Simplified Albanian Grammar

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Simplified Albanian Grammar

Alphabet & Pronounciation

Albanian is written with a variant of the Latin alphabet consisting of 36 letters:

Upper Case	Lower Case	Pronunciation
A	a	[a]
B	b	[b]
C	c	[t͡s]
Ç	ç	[t͡ʃ]
D	d	[d]
E	e	[e], [ɛ]
Ë	ë	[ə], [ʌ], [ɜ]
F	f	[f]
G	g	[g]
Gj	gj	[ɟ]
H	h	[h]
I	i	[i]
J	j	[j]
K	k	[k]
L	l	[l]
Ll	ll	[ɫ]
M	m	[m]
N	n	[n]
Nj	nj	[ɲ]
O	o	[o], [ɔ]
P	p	[p]
Q	q	[c]
R	r	[ɾ], [ɻ]
Rr	r	[r]
S	s	[s]
Sh	sh	[ʃ]
T	t	[t]
Th	th	[θ]
U	u	[u]
V	v	[v]
X	x	[d͡z]
Xh	xh	[d͡ʒ]
Y	y	[y]
Z	z	[z]
Zh	zh	[ʒ]

Spelling is pretty much phonetic, with little variations according to dialect.

Stress is mostly unpredictable and not indicated in spelling. Contrary to most languages, the schwa ([ə]), indicated by <ë>, can be stressed.

Nouns

Gender

Albanian nouns are either masculine or feminine. Verbs and adjectives, when substantivized, have a special form usually referred to as neuter, indicated by the particle të.

Number

Albanian nouns have a singular (default) and a plural form. There is no standard plural ending; one must learn the plural form of each noun.

Case

Albanian nouns inflect for four cases: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative. Certain nouns also have a special vocative form. The genitive and the dative forms are the same, the only difference being the particle that precedes the noun in the genitive.

Definiteness

Indefinite Article

The numeral një "one" can be used as an indefinite article. Ex.:

• një shtëpi "a house"

Definite Endings

There are no definite articles in Albanian. Definiteness is indicated by means of endings, which are fused with plural and case marks, and are different for masculine and feminine.

• shtëpi "house", shtëpia "the house"

Inflection Models

Masculine Noun: mal "mountain"

	Indefinite		Definite
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
nominative	një mal	male	mali	malet
accusative			malin
genitive & dative	një mali	maleve	malit	maleve
ablative		malesh

Masculine Noun: zog "bird"

	Indefinite		Definite
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
nominative	një zog	zogj	zogu	zogjtë
accusative			zogun
genitive & dative	një zogu	zogjve	zogut	zogjve
ablative		zogjsh

Feminine Noun: vajzë "girl"

	Indefinite		Definite
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
nominative	një vajzë	vajza	vajza	vajzat
accusative			vajzën
genitive & dative	një vajze	vajzave	vajzës	vajzave
ablative		vajzash