vajadzēt – Latvian verb conjugation

Nominal Forms

Infinitive	vajadzēt
Negative Infinitive	nevajadzēt
Verbal Noun	vajadzēšana

Indicative

Imperative

Sg.3	lai vajag
Pl.3	lai vajag

Verbs conjugated like vajadzēt

vajadzēt,

Etymology

Borrowed from Livonian vajāg (“necessary”); cf. Estonian vaja (“necessary; need; lack”), Finnish vajaa (“incomplete, inadequate; need”), Veps vajag (“incomplete”). In 16th-18th century texts, the word (in the older form vaijaga) is used as an adjective, often accompanied by the copula (vaijaga ir... “it is necessary”), following the original Livonian pattern. From the 17th century on, it began occurring also by itself in a dative construction (man vajag... “I need”), from which it was reinterpreted as a verb, so that further forms — an infinitive vajadzēt, a past tense vajadzēja, a future tense vajadzēs, a conditional form vajadzētu, etc. — were created by analogy (compare tecēt (“to flow”), third person present tek, third person past tecēja, etc.). Some participial forms, however, are lacking, and others (vajagošs) are barely attested. See: Finnish with old forms 'vajaa'.

Translations

need, to have an absolute requirement for