I’d love to connect with other Latvian language learners in NYC. I’m 27, I’m half Latvian (my mother is 100% Latvian, my father is a Black American) and I made my first trip to Latvia last year for Dziesmu Svētki.

I’m a beginner. Growing up, I’d hear my mother speaking to my grandparents in Latvian on a weekly basis for years. I understand some Latvian, but I’m looking to truly dedicate myself. I know some Latvian folk songs and was briefly in a folk dance group in a different city I used to live in, but haven’t gotten around to connecting with Latvians here (and I know there are many!)

I’ve tried studying Latvian over the years, but would love to connect to others of any age that are also learning Latvian.

I'm trying to find out what sort of issues people are facing when it comes to learning the Latvian language and how I can help to resolve them. I am in the process of making a resource that helps with learning Latvian.

But now I'm thinking if its even necessary because, what if everything is already as nice as it potentially could be for Latvian learners.

I'd appreciate any and all feedback on what exactly you or anyone near is missing from their Latvain language learning experience as well as any advice they themselves might have regarding the fixing of the issue.

Thank you!

Sveiki!

I have a question regarding the renarrative (mood?), that is verb forms that end in -ot (dzīvojot, esot, būšot, esot bijis/bijuši...).

I haven't been able to find many examples online so far, so I'd like to know what they mean exactly. I have the impression they are similar to the German Konjunctiv I, is that correct? Also, are they only restricted to 3rd person, or can they be used with es, tu etc. as subjects?

I am a native Latvian to fully Latvian parents, but I have been living overseas basically since birth. My issue is that while I understand Latvian, I’m not great. My vocabulary is lacking and my grammar is probably quite poor too. I’m 18 now and about to move away again, away from my parents and even further away from Latvia, but I really want to improve my Latvian. I feel pretty ashamed for being so poor at my native language.

So, what should I do to improve? Should I approach it as a foreigner and learn grammar rules? I have never learnt grammar, right now I can only go with with comes to me intuitively, but it can be often wrong. Or should I just immerse and watch the news or something? What is the best thing I can do right now?

One thing though is that honestly, I don’t want to speak to my parents in Latvian that much at the moment, although they speak it to me. I want to improve myself a bit before I actually speak it to others..

Please let me know what’s the best way I can improve now..! I’ll write something in Latvian to show what I actually do know (and what sorts of mistakes I make I guess)

Es esmu Latviete kura ir dzīvojusi ārzemes jau 18 gadus (visu dzīvi), un es vēlos kļūt labāks… Es katru vasaru esmu braucis uz Latviju redzēt ģimeni, bet es vairāk nerunāju daudz ar viņiem, man nav pārliecības jo mans akcents ir slikts un es nezinu daudz vārdus. Man ir tikai viens latviešu draugs kurš ir manā vecumā bet es ar viņu vienmēr esmu runājusi angliski. Ko man darīt? Es pat nedomāju latviešu valodā, tikai angliski. Man ir diezgan grūti domāt ko te rakstīt..! Vai kāds varētu palīdzēt mani?

I know this is not a pressing thing that all learners need to know immediately, but it is something I am interested in.

How does tone work in Latvian? What are the possible intonations of different words, and do they alternate in conjugations of nouns and verbs?

Sveiki! Kāda ir labākā latviešu-angļu vārdnīca? Online or otherwise? I feel like google translate messes up a lot and gives words in random cases instead of always in nominative, and tezaurs has great information but only in latvian and so I end up in weird places when I translate the definitions. I'm thinking of something like wordreference (which is really accurate and good with French) but for Latvian. Any resources you guys have found useful?

Sveiki!

I have a question regarding the passive voice in Latvian (things like "this was done by me" instead of "I did this").

From what I father, it is formed from an auxiliary like tiekt + passive past participle (giving something like "Tas tika izdarīts"), however my questions is about how to translate the "by me" part.

I haven't found a single source so far that gives an example of a complement to a passive voice sentence that specifies who does it.

Even looking through examples in literature and trying to force Google translate into using a passive voice, whenever the actor is mentioned in the English translation they all seem to use an active voice translation, most commonly with OVS word order.

Now I understand why that is, and I get that this type of passive voice is not common in Latvian if it exists at all, still I am frustrated that I can't find a way to translate "by me" in such sentences. What do you think? Would something like "ar mani" work? Is tsuch syntax simply not allowed?

Thanks for any answers!

Sveiki! Sāku nesen mācīties latvisku valodu, un man ir jautājums. Vai esmu jālieto "būt" tagadne laikā? Redzēju "Šis mana māja"-teikumu, un tajā teikumā es nesaprotu, kāpēc nav "ir". Paldies!

