 the sentence "I will eat it," the clitic e is positioned between the subordinator të and the verb ha. The combination of të and e actually gives a contraction ta (on such contractions, see below).
Weak pronoun placement is more complicated in the imperative, where there is some variability as to where they appear. In negative imperatives, weak pronouns still come directly before the verb (i.e., between the negator and the verb). In positive imperatives, weak pronouns can come either before or after the verb: if they come before the verb, they are written as separate words; if they come after the verb, the clitics are attached to the verb. If clitics come after a plural imperative, they are placed between the stem and the 2nd person plural imperative ending -ni. In the following examples meaning "Open the door for me!" from Newmark et al. (1982), where the weak pronouns are capitalized, the example on the left has the clitic combination ma (dative më plus accusative e) as a separate word placed before the verb, while the example on the right has the clitic combination ma attached to the end of the verb.
|for me-it||open!||the-door||open!-for me-it||the-door|
In the following examples meaning "Write to me!" the clitic either comes before the verb (as in the example on the left) or between the stem and the 2PL imperative ending -ni (as in the example on the right).
|to me||write!||write!-to me|
Direct object weak pronouns are not obligatory, but optional when the direct object is overtly expressed. For example, both of the following are acceptable for "I saw the dog."
If the direct object is not overtly expressed, then the weak pronoun is obligatory. For example, if saying "I saw it" (where 'it' is 'the dog'), the clitic must be present.
Indirect object weak pronouns are obligatory when there is an indirect object, even if it is overtly expressed. For example, in the sentence "I wrote to John," the indirect object weak pronoun is required.
Where the indirect object is a pronoun, an overt form of the pronoun is optional but not obligatory. For example, in the sentence "I wrote to you all," both of the following are acceptable:
|I||to-you (pl.)||wrote||I||to-you (pl.)||wrote||to-you (pl.)|
When a dative and an accusative weak pronoun are used together, they often combine. The dative weak pronoun always comes before the accusative weak pronoun. The following chart shows the different possible combinations.
|na||na e||na i||na u|
In addition to weak pronouns combining to give special forms, weak pronouns (or combinations thereof) can combine with the subordinator të:
These forms are originally the combination of a nyje particle and a pronoun. In most instances they have combined to form a single word, but in others they have not. The following are the forms for the 1st and 2nd person possessive pronouns. Note that e preceding some forms signals that an appropriate nyje particle is required: in some instances it will actually be e, in others it will not.
|Pl.||nom.||e mi||tanë||e tu||tuaj|
|acc.||e mi||tanë||e tu||tuaj|
|gen/dat/abl.||e mi||tanë||e tu||tuaj|
|Pl.||nom.||e mia||tona||e tua||tuaja|
|acc.||e mia||tona||e tua||tuaja|
|gen/dat/abl.||e mia||tona||e tua||tuaja|
The third person possessive adjectives tij, e 'his', saj, e 'her', tyre, e 'their' are treated like typical adjectives.
Possessive pronouns nearly always follow the noun they modify, e.g. gjuha jonë 'our language', miku im 'my friend', etc. The only cases where the possessive pronouns can precede the noun they modify is with a small group of kinship terms (e.g., vella 'brother', motër 'sister', and several others). When the possessive pronoun follows the noun, the noun is always in the definite form (e.g., vëllai im 'my brother', motra jotë 'your (pl.) sister'). In the rare cases where it can precede the noun, the noun is in the indefinite form (e.g., im vëlla, jotë motër). The 3rd person possessive pronouns never precede the noun.
As briefly discussed in Lesson 1, the Albanian future tense is formed from the particle do followed by the subordinator të and a pr