The Lithuanian Participles: Their System and Functions

The participle is a rather peculiar part of speech. From the point of view of most pedagogical/prescriptive grammars, the participle is not even a separate part of speech, but is usually included in the verb system. This seems to be due to the fact that, for the last few centuries, the participle was considered, primarily, as a basic part of the so-called compound tenses of the verbal system. Since most grammars of Latin treated the participle like this, the grammars of most of the other Indo-European languages followed this classical example, as in so many other instances. Another reason why the participle was relegated to the subsidiary role in the verbal system of most Western languages is the fact that most of the modern Indo-European languages have a strictly reduced number of participles. E.g., modern English has only two participles left: the so-called present active participle in -ing (sitting, working, believing, translating) and the past (passive) participle (sat, worked, believed, translated). A similar situation can be found in most other Germanic languages as well as in most modern Romance languages.

However, more archaic languages such as Latin, Classical Greek, Sanskrit had more participles, both active and passive. Very peculiar in this sense is the Lithuanian participial system: it has, all told, THIRTEEN participles. This is rather unusual because this goes against the basic tendencies of the development of the Indo-European languages: in most of them, the inherited participial systems were reduced both in scope and in their functions, but in Lithuanian the opposite trend can be easily observed: not only did Lithuanian keep all the inherited Indo-European participles, but it expanded their system. Thus, we have, as we have just mentioned above, thirteen participial forms. Let's take a quick glance at this system.

We shall use, here, the old inherited verb būti 'to be' and dirbti 'to work':1

būti - 'to be'
esąs - 'being' (present tense active participle)
buvęs - 'been' (past tense active participle)
būdavęs - frequentative past active participle
būsįas - future active participle
esamas - present tense passive participle
būtas - past tense passive participle
būsimas - future tense passive participle
buvus - past tense active adverbial participle
būdavus - past frequentative active adverbial participle
būsiant - future active adverbial participle
būdamas - special active adverbial participle
būtinas - participle of necessity

dirbti - 'to work'
dirbąs - '(the one who is) working'
dirbęs - '(the one who had) worked'
dirbdavęs - 'the one who used to work'
dirbamas - 'the thing which is being worked'
dirbtas - 'the thing which has been worked'
dirbsimas - 'the thing which is going to be worked'
dirbant - 'while working'
dirbus - 'after having worked'
dirbdavus - 'after having worked frequently'
dirbsiant - 'having to work (yet)'
dirbdamas - 'while working'
dirbtinas - 'one which still has to be worked'2

Although, as we shall see later, historically some of these participles may be older than the so-called principal parts of the Lithuanian verbal system, for practical purposes we can now easily devise a system of derivations, or word formation formulae by which these thirteen participles can be easily derived.

The principal parts of the Lithuanian verbs are as follows: 1. the infinitive, 2. the 3rd person present tense,3 and 3. the 3rd person of the simple past. E.g., dirbti 'to work' (the infinitive); dirba '(he, she, it/they) work'; dirbo '(he, she, it/they) worked.' All the verbal tenses, all the verbal derivative forms can be derived from these three basic forms. To make matters very clear, we will give here the schematic, as it were, presentation of the derivational processes.4

For this illustration, we shall take one verb from each of the three conjugations:5

