# All Slavic languages: implied "go" after modal verbs



## jazyk

In Czech it's possible to omit verbs meaning "to go" in the presence of modal verbs, as in Musím domů (lit. I must homewards). The same happens is non-Slavic languages, such as German (Ich muss nach Hause) and Dutch (Ik moet naar huis). Does this phenomenon exist in other Slavic languages? 

Thanks.


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## TriglavNationalPark

It does in Slovene: Moram domov = I must (go) home


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## Nanon

It does in Russian even in the absence of modal verbs. "Вы куда? - Я домой."


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## cyanista

Nanon said:


> It does in Russian even in the absence of modal verbs. "Вы куда? - Я домой."


Exactly! 

_ -Я сейчас быстренько в душ, потом за покупками, а потом на работу.
 -Он тогда к жене, а она ему от ворот поворот!

_
Of course, my examples are very colloquial.


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## sokol

TriglavNationalPark said:


> It does in Slovene: Moram domov = I must (go) home


Is this colloquial speech or standard language?

I am just wondering - I _think _that my Slovene teacher would have corrected this as an "error" (that is that it should be "moram iti domov"), but it was almost ten years ago when I did learn Slovene, so I am not sure if I remember this correctly.


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## trance0

It seems perfectly standard language to me, Sokol. Similar to: 

Moram k teti.
Želim k mami.

I see no reason, why these sentences would be wrong.


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## echo chamber

It _is_ possible in Macedonian: "Moram doma" = "I must home" instead of "Moram da odam doma" = "I must go home", however, very rarely used. I, personally, have perhaps never used it in my entire life without the verb "to go".


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## Tagarela

Ahoj,



echo chamber said:


> I, personally, have perhaps never used it in my entire life without the verb "to go".



Take your chance before you regret it!

As for Czech, what is the best option, with or without the verb?

Na shledanou.:


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## BezierCurve

It is also possible in Polish, although in an informal way, often in a hurry: 

Muszę do toalety! - "I have to the toilet!"


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## trance0

In Slovene sentences like "moram na WC" are in fact quite common in everyday speech. And as far as I know, this is also the case in German(ich muss aufs Klo).


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## Jana337

Tagarela said:


> Ahoj,
> 
> 
> 
> Take your chance before you regret it!
> 
> As for Czech, what is the best option, with or without the verb?
> 
> Na shledanou.:


The sentences have a colloquial flair without the verb.


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## mateo19

In my Slovak class we just saw an example (I'm sorry I don't specifically remember it to cite it here) where there was a motion expression, like _domov_ or _do kina _without a motion verb.  So, it does exist in Slovak.  I do not know, however, if it is informal or standard.  I'll let a more experienced forum dweller answer that one.


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## sokol

trance0 said:


> It seems perfectly standard language to me, Sokol. Similar to:
> 
> Moram k teti.
> Želim k mami.


Now these too look colloquial to me  - but of course I have full confidence in your native speaker's view! (That's why I asked in the first place.)

It may be that my brain thinks that these constructions were much too similar to my mother tongue (= [Austrian] German) and therefore makes me believe that they surely can't be Slovenian ... anyway, my remark certainly is only that of a learner of Slovenian.


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## trance0

You needn`t excuse yourself, Sokol. Such sentences seem very natural to me, even if perhaps they aren`t standard language. I will however look into this matter more thoroughly and report my findings. Namely, I shall make use of the famous Toporišič Grammar of Slovene language, next week.


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## Thomas1

BezierCurve said:


> It is also possible in Polish, although in an informal way, often in a hurry:
> 
> Muszę do toalety! - "I have to the toilet!"


I think this one of the very few, if not the only one, situations when we would naturally omit "go".
Muszę do łazienki. is another variant of Bezier's example, and an informal version: Muszę do kibla.

I would appreciate some other examples. 


Tom


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## Darina

Nanon said:


> It does in Russian even in the absence of modal verbs. "Вы куда? - Я домой."


 
I think this is a different case! The question here is if the verb "to go" can be omitted after a MODAL verb: I must (go) home.
Just for the record: such construction is impossible in Bulgarian. I think the main reason is the lack of cases which will make the meaning completely unclear. 
On the other hand, we have a special verb "to go home"- "otivam si", so we cannot easily omit "to go".


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## Nanon

Sorry, Darina, for the lack of clarity! I wrote _*even*_ in the absence of modal verbs, meaning that modal constructions with (ad)verbs with the omission of the verb "to go" were also possible - "мне нужно домой", etc.

You don't need to be in a hurry if you omit the verb when you say "мне нужно в туалет"...


