[toc] I've already told you that I think it's important to learn verbs with three forms: the infinitive, 1st person present singular, 1st person past singular. Here's why: With these three forms, you can create the three stems necessary for building any verb form and type. Those are the infinitive stem, present stem and past stem. You also know the conjugation itself and can then conjugate it correctly. ### Infinitive Stem To form the infinitive stem, **drop the -t/-ties ending from the infinitive** form. Latvian infinitives always end in -t or -ties. > Drop the **-t** from domāt to form **domā**. > > Drop the **-ties** from rotāties to form **rotā**. You can now construct: 1. the infinitive 2. the simple future 3. the subjunctive 4. the past passive participle (-ts) 5. the -dams participle ### Present Stem Form the present stem by **dropping the -u ending from the 1st person present singular form**. > Short: Nāku becomes **nāk**. > > Long: Domāju becomes **domāj**. > > Mixed: Sveicinu becomes **sveicin**. You can now construct: 1. the simple present 2. the debitive 3. the imperative 4. the relative 5. the present active participle (-ošs) 6. the present passive participle (-ams) 7. the -ot participle 8. the -am participle ### Past Stem As with the present stem, we form the past stem by **dropping the -u from the 1st person past singular from**. > Short: Nācu becomes **nāc**. > > Long: Domāju becomes **domāj**. > > Mixed: Sveicināju becomes **sveicināj**. You can now construct: 1. the simple past (indicative) 2. the past active participle (-is) ### In Conclusion You can see how knowing the three forms shows you that domāt is a long conjugation verb while sveicināt is a mixed conjugation verb. Reference: [Baltic Online: Lesson 8](http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/litol-8-X.html) [slider title="Vocabulary in this post:"] **rotāties** : _long_ : to play **nākt** : _short_ : to come **sveicināt** : _mixed_ : to greet [/slider]