A. The Active Participle* (dìrbti 'to work'; mylẽti 'to love'; skaitýti 'to read')

Tense	Formed from (dropped) added	E x a m p les		English
Present	3rd person (-a)+-ąs -anti present tense (-i )+-įs -inti (-o)+-ąs -anti	dìrb(-a)+-ąs, -anti mýl(-i)+-įs, -inti skait(-o)+-ąs, -anti	:dirbąs, dìrbanti :mylįs, mýlinti :skaitąs, skaĩtanti	'(the one who is) working^', etc.
Past	3rd person (-o,-ė)+-ęs, -usi past tense	dìrb(-o)+-ęs, -usi mylẽj(-o)+-ęs, -usi skaĩt(ė)+-ęs, -(i)usi	:dìrbęs, dìrbusi :mylẽjęs, mylẽjusi :skaĩtęs, skaĩčiusi	'(the one who has) worked', etc.
Frequent. Past	3rd person (-o)+-ęs, -usi freq. past	dìrbdav(-o)+-ęs, -usi mylẽdav(-o )+-ęs, -usi skaitýdav(-o)+-ęs, -usi	:dìrbdavęs, dìrbdavusi :mylẽdavęs, mylẽdavusi :skaitýdavęs, skaitýdavusi	'the one who used to have worked'
Future	2nd person +-ąs, -anti sg. future	dìrbsi+-ąs, -anti mylẽsi+-ąs, -anti skaitýsi+-ąs, -anti	:dìrbsiąs, dìrbsianti :mylẽsiąs, mylẽsianti :skaitýsiąs, skaitýsianti	'the one who is going to be working', etc.

B. The Passive Participles (mùšti 'to beat', mylẽti 'to love', skaitýti 'to read')

There is one single exception to this scheme presented here. This concerns the very irregular6 verb būti 'to be.' The principal parts of this verb in Modern Lithuanian are as follows:

būti - 'to be' (the infinitive)
yra - 'is/are' (third person singular/plural)
buvo - 'was/were' (3rd person singular/plural).

Now, if we were to follow the rules we have outlined in the schematic presentation of the derivations of the Lithuanian participles, we would get the present active participle as * yrąs, and the present passive participle as * yramas. Theoretically, this could have happened since analogy is one of the greatest forces in language change.7But since practically all natural languages have preserved some older forms, some older relics, some older derivations, this has happened in Lithuanian as well. As we have seen in the Introductory chapter, the present active participle of the verb būti 'to be' is esąs, and the present passive participle is esamas. For the plausible explanation of the seeming irregularity, we have to turn to the older form of the present tense of the verb būti. Let us compare:

	Modern forms	Old forms
	aš esu tu esi jis yra mes esame jūs esate jie/jos yra	esmi "I am," etc.8 esi esti esme/asme este/aste esti

Apparently, the present day forms (esąs/esamas) were derived, a long time ago, from the older, almost Indo-European, forms.9 Here, like in some other complicated and complex matters, there still remains one unsolved problem: since the basic form from which these two participles have been derived, is esti, one would, again, expect something like *estąs/*estamas, rather than esąs/esamas. Nobody has yet come up with an acceptable explanation, and all we can suggest here that some kind of haplology may have taken place here.10

Of the thirteen participles of Lithuanian, four are not inflected. The reason is fairly obvious: in a strict sense, they are no longer participles, but almost pure adverbs. One could call them a special type of Lithuanian gerundives.11 We shall discuss this fact further on, in the chapter on the syntactic structure of these participles (Chapter IV, see below). In Lithuanian, they are called padalyviai, we have chosen to call them special gerunds: special present tense gerund (i.d., mušant, mylint, skaitant); special past tense gerund (i.e., mušus, mylėjus, skaičius); special frequentative past tense gerund (i.e. mušdavus, mylėdavus, skaitydavus), and the special future tense gerund (i.e. mušiant, mylėsiant, skaitysiant). But, since, from the point of view of classical Latin grammars, they are neither true gerunds, nor true gerundives, one could, perhaps, call them the Adverbial Participles, or, conversely, Participial Adverbs. Thus, mušant could be called either a Special Gerund, a Special Gerundive, or a Special Present Tense Adverbial Participle, or even, a Special Present Tense Participial Adverb. In spite of this terminological confusion,12 these four forms are considered to be part of the verbal system of Modern Lithuanian since they can express, basically, an action very closely related to the basic meaning of the basic verb. E.g., take sentences like the following:

(1) Man skaitant šią knygą, mano draugai negali man telefonuoti.
'While I am reading this book, my friends cannot call me up.'

(2) Saulei nusileidus, lakštingalos pradėjo čiulbėti.
'After the sun went down, the nightingales started singing.'