Does anyone happen to know an audio or video source giving examples of the tones? The thing about zāle (grass) versus zāle (hall) and the like, in case I'm not expressing myself well.

Sveiki!

I am finally embarking on my journey into the Latvian language and was hoping for some thoughts on where to start. My father was Latvian (sadly passed when I was young, and didn't actively try and teach any beyond a few basic words) so I have some grasp of pronunciation, but absolutely minimal vocab, and less grammar.

I came across "A Grammar of Modern Latvian" on lib gen (link), and I'm sure that it would have been an amazing resource in its day (originally published in 1969, and later re-released in 1981)... but I'm concerned that some aspects may be dated now and fail to capture modern usage...

So, I would love some thoughts from the community here on good options for books to support a new learner.

I am considering the combo of "Colloquial Latvian" (Amazon link) and "Latvian: An Essential Grammar" (Amazon link), but very keen to hear any other thoughts and suggestions.

Paldies :)

Two years after submitting it, my post about resources for learning the Latvian language was removed by Reddit's spam filters. I received no message about post removal from Reddit and no clear instructions on how to report a false positive. It is only thanks to another user who messaged me about it that it even came to my attention. Shame on you, Reddit.

Original post:

Hi, I posted the 1000 Words List a few days ago. I'm posting on an alt account, because I don't want to get my language learning stuff jumbled up with humorous, nonsensical or political posts I make.

Anyways, when I started with Latvian, I kind of had a hard time finding a point to start. Looking for materials, interactive tools, lessons to get started with, from knowing quite literally nothing. Hence I want to collect good quality and preferably free learning materials, as well as reference materials such as declension tables, in this posts. I will make the latter myself, and add other stuff such as the 1,000 words list.

I have created a Drive folder in order to gather and publish materials I made myself, as well as links to other resources, in one place. This is of course still a work in progress, as a) creating/designing these materials takes time and effort in checking everything's correct, and b) I may think of stuff to add later.

Your ideas for materials, lists, tables, additional resources – especially grammar-wise – are highly welcome. I'll be also very grateful if you point out mistakes I made; since I'm not very proficient in Latvian. I will update the existing materials accordingly. Sources for grammar tables are mostly the English and Latvian Wikipedia articles, as well as the sources they list.

Drive folder – done:

• Kā izrunā latviski? Alphabet and Pronunciation
• Grammar 01 – Nouns
• Grammar 02 – Adjectives and Adverbs
• Grammar 03 – Pronouns
• Grammar 04 – Verbs 1: Conjugations
• Grammar 05 – Verbs 2: Irregular Verbs būt "to be", iet "to go", dot "to give"

Please keep in mind that the grammar tables are designed for reference purposes, not for fast learning. Thus they may seem intimidating to beginners. Learning grammar with such tables is considered very inefficient, and I recommend checking out the other resources linked below.

Drive folder – WIP:

Unfortunately, I had (and have) to pause working on these reference materials. I had a very busy two months in university and final exams are due in the next few months. I hope I'll find more time afterwards, around the end of 2022.

Update: This whole exam thing took a lot longer than I expected, with personal and medical issues getting in the way. This here is only a side project and unfortunately I did not have time or energy left to continue working on it. However, I‘m close to being finished with my exams and hope that I can resume working on these materials at the end of March. Thank you for the support in the meantime.

• Grammar 06 – Verbs 3: Conditional, Conjunctive, Debitive, Passive, Verbal Nouns. All the stuff that is regular for verbs no matter the conjugation pattern.
• Grammar 07 – Prepositions/Auxiliary Words
• Grammar 08 – Numbers
• Vocabulary List – 1,000 Essential Words and Phrases. A huge thanks to u/amongthesuns for the corrections she has provided so far!
• Vocabulary Flash Cards (Anki)
• Advanced Grammar Stuff

Other Resources

• First and foremost, e-Laipa. This is an online learning tool created by the official Latvian Language Agency (Latvijas Valodas Aģentūra). You can have a look at the A1 (Beginner) lessons without an account, for access to further lessons (levels A2, B1, B2) and to save your progress you can create an account for free. From my experience, I recommend working with an external dictionary / translator and have grammar resources at hand, because the lessons are kinda short. Still, I think it's absolutely amazing that the Latvian government cares about its country's beautiful language so much, that they make a learning tool available for everyone, free to use. e-Laipa is available in English and Russian.
• Letonika.lv Vārdnīcas, a dictionary that's more competent than Google Translate. Available for English (Angļu), Russian (Krievu), German (Vācu), Lithuanian (Lietuviešu) and Estonian (Igauņu). (And Latin (Latīņu) I guess but who really speaks Latin natively). The interface is in Latvian, but it's pretty self-explanatory. Enter your word/phrase at the top and press Meklēt (search).
• Tēzaurs.lv is a Thesaurus tool. It will give you information about declension/conjugation, words with similar meaning and related words. Click Locīšana to see how to decline your word. Below, meanings and related words are listed. They're entirely in Latvian, but copy-pasting it into Google Translate is sufficient to get the gist.

