r/Kartvelian

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Hello all, I am not sure if this is the right thread. I used to post on the Sakartvelo thread but I noticed that is more for political discussions.

I am a British person learning Georgian. I have always been interested in non Indo-european languages but I also really love Georgia so, I get a lot out of learning the language. I focus a lot on grammar because it interests me. However, I make many mistakes and I am still at a point where I don't know many words.

I have attached writings which are five months apart. I am happy with my progress and I will definitely be continuing. I feel so excited as a young adult to have so much time to learn new things.

Have a good day everyone and please ask any questions,

Gigi

გვფრცქვნი "you peel us" is notorious for being a word with a high number of initial consonants: so famous in fact, it might just be the very first Georgian word I ever learned!

Because of that, I tried to trace where it actually comes from. Wiktionary says its masdar form is ფრცქვნა, all good so far: but I cannot seem to find any more information on that verb: what are its preverbs, its full conjugations, is it derived from a noun?

Of course, this isn't the most commonly used word so not the easiest to find information about: some online dictionaries do list a verb for "peel", but what they list is ფცქვნის, with no internal რ, and no mention of ფრცქვნის anywhere!

What gives? Is this a dialectal, temporal variation?

I guess my question is: do you actually know/use this word? How does it conjugate in other screeves? Also, are there other words related to it, or is it really a large, isolated verb root we're dealing with?

Hi! If anyone is interested in 1 to 1 lessons, check out my profile. I have been teaching expats, language enthusiasts and people who have Georgian in laws.

Nouns ending in -ა and -ე get replaced with -ის in the genitive case, so “გოგრა” becomes “გოგრის,” and “საუკუნე” becomes “საუკუნის.” But what I've noticed in some native texts, is that people names will take -ს instead of -ის; so for example you might see “ეს არის ილიას წიგნი” or “ელენეს სახლი შორია.”

Is this an official rule you have to follow with people/animate nouns? Or is it just an alternative way to form the genitive case in colloquial Georgian? Can you say “ილიის წიგნი” or “ელენის სახლი”? How would it sound to native ears?

Thank you!

I have been in love with this song lately. I (as you can probably tell) do not speak Georgian, and various translate apps seem to convert the script differently/spit out different meanings for the title. No idea where to begin for the actual lyrics beyond the title, as I can’t find them anywhere online and wouldn’t know how to decipher them aurally.

Anyway would love to know as it is such beautiful music.

Apparently they both mean to wear clothing? I don't know. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm a businessman from China. I visited Georgia for business about two years ago and became deeply interested in the language — the unique script, the verb system, the case structure. As someone whose native language is also ancient and structurally complex, I found Georgian fascinating in ways I didn't expect.

When I tried to learn, I quickly realized how limited the available resources are. Most online dictionaries are outdated, and none of them cover verb conjugations or noun declensions, which are essential for anyone seriously studying Georgian.

So I partnered with a Georgian language teacher based in Tbilisi, and we've spent the last 18 months building PeaceBridge — a free Georgian-English dictionary.

Here's what it currently offers:

• 9,000+ entries, with new words added weekly
• Full verb conjugation tables — all screeves, all 4 verb classes
• 7-case noun/adjective declension tables
• Audio pronunciation for every word that no other online dictionary provides
• Example sentences with context
• Available on web, iOS, Android, and as a Chrome extension for quick lookups

Word detail page with meanings, example sentences, and audio

Everything is free. No ads, no paywall, since I just want to make a contribution to this ancient language.

Complete verb conjugation across all screeves

Chrome extension, select any Georgian word on a webpage to look it up instantly

How you can help:

For native speakers, we have a built-in review system. You can help verify and improve entries: meanings, example sentences, and conjugation accuracy. If you're interested, sign up and send me a message. I'll grant you reviewer access.

For learners — I'd genuinely like to know what features you need, what's working, and what isn't. I'd rather build based on real feedback than my own assumptions.

Our goal is to help preserve and document this language and make it more accessible to learners around the world.

Link in the comments.

მადლობა!

I’m not too well versed in Georgian grammar yet; if I want to say “This makes perfect sense”, would “ეს სრულებით გასაგებია” be correct? Are there any variants that convey the same meaning as the English sentence? Thanks in advance!

Do ani, bani, gani, etc. mean anything or are they just names to refer to the letter like in English? From an older post I learnt that they aren't even used nowadays and most people would probably get confused if you say "vini" for example.

Hello! I want to learn Svan but I don’t have a lot of audio resources and I’m not somewhere where they speak Svan at the moment.
I’m wondering how Trio Mandilis pronounciation is? I think it’s supposed to be:

თვეთვნე ლახვ ი მეშხე კოჯა̈რ,
წაფხ კვამფა̈რ ი გურხუნ ჟაიშ -
მცხი ლიც ი მცხი აი̈რ
მაი ხოჩა ლი გუშგვე შვანიშ
იმჟი მალა̈ტ ისგვი კოჯა̈რ,
სი ხი მიშგვი თემიშ ნარი,
ისგვი ლისგდის მადმა ხოჩა,
ისგვაშკალიბ მადმა არი

(I’m not sure).

If some can help me please write a comment.

Hello everyone!

I have two questions regarding details about verb conjugation:

1. Some verbs have distinct singular and plural stems, notably ზი-ს vs სხედ-ან. On the Wikipedia page for pluractionality mentions such Georgian verbs, and most importantly, says that this distionction is not exactly parallel to -ს vs -ენ verb endings, and that a grammatically singular but truly plural subject (such as a noun introduced by a number) triggers a "mixed" form, which in this case I assume would be "სხედა".

This is quite interesting, but looking up such a form as სხედა on the Georgian Wikipedia leads no results, and სხედს gives only one result, which I don't understand too well but seems untrustworthy. Moreover, when generating Georgian sentences on Google Translate, I consistenly get ზის for sentences like "Two people are sitting over there". Further to that, googling theoretically impossible forms like "ვზივართ" gives a decent number of hits.

What is the explanation for this? When would you follow Wikipedia's rules of singular-plural matching? Does it not apply to this verb in particular? Any comments on this peculiar type of verbs?

2. My second question is about a verb I encountered in the wild while looking for instances of the word "ვინა" as a variant of "ვინ". Nearly all of the relevent results I found on Wikipedia where sentences starting with "ვინა სთქვა?", and the verb form surprised me, as I was expecting თქვა.

I heard of similar ს vs no-ს alternations in words like თხოვს vs სთხოვს, which apparently have a distinction in meaning. I also heard the initial ს- is generally disappearing in verbs, and so that difference in meaning is weakening. Yet in this case, I don't see a difference between სთქვა and თქვა, and translating "'who said that..." in Google gives back "ვინ თქვა": is სთქვა then simply an older/archaic form?

While we're at it, anyone knows when exactly to add -ა to subject pronouns like ვინ(ა), თქვენ(ა) etc. ? I understand that it is probably optional in any case. Could it be when they are in direct contact with a personal prefix?