# Lithuanian: word stress



## itsacatfish

One of my biggest issues in learning lithuanian is stress. The problem is, is that I've learned the four different stress patterns, but I can never find information as to which stress pattern a certain word sticks to. For example, it's quite easy to find out that the word for language is pronounced *kalbà*, but beyond this it's pretty hard to guess whether the Dative plural is *kalbóms *or *kal̃boms*, unless you already know (it's kalbóms, right?)

This is the kind of info I'd expect to find in a dictionary. However, all the dictionaries I can find seem to be mainly aimed at Lithuanian speakers and don't bother writing that sort of information. Does anyone know of anything I could use for reference on this topic? Any resources you could recommend?

Labai ačiū,

Anthony


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## CapnPrep

itsacatfish said:


> This is the kind of info I'd expect to find in a dictionary. However, all the dictionaries I can find seem to be mainly aimed at Lithuanian speakers and don't bother writing that sort of information. Does anyone know of anything I could use for reference on this topic? Any resources you could recommend?


Witkionary seems to mark the stress accent throughout the paradigm: _kalba_.


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## itsacatfish

Yes, I'm aware of this. Kalba was just an example (which I knew the answer for). The wiktionary coverage of Lithuanian is very small however, and less common words are harder to find. *Saváitė *(stress pattern 1), for example does not feature on Wiktionary. I'm looking for some place for quick reference with this kind of question, because a lot of words are not there


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## ahvalj

Every Lithuanian-Russian dictionary I have seen marks accentual paradigms for every declining word or verb.


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## itsacatfish

Any particular one to look out for?


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## ahvalj

Here is the newest:

Lyberis A · 2005 · Lietuvių-rusų kalbų žodynas — https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_7IkEzr9hyJM3F1LTF2aERxc3M/edit?usp=sharing


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## itsacatfish

Thank you very much! This looks great. I didn't think to look for Russian-Lituanian dictionaries, which was a bit of an oversight


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## AndrasBP

Here's another dictionary you can use, it's pretty comprehensive:

http://www.morphologic.hu/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=502 

It's Lithuanian-Hungarian, but the number of the stress pattern is always there. Just enter the Lithuanian word and click "keresés" (search). There is also a virtual Lithuanian keyboard you can click on.


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## Alcuin

Ar kaskas cia kalba lietuviskai? As gevenu Prancuzijoje ir nebeturiu progos kalbeti lietuviskai. Man butu malonu bendrauti truputi sitoye kalboje. (Turi buti gana daug klaidu mon lietuviu kalboje - atsiprasau)


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## Aleksandras

You can get the stress for any Lithuanian word here at Vytauto Didžiojo Universitetas:  KLC


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## AndrasBP

I've checked the KLC website and found that unfortunately the software is not reliable as it is not able to distinguish between parts of speech in context. 
For instance, in the sample text I used, the word "pasakai" meant "you say", with the stress on the last syllable, but the stress mark appeared on the first syllable, as if the word meant "tale", in the dative case. Same for "k*ei*sta" (adverbial) and "keist*a*" (adjective, nominative, feminine) (Eng. strange).


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## Aleksandras

Maybe phrases have too many options to choose from for the KLC system to work in all instances. As explained here: CCL “Almost a half of all Lithuanian word forms are ambiguous (e.g. _laužo_ – can be a noun or a verb; _prekės_ – can be singular noun in genitive case or plural noun in nominative case).”

If you use just one word at a time, the system seems to give all of the options from which you can choose the grammatically correct one. For example, if you enter pasakai, you get the noun (dktv. = daiktavardis = noun) as the first option and the verb (vksm. = veiksmažodis = verb) as the second option:

1. pãsakai (dktv. mot.gim. vnsk. N.)
2. pasakaĩ (vksm. esam.l. IIasm. vnsk. Nesngr.)

Keista is even more interesting, with choices of participles (dlv. = dalyvis = participle) and adjectives (bdvr. = būdvardis = adjective):

1. keistà (dlv. mot.gim. būt.l. vnsk. V. neįvardž. nesngr. neveik.r.)
2. keistà (dlv. mot.gim. būt.l. vnsk. Įn. neįvardž. nesngr. neveik.r.)
3. keĩsta (dlv. mot.gim. būt.l. vnsk. Š. neįvardž. nesngr. neveik.r.)
4. keĩsta (dlv. bevrd.gim. būt.l. neįvardž. nesngr. neveik.r.)
5. keistà (bdvr. mot.gim. vnsk. V. neįvardž.)
6. keistà (bdvr. mot.gim. vnsk. Įn. neįvardž.)
7. keĩsta (bdvr. mot.gim. vnsk. Š. neįvardž.)
8. keĩsta (bdvr. bevrd.gim. Neįvardž.)

The question of reliability may depend upon whether your expectations match the system's design and abilities. The inquiry that started this topic had to do with finding the stress in a word and the lack of such information in available dictionaries. The KLC web site appears to be excellent for finding single-word stress, and it is the best resource I have found for that purpose. A site like you describe that gives the correct stress for all words in a phrase would be wonderful. If you have other places to recommend, I would appreciate you directing me to them since I always like to have my studies made easier to accomplish.

Best regards,

Aleksandras


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## Kres

Alcuin said:


> Ar kaskas cia kalba lietuviskai? As gevenu Prancuzijoje ir nebeturiu progos kalbeti lietuviskai. Man butu malonu bendrauti truputi sitoye kalboje. (Turi buti gana daug klaidu mon lietuviu kalboje - atsiprasau)



Labas. Aš labai gerai kalbu lietuviškai. Mano Skype yra "arnoldasst".


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