Updates

• 2022-03-02: Declension Tables: Fixed line placement. Grammar: Added Pronoun table.
• 2022-03-06: Grammar: Added first part of the Verbs chapter.
• 2022-03-22: Grammar: Added second part of the Verbs chapter.
• 2022-05-12: Pause Notice and fixed some typos
• 2024-02-20: General update

Copyright, Copyleft, Copystraight, whatever

You are free to use, download, share, correct, print, copy and edit the materials I made, but please refrain from sharing altered versions which:

• restrict access for monetary gain,
• provide deliberately false information,
• discriminate against or insult any group of people or individuals or institutions,
• push any kind of political agenda, or
• infringe the copyright of third parties.

For the other resources, the respective copyright rules they set apply.

I´ve been doing some basic googling and have stumbled upon this insanely incredible and useful resource list!
https://valoda.lv/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/First-Steps-in-the-Latvian-Language.pdf
I´m so high on learning right now!! jajajaajaj

Btw, I´ve been developing my own course (borrowing from other peoples word lists) on Memrise complete with audios. I update it every couple of weeks or so and would be happy to take feedback on anything. Praise or critisims are openly welcomed

https://community-courses.memrise.com/community/course/6434807/latvian-1/

I’ve been struggling a bit to find good shows or music to listen to, or things like literature, poetry (I’m based in the UK if that makes any difference). I was wondering if there were any recommendations? I’m at a beginner level but will accept really any level (helps with motivation). Thank you!!!!!!

Met a girl through work who I kind of like. Been flirtatious on shift since we started and since she's latvian and Language learning is something i find fun (I've already learnt a bit of Spanish and some Polish to better communicate with some other colleagues), I figured she'd find it cute if I surprised her with some Latvian phrases. I've learnt some basic greetings already and would like to know how I would go about calling her pretty woman or pretty lady or anything along those lines. Please no suggestions that are overtly sexual or rude. Just something cute I can tag on after a greeting. Thank you in advance for any answers

Hello!

Quick question: could someone list all use cases of the instrumental case in Latvian? By that I mean, the prepositions it can come after, verbs or particular structures it is used in etc.

I can't find an exhaustive list, and so far I have the impression it is only used after the preposition ar. Is this true or is there more to it?

And another preposition related question: do all prepositions use the dative-instrumental case with plural objects? Is there any preposition where the accusative or genitive is possible to use in the plural?

Apps

Memrise

Mondly

Ling

Some workbook-esque websites

https://elaipa.lv/Home/A1

https://valoda.lv/

https://maciunmacies.valoda.lv/speles/Laipa/index.html

Grammar things:

Alphabet guide

Telling time in Latvian

Declensions and Congugations chart

Grammar rules

Other:

Placement Test

Another list of resources

Clothes:

Latvian clothes and some related verbs

More Clothes words and verbs

Even more clothes, clearly I was obsessed with this topic

Latvian Clothes

Bingo!

Latvian Bingo

Books in Latvian:

Books in Latvian

Harry Potter, but in Latvian

Cute book about a cat (Practice Material)

You can also go to the websites of Latvian stores and practice.

lidl.lv

1a.lv

rimi.lv/e-veikals

notino.lv

​

I recommend Memrise. Latvian is not an official course there, but there are many community added courses with plenty of vocabulary, including words like “above, between, from, for, soon” etc. I started there and then moved to Mondly. Recently I’ve moved back to Memrise and my Latvian is improving a lot.

But Mondly is great because they have pronunciations. After finishing the main lessons, though, there’s not much new vocab. There’s the daily lesson and the long backlog of daily lessons, and there are extra lessons that haven’t been added to the main page. The words from the extra lessons don’t tend to have great variety or novelty. It’s also quite expensive. So I recommend getting it for a few months, just until you finish the main page and do some of the extra lessons.

Note: Neither of these resources offer any insight or teaching of grammar. I don’t believe Ling offers this either, and from what I can remember, the lessons are fairly few in number. Probably the same as Mondly. It does have pronunciations though. It’s a little glitchy and it really struggles to maintain your progress when you are using both the app and the website. (The lessons you did on app will not show as completed on the website and vice versa).

