# Latvian: We have no sugar, only lemons



## bobertfishbone

I am trying to get a basic knowledge of Latvian grammar, and I ran across this sentence. My attempt at translation gave me this:

Mums nav cukuru, tikai citronus.

Is this somewhat accurate? I'm a beginner, so any help here would be much appreciated. Thanks!


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## karuna

Yup, almost correct. Only small corrections with noun cases:

Mums nav cukurua (gen.), tikai citronusi (nom.).

The second noun is in the nominative case because the verb _ir _is implied there while the verb _nav _requires the genitive case.


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## bobertfishbone

Thanks! Now what if I'm using the imperfect tense of nav? I assume this would read something like:

Mums nebijām cukura, tikai citroni.

Is this correct?


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## Flaminius

Hello *bobertfishbone*,

A big welcome from a fellow Latvian learner!  



> Mums nebijām cukura, tikai citroni.


This is wrong because _mums_ is in dative and cannot maintain an agreement with the verb.  The subject of the first part is _cukura_, which requires the verb _būt_ to be in the third person.  Now, you only have to turn _nav_ in the imperfect, which is _nebija_.

Mums nebija cukura.
A very literal translation is:
To us, did not exist [any] of sugar.


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## bobertfishbone

Thanks a lot, that cleared it up for me, and showed that I have a LOT of learning to do. 

This may be a bit off topic, but is there any definitive book or learning method with Latvian? I haven't been able to find too much, and any help would be greatly appreciated! Feel free to send me a Private Message or email through this forum, if it isn't welcome in this thread.


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## valdo

Hallo, Bobertfishbone....
The best way to learn Latvian, probably, is by communicating with Latvians. I don't think that any books would be of much help....since Latvian grammar is something that drives crazy even Latvians...!!!

Saludos,


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