The verbal morphology of Armenian is complicated by the existence of two main dialects, Eastern and Western.
The infinitive of Armenian verbs is formed with the stem, the theme vowel, and the affix -լ (-l).
Eastern and Western Armenian have a common present participle -ող (-oġ), which attaches to the past stem; it is sometimes used as an agentive noun: ուսանող (usanoġ student) [fr.
Both Eastern and Western feature one present, one future, and two past tenses (imperfect, preterite).
In form, the present indicative of Eastern Armenian has no corresponding Western formation.
Western Armenian uses a synthetic general form of the verb preceded by the particle կը gë /gə/.
Western Armenian uses a synthetic imperfect form of the verb preceded by the particle կը gë /gə/.
Note that in all forms, Eastern and Western, that feature the combination էի (e.g., սիրում էիմ/կը սիրէիմ, etc.
The Western future tense is made with the general synthetic verb preceded by the particle պիտի (bidi).
Note that in all Eastern forms that feature the combination ու + ե (e.g., կարդալու եմ, etc.
Both Eastern and Western Armenian use a synthetic preterite, which is formed by deleting the infinitive marker and theme vowel, then: · Class I and II verbs (in both dialects) add -եց (-ec῾); · Class III verbs add -աց (-ac῾).
The optative mood (called the subjunctive in some grammars) in Armenian is identical in both dialects.
The non-past optative is the simple "present" conjugated form, as compared to other Indo-European languages: 1Historically, verbs of the third conjugation ended in final յ, which in traditional orthography is silent in word final position.
Due to spelling reforms conducted in the earliest 20th century, final յ is missing from the Eastern conjugation The past optative is the simple "imperfect" conjugated form, as compared to other Indo-European languages: 1 In both dialects, the combinations եի and էի are pronounced as though spelt "եյի" and "էյի", meaning that սիրեի and սիրէի are both pronounced [siɹeji].
The Eastern conditional forms, with slight orthographic variation, are identical to the Western present and imperfect indicative forms: The second (less prevalent) Western Armenian conditional is identical to the Eastern Past Necessitative.