Very interesting is the fact that the Special Present Tense Active Adverbial Participle (i.e., mušdamas, mylėdamas, skaitydamas) can be used only as a, what we may want to call, representative subject, in the true subject clauses, and, therefore, it may be used only in the nominative case (i.e., mušdamas '(while) beating' masculine singular; mušdama, feminine singular; mušdami, masculine plural; mušdamos, feminine plural). In reality, from the syntactical point of view13 these special participles can form a complete clause by themselves, indicating the doer of the action with all the grammatical categories available to this kind of participle, e.g.,

(3) Miegodamas knygos neparašysi. '(While) sleeping you cannot write a book.' The underlying meaning is the following: because you sleep too much, you will never be able to produce a book.

The Special Participle of Necessity (i.e., muštinas, mylėtinas, skaitytinas) is inflected exactly like the regular adjective of the first adjectival declension; see below.

Since a full inflectional pattern of all Lithuanian participles is hardly available, in full, in any school and even scientific grammars of Lithuanian, here we shall present a full scheme, including the so-called definite form of the four active and the three passive participles as well as that of the Special Participle of Necessity:14

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dirbąs 'working' (dìrbantis)	dìrbanti	dirbą (dìrbantys)	dìrbančios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbančio dìrbančiam dìrbantį dìrbančiu dìrbančiame	dìrbančios dìrbančiai dìrbančią dìrbančia dìrbančioje	dìrbančių dìrbantiems dìrbančius dìrbančiais dìrbančiuose	dìrbančių dìrbančioms dìrbančias dìrbančiomis dìrbančiose

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dirbantỹsis	dìrbančioji	dìrbantieji	dìrbančiosios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbančiojo dìrbančiajam dìrbantįjį dìrbančiuoju dìrbančiajame	dìrbančiosios dìrbančiajai dìrbančiąją dìrbančiąja dìrbančiojoje	dìrbančiųjų dìrbantiesiems dìrbančiuosius dìrbančiaisiais dìrbančiuosiuose	dìrbančiųjų dìrbančiosioms dìrbančiąsias dìrbančiosiomis dìrbančiosiose

The definite participle is declined just like the definite adjective. The method of formation from the verb is the same as for the corresponding indefinite participle. The declension is the same for all conjugations.

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dìrbęs	dìrbusi	dìrbę	dìrbusios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbusio dìrbusiam dìrbusį dìrbusiu dìrbusiame	dìrbusios dìrbusiai dìrbusią dìrbusia dìrbusioje	dìrbusių dìrbusiems dìrbusius dìrbusiais dìrbusiuose	dìrbusių dìrbusioms dìrbusias dìrbusiomis dìrbusiose

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dirbusỹsis	dìrbusioji	dìrbusieji	dìrbusiosios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbusiojo dìrbusiajam dìrbusįjį dìrbusiuoju dìrbusiajame	dìrbusiosios dìrbusiajai dìrbusiąją dìrbusiąja dìrbusiojoje	dìrbusiųjų dìrbusiesiems dìrbusiuosius dìrbusiaisiais dìrbusiuosiuose	dìrbusiųjų dìrbusiosioms dìrbusiąsias dìrbusiosiomis dìrbusiosiose

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dìrbdavęs	dìrbdavusi	dìrbdavę	dìrbdavusios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbdavusio dìrbdavusiam dìrbdavusį dìrbdavusiu dìrbdavusiame	dìrbdavusios dìrbdavusiai dìrbdavusią dìrbdavusia dìrbdavusioje	dìrbdavusių dìrbdavusiems dìrbdavusius dìrbdavusiais dìrbdavusiuose	dìrbdavusių dìrbdavusioms dìrbdavusias dìrbdavusiomis dìrbdavusiose

The declension is the same for the 2nd and 3rd conjugations, the endings -davęs, -davusi, etc. being added directly to the infinitive stem, e.g. (2nd conjugation) nom. sing. masc. mylėdavęs, nom. sing. fem, mylėdavusi, etc. or (3rd conjugation) nom. sing. masc. matydavęs, nom. sing, fem. matydavusi.

