech the whole phrase is often cut down to the last word: devyniasdešimt penktaisiais, in ninety-five. The biographical uses of years and age — Man … metų, full birth dates, prieš … metus — are taken up in the next section (¶88–¶92).

Prepositions of Time

87.Three prepositions of time take the accusative where those of ¶33 took the genitive. Prieš is ago or before; per is within a stretch or during it. Against them stand the genitive pair nuo … iki, from one time to another, which frames a working day or an opening hour.

Prieš metus atvažiavau į Lietuvą.

I came to Lithuania a year ago.

Per valandą viską padarysiu.

I shall do everything within an hour.

Nuo šiandien iki penktadienio nedirbu.

From today until Friday I am not working.