Verbs
Latvian has three simple tenses (present, past and future), and three compound perfect constructions: present perfect, past perfect, future perfect.
Latvian verbs are used in five moods:
- indicative;
- imperative;
- conditional;
- conjunctive (Latvian literature, however, does not make a distinction between conditional and conjunctive. Even if such a distinction is made both of them are morphologically identical - ending in -u.);
- quotative also known as relative or inferential mood (some authors distinguish analytically derived jussive as a subset of quotative, others, however, insist that a simple addition of a conjunction (lai) is not sufficient basis for distinguishing this grammatical construction as a grammatical mood); and
- debitive (for expressing obligation).
The relations between tenses and moods are shown in the following table. (The table does not include quotative.)
| Indicative | Imperative | Conditional | Conjunctive | Debitive | |
| Simple present | + | + | + | + | + |
| Simple past | + | - | - | - | + |
| Simple future | + | - | - | + | + |
| Present perfect | + | - | + | + | + |
| Past perfect | + | - | - | - | + |
| Future perfect | + | - | - | + | + |
Latvian verbs have two voices, active and passive. The passive voice is analytic, combining an auxiliary verb (tikt "become", būt "be", or more rarely, tapt "become") and the past passive participle form of the verb. Reflexive verbs are marked morphologically by the suffix -s.
Read more about this topic: Latvian Grammar
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