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dirbdavusỹsis	dìrbdavusioji	dìrbdavusieji	dìrbdavusiosios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbdavusiojo dìrbdavusiajam dìrbdavusįjį dìrbdavusiuoju dìrbdavusiajame	dìrbdavusiosios dìrbdavusiajai dìrbdavusiąją dìrbdavusiąja dìrbdavusiojoje	dìrbdavusiųjų dìrbdavusiesiems dìrbdavusiuosius dìrbdavusiaisiais dìrbdavusiuosiuose	dìrbdavusiųjų dìrbdavusiosioms dìrbdavusiąsias dìrbdavusiosiomis dìrbdavusiosiose

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dirbsiąs	dìrbsianti	dirbsią	dìrbsiančios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbsiančio dìrbsiančiam dìrbsiantį dìrbsiančiu dìrbsiančiame	dìrbsiančios dìrbsiančiai dìrbsiančią dìrbsiančia dìrbsiančioje	dìrbsiančių dìrbsiantiems dìrbsiančius dìrbsiančiais dìrbsiančiuose	dìrbsiančių dìrbsiančioms dìrbsiančias dìrbsiančiomis dìrbsiančiose

The declension is the same for the 2nd and 3rd conjugations, the endings -siąs, -sianti, etc. being added directly to the infinitive stem, e.g. (2nd conjugation) nom. sing. masc. mylėsiąs, nom. sing. fem, mylėsianti, etc. or (3rd conjugation) nom. sing. masc. matysiąs, nom. sing. fem. matysianti, etc.

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dirbsiantỹsis	dìrbsiančioji	dìrbsiantieji	dìrbsiančiosios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbsiančiojo dìrbsiančiajam dìrbsiantįjį dìrbsiančiuoju dìrbsiančiajame	dìrbsiančiosios dìrbsiančiajai dìrbsiančiąją dìrbsiančiąja dìrbsiančiojoje	dìrbsiančiųjų dìrbsiantiesiems dìrbsiančiuosius dìrbsiančiaisiais dìrbsiančiuosiuose	dìrbsiančiųjų dìrbsiančiosioms dìrbsiančiąsias dìrbsiančiosiomis dìrbsiančiosiose

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dìrbamas	dirbamà	dirbamì	dìrbančios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbamo dirbamám dìrbamą dìrbamu dirbamamè	dirbamõs dìrbamai dìrbamą dìrbama dirbamojè	dìrbamų dìrbamíems dìrbamus dìrbamaĩs dìrbamuosè	dìrbamų dirbamóms dìrbamas dirbamomìs dirbamosè

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dirbamàsis	dirbamóji	dirbamíeji	dìrbamosios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbamojo dirbamájam dìrbamąjį dirbamúoju dirbamãjame	dirbamõsios dìrbamajai dìrbamąją dirbamąja dirbamõjoje	dirbamųjų dirbamíesiems dirbamúosius dirbamaĩsiais dirbamuõsiuose	dirbamųjų dirbamósioms dirbamąsias dirbamõsiomis dirbamõsiose

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dìrbtas	dirbtà	dirbtì	dìrbtos
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbto dirbtám dìrbtą dìrbtu dirbtamè	dirbtõs dìrbtai dìrbtą dìrbta dirbtojè	dìrbtų dirbtíems dìrbtus dìrbtaĩs dirbtuosè	dirbtų dirbtóms dìrbtas dirbtomìs dirbtosè

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dirbtàsis	dirbtóji	dirbtíeji	dìrbtosios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbtojo dirbtájam dìrbtąjį dirbtúoju dirbtãjame	dirbtõsios dìrbtajai dìrbtąją dirbtąja dirbtõjoje	dirbtųjų dirbtíesiems dirbtúosius dìrbtaĩsiais dirbtuõsiuose	dirbtųjų dirbtósioms dirbtąsias dirbtõsiomis dirbtõsiose

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dìrbsimas	dirbsimà	dirbsimì	dìrbsimos
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbsimo dirbsimám dìrbsimą dìrbsimu dirbsimamè	dirbsimõs dìrbsimai dìrbsimą dìrbsima dirbsimojè	dìrbsimų dìrbsimíems dìrbsimus dìrbsimaĩs dìrbsimuosè	dìrbsimų dirbsimóms dìrbsimas dirbsimomìs dirbsimosè

The declension is the same for the 2nd and 3rd conjugations, the endings -mas, -ma, etc. being added directly to the 2nd singular of the future tense, e.g. (2nd conjugation) nom. sing. masc. mylėsimas, nom. sing. fem. mylėsima, etc. or (3rd conjugation) nom. sing. masc. matysimas, nom. sing. fem. matysima, etc.

