Verbs: the basics
An Albanian verb packs a lot into one word: who is acting (person and number), when (tense) and how the speaker presents the action (mood). This page covers the ideas that apply to every verb. From here the section goes in two directions: Conjugation classes shows how the endings differ from verb to verb, and Moods and tenses explains what each form is for, from beginner to advanced.
No infinitive: the citation form
Standard Albanian has no infinitive. There is no form like English "to work", so a verb is cited by its first person singular present indicative (the unë form): punoj "I work", hap "I open", ha "I eat". Where English would use an infinitive, Albanian uses the subjunctive introduced by të:
- Duhet të punoj sot. "I must work today."
- Mund të vijmë nesër. "We can come tomorrow."
- Dua të flas. "I want to speak."
Principal parts
The endings of one form do not always predict the others, so a verb is learned through its principal parts: the present, the simple past and the past participle. The conjugation tables of this site show all three at the top of each verb.
| Present (unë) | Simple past (unë) | Past participle | Meaning |
| punoj | punova | punuar | work |
| hap | hapa | hapur | open |
| fle | fjeta | fjetur | sleep |
| eci | eca | ecur | walk |
| jap | dhashë | dhënë | give |
| them | thashë | thënë | say |
The simple past and the participle pages show the patterns behind these, class by class.
Person and number
There are six persons, and every tense has a form for each of them:
| Singular | Plural | |
| 1st | unë | ne |
| 2nd | ti | ju |
| 3rd | ai, ajo | ata, ato |
The ending already shows the person, so the pronoun is often left out: Po punoj. "I am working." The tables show the pronouns for clarity. Present indicative of punoj: punoj, punon, punon, punojmë, punoni, punojnë. The 2nd and 3rd person singular are often identical.
Moods, tenses and where to learn them
A mood is the way the speaker presents the action; a tense places it in time. Albanian has five moods, and the conjugation tables are grouped by mood and then by tense.
| Mood | What it does | Learn it |
| Indicative | States facts, describes, narrates. Home of nine tenses. | Present, present perfect, simple past, imperfect, pluperfect, future, future perfect, conditional |
| Subjunctive | Dependent actions: wanting, having to, being able to. Always introduced by të. | Present subjunctive, past subjunctives, modals |
| Imperative | Commands and requests; only ti and ju have forms. | Imperative |
| Admirative | Surprise, doubt, and news the speaker did not witness. | Admirative |
| Optative | Wishes, blessings and curses. | Optative |
The conditional is not a mood of its own. It is a construction of the indicative: do të plus the imperfect, as in do të shkoja "I would go".
Compound tenses: kam or jam, plus the participle
The perfect tenses are built from an auxiliary and the past participle. Verbs of Classes 1 to 5 use kam "have", even verbs of motion: kam ardhur "I have come". Class 6 verbs, the -(h)em verbs, use jam "be".
| Tense | Built from | Example: fle "sleep" |
| Present perfect | present of kam + participle | kam fjetur, ke fjetur, ka fjetur, kemi fjetur, keni fjetur, kanë fjetur |
| Pluperfect | imperfect of kam + participle | kisha fjetur, kishe fjetur, kishte fjetur, kishim fjetur, kishit fjetur, kishin fjetur |
| Future perfect | do të + subjunctive of kam + participle | do të kem fjetur, do të kesh fjetur, do të ketë fjetur, ... |
For a Class 6 verb the same pattern uses jam, with the participle of the corresponding active verb: jam larë, isha larë.
Negation
In the indicative, nuk (or s' before a vowel) goes before the verb, and before do in the future: Nesër nuk do të shkoj. "Tomorrow I will not go." In the subjunctive, mos goes after të: Dua të mos shkoj. "I want not to go." The negative imperative is mos + the imperative: Mos hap derën! "Do not open the door!"
Reflexive and passive: the -(h)em verbs
A verb ending in -em or -hem (Class 6) can be reflexive (lahem "I wash myself"), mediopassive or passive: Dera hapet. "The door is opened." When the agent is named, it is introduced by nga. See Class 6.
Where to go next
- Conjugation classes: how the six classes conjugate.
- Present indicative, then the other beginner pages listed under Moods and tenses.
- Conjugations: look up the full conjugation of any catalogued verb.