# Lithuanian: atleisk mums ; pasigailek mūsų



## chatkigazouille

Hello all,

I found these different forms of mes within the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and I'm curious to why that is. This prayer is repeated 3 times towards the end of the Litany, and each of the repetitions has a different response:

a) Dievo Avinėli, kuris naikini pasaulio nuodėmes, atleisk *mums*, Viešpatie
b) Dievo Avinėli, kuris naikini pasaulio nuodėmes, išklausyk *mus*, Viešpatie!
c) Dievo Avinėli, kuris naikini pasaulio nuodėmes, pasigailek *mūsų

My questions*
1) In other languages, the direct object of "forgive" is usually the fault/sin. E.g. Forgive us [indirect obj.] our sins [direct obj.]. Is this why the mes in a) is in naudininkas?

2) Why is the mes in kilmininkas in c) ? Is it because pasigailėti is used exclusively with kilmininkas?

Appreciate your help!


----------



## mO_ok

Hello!

You are right about the a) case - the object (the sins) is not indicated, but implicit, that's why you have naudininkas case. How ever, in the c) case you have kilmininkas because the object is mes, not our sins. Cf. in English: forgive *us *our sins, but have mercy *on us*.


----------



## chatkigazouille

@mO_ok thank you that is helpful. When you say that in this case it is similar to "have mercy *on* us", why then, would the mes be in kilmininkas rather than naudininkas?

I'm thinking maybe I'm taking this thru an English-biased lense. In French at least we'd say prenez pitié *de* nous [_de_ of course is usually translated into 'of', though in this context it is indeed 'on'].


----------



## mO_ok

I did not mean that the forms in Lithuanian and English correspond in this case, I just wanted to provide the translation to show the different ways of expressing the syntactic relations/cases. In English you say _forgive us_ but not _have mercy us _(although there is this saying _mercy me_, or am I wrong? Maybe it is vernacular?)_. _You were also right in pointing out that _pasigailėk _is mostly used with kilmininkas - I could not think of any instance where it would be compatible with naudininkas


----------



## chatkigazouille

@mO_ok ah ok gotcha. Thank you very much. Mercy me is informal yes.


----------

