anian, see below). However, in Tosk/Standard Albanian, a structure would have to be used that would roughly translate to "I want that I learn Albanian," with the second verb in the subjunctive.
In saying something like "It is not difficult to learn Albanian," a similar construction is used. Instead of an infinitive, a finite verb is used.
|nuk||është||e veshtirë||TË mesojë||gjuhën||shqipe|
In some cases, a construction që + SUBJECT + të + VERB is used. This would be roughly equivalent to a construction like "for SUBJECT INFINITIVE" in English. For example, "It is not difficult for John to learn Albanian" would be expressed as the following:
|Nuk||është||e veshtirë||QË||Gjoni||TË mesojë||gjuhën||shqipe|
Note that the constructions above, while representative of Tosk and Standard Albanian, are rare in Geg. In these situations, an infinitival form would be used in Geg. For example, the Geg equivalent of Standard Albanian Dua të flas gjuhën shqipe. 'I want to speak Albanian' would be Due me folë gjuhën shqipe, where me folë is the infinitive of flas 'speak'. More information about the Geg infinitive (along with other participial constructions) is given in Lesson 4.
In Standard Albanian, the relative pronoun is declined. The following are the forms of the relative pronoun; the genitive forms must take an additional nyje particle.
|nominative||i cili||të cilët||e cila||të cilat|
|accusative||të cilin||të cilët||të cilën||të cilat|
|gen/dat.||të cilit||të cilëve||së cilës||të cilave|
|ablative||të cilit||të cilëve||së cilës||të cilave|
The relative pronoun appears in first position in the relative clause, and has the case that is appropriate to its use in the relative clause, but with the gender and number determined by the head noun (the noun that is modified by the relative clause). For example, from the text in Lesson 1, "The flag, the seal, and the anthem are... symbols... that reflect..."
In this example the form of the relative pronoun is të cilat, and is feminine nominative plural. It modifies the noun simbolet, which is the nominative plural form of the ambigeneric noun simbol (which, being ambigeneric and plural, has feminine agreement).
Note that, in spoken Albanian, it is more common to use invariant që (Geg qi) instead of the relative pronoun cili, e. This is much more common in the texts presented in these lessons, for example in the following phrase from Lesson 2:
When the object being described is not specified for gender, the default form of the pronouns is the feminine form. Thus, in an impersonal construction in which there is an adjective predicated of an understood (unexpressed) expletive subject along with a clausal complement (thus equivalent to English "extraposed" sentential subject), the adjective takes the feminine form, e.g. është e veshtirë të mesoni shqip '(it)-is difficult/FEM that you-learn Albanian' (that veshtirë is feminine is shown by the nyje e rather than masculine i -- see Lesson 1).
Forms of ai, ajo 'that' are used when the object being described is not near the speaker. These are also used as the third person personal pronouns.
When the object discussed is near the speaker, forms of ky, kjo 'this' are used.
As discussed above, the function of the 3rd person personal pronouns is filled by the distal demonstrative pronouns. Unlike 3rd person pronouns, the rest of the personal pronouns are not marked for gender.
|1st person||2nd person|
The following are the forms of the Albanian weak pronouns (also commonly called "clitic pronouns"):
|3rd person||e (acc.)||i (acc.)|
|i (dat.)||u (dat.)|
With the exception of imperatives (on which see below), weak pronouns always come before the verb, regardless of mood, tense, etc. For example, in the following examples meaning "I eat it" and "I have eaten it," the weak pronoun e comes directly before the verb.
When using a verb form obligatorily preceded by a particle of some sort, such as të in the subjunctive or do të in the future and conditional, the clitics still occur directly before the verb (i.e., between the particle and the verb). For example, in