Macedonian grammar
Macedonian exhibits a number of grammatical features that distinguish it from most other Slavic languages, such as the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article, the lack of an infinitival verb, and the constructions with ima/nema formed with the auxiliary "to have", among others.
The following table provides the upper and lower case forms of the Macedonian alphabet, along with the IPA value for each letter: The cursive version of the alphabet is slightly different: Punctuation (интерпункција, interpunkcija) marks are one or two part graphical marks used in writing, denoting tonal progress, pauses, sentence type (syntactic use), abbreviations, et cetera.
Generally speaking, the syntactic constituents of the language are:[2]: Words, even though they represent separate linguistic units, are linked together according to the characteristics they possess.
Macedonian nouns (именки, imenki) belong to one of three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) and are inflected for number (singular and plural), and marginally for case.
[6] The Macedonian nominal system distinguishes two numbers (singular and plural), three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), case and definiteness.
One feature that has no parallel in any other standard Balkan language[2] is the existence of three definite articles pertaining to position of the object: medial and/or unspecified, proximal (or close) and distal (or distant).
Examples: In the masculine singular, −от/−ов/−он is used after a consonant, −та/−ва/−на after −а (e.g. судијата 'the judge'), and −то/−во/−но after a vowel other than −а (e.g. таткото 'the father').
Macedonian lost the traditional (Slavic) grammatical cases during its development and became an analytic language.
Based on their meaning and their function in a sentence, pronouns fall into one of the following categories: Macedonian has a complex system of verbs (глаголи, glagoli).
According to the categorization, all Macedonian verbs are divided into three major subgroups: a-subgroup, e-subgroup and i-subgroup.
Here are some examples where the usage of Present tense in Macedonian is applied: The imperfect, or referred to as 'past definite incomplete tense' (минато определено несвршено време,minato opredeleno nesvršeno vreme), is used to express past actions where the speaker is a witness of it or took participation in it.
Besides the basic usage of the Imperfect, with this tense in Macedonian can be expressed and[9]: The suffixes used to make the Imperfect are[10]: * - The suffix -ja is used for verbs of I- and E-subgroups where the word stem ends on vowel, for example mie - mieja (wash - were washing), pee - peeja (sing - were singing).
As an exemplification of the mentioned usages, here are some sentences: The aorist, also known as 'past definite complete tense' (минато определено свршено време, minato opredeleno svršeno vreme), is a verb form that is used to express past finished and completed action or event, with or without the speaker's participation in it.
In the following section are given some examples about the mentioned usage above: The Macedonian tense минато неопределено свршено време (minato neopredeleno svršeno vreme, 'past indefinite complete tense'), or referred to as 'perfect of perfective verbs', functions similarly as the English Present perfect simple.
In this respect, both Macedonian and Bulgarian differ from other South Slavic languages, since in both the clitic is fixed, whereas in Serbo-Croatian it inflects for person and number [15].
The negative form of the future tense in Macedonian is made by adding the particles нема да (nema + da) or just не (ne) before the verb pattern, whereas the interrogative form is made by adding the question word дали (dali), also before the verb pattern.
Besides the main usage, the future tense is used to express[17]: Some of these mentioned rules, can be recognized in the following examples: Future-in-the-past is expressed by means of the same clitic ќе (ḱe, 'will') and past tense forms of the verb: An interesting fact of vernacular usage of a past tense form of the verb which can be used in a future sense as well, although this construction is mostly limited to older speakers, and is used to describe the degree of certainty that some event will take place in the future or under some condition.
Examples: In this respect, Macedonian is different from Bulgarian: Macedonian is consistent in the use of ќе as a clitic, whereas the equivalent Bulgarian construction involves the inflection of the clitic for tense, person and number as a regular verb (щях да дойда, 'I would [have] come'; щеше да дойде, 'he would [have] come').
Adjectives have three degrees of comparison (степенување на придавки, stepenuvanje na pridavki) – positive, comparative and superlative.
Since Macedonian lost the case system, the prepositions are very important for creation and expression of various grammatical categories.
Regarding the form, the prepositions can be: simple (vo, na, za, do, so, niz, pred, zad, etc.)
Based on the meaning the preposition express, they can be divided into:[18][19][20] Having in mind the fact that the preposition "на" is the most frequently used in the language, it may be used to express different meaning[21][22]: The particles (честички, čestički) are closed word class that have grammatical function.
Regarding the function of the particles, they can be divided into the following groups: [23][24] The Macedonian numbers (броеви, broevi) have gender and definiteness.
In Macedonia, and in Macedonian studies in general, it developed during the 19th century, where the first few research results have been provided.