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dirbsimàsis	dirbsimóji	dirbsimíeji	dìrbsimosios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbsimojo dirbsimájam dìrbsimąjį dirbsimúoju dirbsimãjame	dirbsimõsios dìrbsimajai dìrbsimąją dirbsimąja dirbsimõjoje	dirbsimųjų dirbsimíesiems dirbsimúosius dirbsimaĩsiais dirbsimuõsiuose	dirbsimųjų dirbsimósioms dirbsimąsias dirbsimõsiomis dirbsimõsiose

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dìrbtinas	dirbtinà	dirbtinì	dìrbtinos
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbtino dirbtinám dìrbtiną dìrbtinu dirbtinamè	dirbtinõs dìrbtinai dìrbtiną dìrbtina dirbtinojè	dìrbtinų dìrbtiníems dìrbtinus dìrbtinaĩs dìrbtinuosè	dìrbtinų dirbtinóms dìrbtinas dirbtinomìs dirbtinosè

The declension is the same for the 2nd and 3rd conjugations, the endings, -nas, -na, etc. being added directly to the infinitive, e.g. (2nd conjugation) nom. sing, masc. mylėtinas, nom. sing. fem, mylėtina or (3rd conjugation) nom. sing. masc. matytinas, nom. sing. fem, matytina, etc.

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	dirbtinàsis	dirbtinóji	dirbtiníeji	dìrbtinosios
G. D. A. I. L.	dìrbtinojo dirbtinájam dìrbtinąjį dirbtinúoju dirbtinãjame	dirbtinõsios dìrbtinajai dìrbtinąją dirbtinąja dirbtinõjoje	dirbtinųjų dirbtiníesiems dirbtinúosius dirbtinaĩsiais dirbtinuõsiuose	dirbtinųjų dirbtinósioms dirbtinąsias dirbtinõsiomis dirbtinõsiose

The definite participle is declined just like the definite adjective. The method of formation from the verb isd the same as for the corresponding indefinite participle. The declension is the same for all conjugations.

As it is commonly known,14 there is a group of very old participles such as baltas 'white,' šiltas 'warm,' šaltas 'cold,' which have been completely absorbed, by ancient analogy, into the true adjectival system of the Lithuanian adjectives. This simply means that their declensional patterns are now completely identical with the appropriate adjectives of the first declension, i.e., such as geras 'good,' etc. Some adjectives in -nas could also be considered as belonging to this very same group, such as balnas 'an animal with a white back,' etc.15 But we should mention here that linguists tend to disagree as to the exact origin of such participial adjectives as baltas/balnas: some think that they are truly derived from the appropriate verbs (baltas/balnas, obviously from balti 'to turn white, to whiten'), with the old Indo-European participial/adjectival formants such as -to- (Baltic -ta-) and -no- (Baltic -na-), others are inclined to assume that these participial adjectives go back to very ancient Proto-Indo-European times when the formants — to-/-no- were used to form the old appellatives16 which had survived until our days, and the adjective proper, as we understand it today, was developed later. If that is true — and I am inclined to believe this — then the situation was just reverse: first, we had the type of ancient appellatives developing, and the verbs, being a later development, were derived from them.17 Be it as it may, in the present system of Modern Lithuanian, the ancient participial adjectives such as šaltas have really become a part and parcel of the adjectival system, both in their forms and in their functions.

No matter what their etymological and phonological development, all three passive participles and the special participle of necessity, as far as their inflection is concerned, have also been absorbed by the adjective system, in other words, they all belong, declensionally, to the first adjectival declension in -as/-a. Therefore, there is no longer any difference in the declension of such and adjective as geras 'good'18 and the passive participles such as matomas (present tense), matytas (past tense), matysimas (future tense), and matytinas (special participle of necessity). Their system differs only in some cases from real adjectives in some minor features of their accentuation patterns.