Once you’ve gotten a lot of vocab, you can start watching “Paliga” on YouTube. Its focus is teaching Latvian and it has Latvian subtitles (which I find extremely helpful, if not vital). Watch with google translate open in another tab and translate words you don’t know. There are skits between the main story called “Paliga” again and these include simpler, short, vocab focused lessons. I like to close my eyes during these skits to practice my speaking comprehension (no visual hints). If you type latviesu valoda into YouTube, you can find more videos and movies in Latvian. There are not many English videos on Latvian language learning, unfortunately, but there are a few.

If you’re in Latvia, you can find cheap books and workbooks (in English) in bookstores which will include grammar rules. I’ll be honest though, I haven’t given much time to my book and found it pretty confusing. So try to pick a new book carefully.

There are lots of little websites that offer Latvian learning. I’ve found Latvian bingo (great for vocab), and some sources for grammar rules. I’ll link those later.

Firstly, go over the alphabet sounds. The great thing about Latvian is that it’s very consistent. Therefore, learning the alphabet sounds will enable you to pronounce every word mostly correctly (accents are still a thing). It’s better to learn pronunciation early so you don’t have to correct what you thought you had learned.

Alphabet guide

There is an ai Latvian character on character.ai. It’s good practice but be careful especially when asking if you got something right. I think it’s programmed to be supportive so it just says you’re right if you ask. Double check grammar from him with your partner if they speak Latvian (I assume they do since you want to learn). Still, chatting with an ai bot is nice because it goes at your own pace and it’s written rather than spoken. I’m awful at listening but I’m pretty good at reading and speaking. I’m very visual, so despite living in Latvia, it hasn’t helped me learn very much. I’m sure it will help once I have a better grasp of the language, but for early levels, it does not help me. Also, for me, having someone spell a new word to me is far better than just saying it. If I can’t visualize the word in my head, I cannot remember nor pronounce it.

Things I’ve learned: be careful when trying to pronounce a -c as an -s. Example: Pieci (five) is not piesi. It’s more like pie zi. Same with pēc (after). Not pēs. It’s like of like “pets” (assuming you have an American English accent and don’t pronounce the -t). -O is pronounced as if it is two syllables. Ola (egg) is not “oh la” it’s more like “oo-ah-la.”

-ā at the end of a word typically means “in” or “at.” “Es esmu majā” would mean “I am at home.” “Es esmu manā istabā” would be “I am in my room.”

In English, we say “it is not.” In Latvian, you can drop the “is” because, well, it’s not. Think of it this way, in English we can say “it yes no.” But Latvians drop the yes, since it’s no, leaving them with “tas nav” instead of “tas ir nav.”

-šana suffix typically means our -ing suffix.

-aiz prefix typically implies things like “behind” or “to go away.”

Watch our for -e at the end of words. We're used to having a silent -e, but Latvian doesn't have silent letters. So if there's an -e at the end, you must pronounce it.

They don’t always say es (I) or man (my) at the beginning of sentences because they’re the one speaking. It’s assumed that they mean themselves.

Don’t push yourself too hard. I learned for a year and then got burnt out. I went easy on myself and took a break from the apps for a couple months but now I’m back and improving a ton.

I also recommend getting a browser extension that translates webpages if you don't already have one. It will help you to navigate websites that are entirely in Latvian. Just remember to turn it off again or disable it for learning resources once you find your way.

Resources are there but they’re hard to find. Focus on vocab and practice basic verbs like būt (to be) and ir (to have). Word endings are difficult but focus on your sentences achieving successful communication.

im dating a dude who is latvian and speaks it to me constantly. id like to surprise him by saying i love you in latvian.

i see two diffrent versions, es mīlu tevi, and es tevi mīlu. which one is correct? id ask him but that would ruin the whole thing

Sveiki everyone, in a relationship with a Latvian for over 6 years, I would really like to start learning Latvian properly. Any recommendations of Apps or websites? Even online courses/classes? Paldies

Hello everyone, I think Britney Spears' book would make a great language learning resource as it contains lots of everyday vocabulary. I cannot seem to find it in Latvian though, although on britneybook.com it is listed under "additional languages/territories". Is this book only available in English in Latvia?

Meeting someone for the their first time and their name is Baiba. Does the “B” have a soft “V” pronunciation or a standard “B”?

I am learning this text to sing it with my choir - I’ve found some online resources for pronunciation (mostly letter by letter on Wikipedia so far) but was wondering whether there might be any special rules for pronunciation while singing versus speaking? Otherwise any general pronunciation help would be appreciated :)

Hey,

As i know from lithuanian, Intonation/Pitch Matters (Same as Latvian?).

Anyway is There a dictionary where the pitch is marked too?

Thx