onal 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 present subjunctive form of the verb.
Future paradigm of shkruaj 'write':
|1st person||do të shkruaj||do të shkruajmë|
|2nd person||do të shkruash||do të shkruani|
|3rd person||do të shkruajë||do të shkruajnë|
The future perfect is formed with the invariant particle do followed by the subordinator të and a present perfect subjunctive form of the verb. The future perfect is used to describe events that will occur in the future before another specified point in the future. For example, it would be used in a phrase like ai do të ketë shkruar librin... "he will have written the book..."
Future perfect paradigm of shkruaj 'write':
|1st person||do të kem shkruar||do të kemi shkruar|
|2nd person||do të kesh shkruar||do të keni shkruar|
|3rd person||do të ketë shkruar||do të kenë shkruar|
Note that there is substantial variation across Albanian dialects in the formation of the future tense. In other (non-standard) Tosk dialects, the subordinator të is often omitted, and even in the standard language it can be omitted in colloquial usage or fast speech. Constructions with the future marker do are seen in Geg dialects. They are used to show obligation, rather than future time reference (as seen in the texts presented in Lessons 4 and 5). Geg dialects have a completely different future tense construction, which is composed of a conjugated present tense form of kam 'have' followed by the infinitive, which is formed from the preposition me followed by the participle (note that the Geg infinitive is a distinct formation from the Tosk/Standard Albanian "infinitive," discussed in Lesson 4). The equivalent of do të jenë in Geg would be kanë me qenë, where kanë is the 3rd person plural present form of kam 'have' and me qenë is the infinitive of jam 'be'. The Geg future perfect is formed with a present perfect form of kam plus the infinitive.
The conditional is formed in the same way as the future, except that an imperfect subjunctive form of the verb is used. The present conditional is also often referred to as the "Future Imperfect