As we have already mentioned above, the Lithuanian pusdalyvis which we called the special active participial adverb, or adverbial participle, the type dirbdamas '(while) working' is used only in the nominative case, singular and plural, masculine and feminine: dirbdamas (masc. sg.), dirbdama (fem, sg.), dirbdami (masc. pl.) and dirbdamos (fem. pl.). The inflectional pattern is exactly like that of the adjective of the first declension, like geras.

All four active participles, i.e., like dirbąs (present tense), dirbęs (past tense), dirbdavęs (frequentative past tense), and dirbsiąs (future tense) are now inflected, for all practical purposes like the adjectives of the third declension, in other words like medinis 'wooden,' except for the nominative masculine/feminine both singular and plural. The latter have retained the consonantal declension.19

There is one puzzling problem concerning the development of the declensional patterns of the Lithuanian (active) participles. Namely, there is no accepted explanation about the development of the nominative masculine plural ending of the four active participles. Various suggestions have been made, including one that these endings, i.e. -ą/-ę (cf. esą, buvę, būdavę, būsią) may have even reflected the original Proto- Indo- European third person plural.20 The most plausible and the most logical explanation is the one suggested by several Lithuanian linguists, namely that this ending reflects the very ancient neuter ending, like in such cases as: nustojo liję 'it stopped raining.'21

Of course, the four special adverbial participles (or: participial adverbs) are not inflected.22

As in most modern Indo-European languages, some active participles of Lithuanian can be used to form the so-called compound tenses.23 But not all of the four active participles can be so used. The only one that is used in forming all four of the basic compound tenses24 is the active participle of the (simple) past tense.25 Here, we shall present a sample with the active past tense participle of skaityti 'to read:'

aš esu skaitęs/skaičiusi - 'I have read' (masc./fem.)
tu esi skaitęs/skaičiusi
jis yra skaitęs; ji yra skaičiusi
mes esame skaitę/skaičiusios
Jūs esate skaitę/skaičiusios
jie yra skaitę; jos yra skaičiusios

Of course, from the syntactical point of view, the past participle here could be considered nothing but an adjective because, syntactically, there is no difference between a sentence like jis yra senas 'he is old' and jis yra skaitęs 'he is (the one who has) read.' But, semantically, there is a great difference because the participle still retains its verbal characteristics and can govern, on its own, other parts of the sentence, such as a direct and indirect object, etc. E.g., one can expand this sentence indefinitly, like so:

(a) jis yra skaitęs - 'he has read'
(b) jis yra skaitęs tą knygą - 'he has read that book'
(c) jis yra skaitęs ta knyga savo sergančiam broliui -'he has read that book to his sick brother.'

aš buvau skaitęs/skaičiusi 'I had read' masc./fem.)
tu buvai skaitęs/skaičiusi
jis buvo skaitęs; ji buvo skaičiusi
mes buvome skaitę/skaičiusios
jūs buvote skaitę/skaičiusios
jie buvo skaitę; jos buvo skaičiusios

aš būdavau skaitęs/skaičiusi 'I had read/at intervals . . .'
tu būdavai skaitęs/skaičiusi
jis būdavo skaitęs; jis būdavo skaičiusi
mes būdavome skaitę/skaičiusios
jūs būdavote skaitę/skaičiusios
jie būdavo skaitę; jos būdavo skaičiusios

aš būsiu skaitęs/skaičiusi 'I shall have read' (masc./fem.)
tu būsi skaitęs/skaičiusi
jis bus skaitęs; ji bus skaičiusi
mes būsime skaitę/skaičiusios
jūs būsite skaitę/skaičiusios
jie bus skaitę; jos bus skaičiusios

The system of progressive tenses has never been fully developed in Lithuanian. It occurs sporadically in various Lithuanian dialects, and in Standard Lithuanian, only three tenses are used: the preterite (or, simple past, imperfect), the frequentative past, and the future. The present progressive tense which would be conjugated something like esu bedirbąs — which occurs sporadically in some dialects, is not used very widely in Standard Lithuanian because it would have the same meaning as the simple present tense dirbu, etc., i.e., 'I am working.'27