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## Darina

Sorry for the misunderstanding! It is just because you did not give an example with the modal verb.


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## Duya

Jana337 said:


> The sentences have a colloquial flair without the verb.



(I dislike "here too" type of posts, but for the sake of completeness, since no one mentioned Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian...)

Omission of "to go" is possible in Serbo-Croatian too. Generally, it is perfectly standard (_Hoću kući_, _Želim u Ameriku_), although it might have "a colloquial flair".


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## iobyo

echo chamber said:


> It _is_ possible in Macedonian: "Moram doma" = "I must home" instead of "Moram da odam doma" = "I must go home", however, very rarely used. I, personally, have perhaps never used it in my entire life without the verb "to go".



Sorry for bumping a dead thread, but I just had to make this correction.

I hope you don't mind, echo chamber.


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## aprilmay

It's almost always used in Croatian in everyday and colloquial speech, i.e. "Moram na WC", "Moram doma", "Moram na posao"


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## turkish

Darina said:


> I think this is a different case! The question here is if the verb "to go" can be omitted after a MODAL verb: I must (go) home.
> Just for the record: such construction is impossible in Bulgarian. I think the main reason is the lack of cases which will make the meaning completely unclear.
> On the other hand, we have a special verb "to go home"- "otivam si", so we cannot easily omit "to go".




It is possible in Bulgarian to do it .For example :Веднага в къщи !!as "Go Home this instant !!!


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## Orlin

Само че тук въобще няма глагол (още повече модален), така че според мен посоченото не съответства на темата: тя е за конструкции от типа на посочените в пост № 21, които и според мен не са възможни в българския език (освен, може би, с редки изключения като "Искам вкъщи!").


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## Anna111

Dear all, in case you still want to talk about this topic I would very much appreciate your help. I'm currently involved in a small cross-linguistic research on exactly these types of sentences - sentences with modal verbs and a directional part, but without an infinitive. I'm comparing German, Romance, Celtic and Slavic languages - I'm very happy to see that the people here are already aware of this quirky type of sentences.

For the Slavic part, I'm in desperate need of your help. Could you help me by filling out four questions on your language?
For Bulgarian, follow this link: https://docs.google.com/a/students....9Dw3To53Wln19Q01-QY01jyXS5hKoxEhquLE/viewform
For Czech, follow this link: https://docs.google.com/a/students....Fe9VTJ38yZdcs_QziwpkOCTO4SYL1kpGZgOo/viewform
For Polish, follow this link: https://docs.google.com/a/students....aOuZkZ1FvU8W7qJNrGbrSSEEH7aPP2RJ7OSA/viewform
For Russian, follow this link: https://docs.google.com/a/students....xti-f3BA8-izFvQ8VCNuSlt8dMn4qTL6tuDc/viewform
For all other Slavic languages, follow this link: https://docs.google.com/a/students....80SCVVA0YnZ1MykauqH3pLfLCIjtkC-eKPNo/viewform

Thank you very much - if I get enough responses I promise I'll post the summary here!

Kind regards


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## Anna111

My apologies, the above links don't work. Here are the correct ones:

Bulgarian:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1z23jONp9Dw3To53Wln19Q01-QY01jyXS5hKoxEhquLE/viewform
Czech:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LDk6gv6Fe9VTJ38yZdcs_QziwpkOCTO4SYL1kpGZgOo/viewform 
Polish:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zTtXdI4aOuZkZ1FvU8W7qJNrGbrSSEEH7aPP2RJ7OSA/viewform
Russian:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1VonSjb9xti-f3BA8-izFvQ8VCNuSlt8dMn4qTL6tuDc/viewform 
Slavic:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mnQoU-o80SCVVA0YnZ1MykauqH3pLfLCIjtkC-eKPNo/viewform 

Thank you again in advance for your help!


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## Barubek

I fulfilled your questionnaire, I hope it's not too late.


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## LoraLanguage

I think that in Bulgarian it's possible to omit the verb "go" after a modal verb. For example:
Къде да отидем? = Where to go? (We) (The verb is in 1 person plural.)
Може вкъщи. (It can be at home.)

For example if your friends and you are outside and some of you ask where to go now and somebody offers to go to their home.

But we CAN'T say "I must home." instead of "I must go home."


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## Panceltic

As regards the (in)formality and colloquilality of Slovene examples -- consider the church song "K tebi želim, moj Bog" which is usually sung at funerals. I cannot see an occasion where colloquial speech would be more undesirable than in this case, and it omits the verb "to go"


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