We must add here right away that the active present tense participle alone cannot be used in such progressive tenses. In other words, one cannot say*aš buvau skaitąs: the participle has to be made progressive, as it were, indicating the action as still going on. This is accomplished by adding the prefix be- to the participle, thus, instead of skaitąs/skaitanti, if the progressive tense is to be used,28 one has to add the prefix be-; beskaitąs/beskaitanti 'still reading.' Thus, we get the follo

Tense	Formed from (dropped) added	E x a m p les		English
Present	3rd person Present T. +-mas -ma	mùša+-mas, -ma mýli+-mas, -ma skaĩto+-mas, -ma	:mùšamas, mušamà :mýlimas, mylimà :skaĩtomas, skaĩtoma	'the one (or thing) which is being beaten', etc.
Past	Infinitive (-i)+-tas, -ta	mùšt(-i)+-tas, -ta mylẽt(-i)+-tas, -ta skaitýt(-i)+-tas, -ta	:mùštas, muštà :mylẽtas, mylẽta :skaitýtas, skaitýta	'the one (or thing) which was beaten, which has been beaten', etc.
Future	2nd person sg. future +-mas -ma	mùši+-mas, -ma mylẽsi+-mas, -ma skaitýsi+-mas, -ma	:mùšimas, mušimà :mylẽsimas, mylẽsima :skaitýsimas, skaitýsima	'the one (or thing) which is to be beaten, which ought to be beaten', etc.

Tense	Formed from (dropped)	E x a m p les		English
Present	Present Active Participle Feminine Nom. Sg. (-i)	mùšant(-i) mýlint(-i) skaĩtant(-i)	:mùšant :mýlint :skaĩtant	'while beating, beating', etc.
Past	Past Active Participle Fem. Nom. Sg. (-i)	mùšus(-i) mylẽjus(-i) skaĩčius(-i)	:mùšus :mylẽjus :skaĩčius	'after having beaten', etc.
Frequent. Past	Freq. past. Active Part. Fem. Nom. Sg. (-i)	mùšdavus(-i) mylẽdavus(-i) skaitýdavus(-i)	:mùšdavus :mylẽdavus :skaitýdavus	'after having beaten several times', etc.
Future	Future Active Participle Fem. Nom. Sg. (-i)	mùšiant(-i) mylẽsiant(-i) skaitýsiant(-i)	mùšiant mylẽsiant skaitýsiant	(Used in special phrases to express future action)

Formed from (dropped) added	E x a m p les	English
Infinitive (-ti)+-damas, -dama	mùš(-ti)+-damas, -dama :mùšdamas, mušdamà mylẽ(-ti)+-damas, -dama :mylẽdamas, mylẽdama skaitý(-ti)+-damas, -dama :skaitýdamas, skaitýdama	'while beating', etc.

Formed from (dropped) added	E x a m p les	English
Infinitive (-ti)+-nas, -na	mùšti+-nas, -na :mùštinas, muštinà mylẽti+-nas, -na :mylẽtinas, mylẽtina skaitýti+-nas, -na :skaitýtinas, skaitýtina	'while beating', etc.

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	mylįs (mýlintis)	mýlinti	mylį (mýlintys)	mýlinčios
G. D. A. I. L.	mýlinčio mýlinčiam mýlintį mýlinčiu mýlinčiame	mýlinčios mýlinčiai mýlinčią mýlinčia mýlinčioje	mýlinčių mýlintiems mýlinčius mýlinčiais mýlinčiuose	mýlinčių mýlinčioms mýlinčias mýlinčiomis mýlinčiose

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
N.	matąs (mãtantis)	mãtanti	matą (mãtantys)	mãtančios
G. D. A. I. L.	mãtančio mãtančiam mãtantį mãtančiu mãtančiame	mãtančios mãtančiai mãtančią mãtančia mãtančioje	mãtančių mãtantiems mãtančius mãtančiais mãtančiuose	mãtančių mãtančioms mãtančias mãtančiomis mãtančiose