Optative

The optative expresses the speaker's desire in the form of a wish, a blessing or a curse: "may you live long", "may it never happen". It has two tenses, the present and the perfect. Most of what you will meet in everyday speech are a handful of fixed phrases built on the optative of jam and kam.

How it is formed

The present optative is formed from a special optative stem, to which these endings are added:

	Singular	Plural
1st	-a	-im
2nd	(no ending)	-i
3rd	-të	-in

The optative stem ends in a consonant group that depends on the verb (-fsh, -sh, -f or -ç), so each verb has to be learned individually:

	kam	jam	laj	hap	vë
unë	paça	qofsha	lafsha	hapsha	vënça
ti	paç	qofsh	lafsh	hapsh	vënç
ai, ajo	pastë	qoftë	laftë	haptë	vëntë
ne	paçim	qofshim	lafshim	hapshim	vënçim
ju	paçi	qofshi	lafshi	hapshi	vënçi
ata, ato	paçin	qofshin	lafshin	hapshin	vënçin

Perfect optative: the present optative of kam + the participle: paça larë, paç larë, pastë larë, paçim larë, paçi larë, paçin larë "may I have washed". For Class 6 verbs, with jam: qofsha larë "may I have been washed". The Class 6 present optative puts u before the form: u lafsha "may I wash myself".

The optative has no imperfect and no past perfect.

When to use it

1. Wishes, blessings and curses

The basic use is a wish about what happens at the moment of speaking or later:

Qofsh i gëzuar! "May you be happy!"
Qofsh i shëndetshëm! "May you be healthy!"
Mos qofsh i trishtuar! "May you not be sad!"

In the last example you can see how the negative is formed: with the particle mos, not nuk or s'.

2. Everyday set phrases

Some optative forms are so common that they are used almost like greetings or fillers, above all qoftë "may it be":

Qofsh i bekuar! "May you be blessed!"
Zoti qoftë me ty! "May God be with you!"

3. "Whoever", "wherever": qoftë after a relative word

The third person of jam after a word such as kushdo "whoever", cilido "whichever" or kudo "wherever" gives these expressions the sense of "no matter who or where":

Kushdo qoftë, le të hyjë. "Whoever it may be, let him come in."

4. In the "if" clause: në + optative

The optative of kam and jam appears after në "if", and after edhe në "even if", for a hypothesis that is still open. It stands in for the present subjunctive after po:

Në paça kohë, do të vij. "If I have time, I will come."
Edhe në qofsha i lodhur, do të vij. "Even if I am tired, I will come."

The perfect optative can also open an "if" clause about something done: Në paçim punuar sot, nesër do të pushojmë. "If we have worked today, tomorrow we will rest." Usually, though, the conjunction po with the perfect subjunctive is used instead. For the verb qoftë, nëqoftëse has become one of the two most common words for "if".

5. The perfect: a wish about something completed

The perfect optative is rare. Its basic use is the wish about an action that has already taken place: Paça ardhur më parë! "If only I had come earlier!"

Watch out: do not confuse the optative with the subjunctive. A wish with të and a subjunctive (Të jesh mirë!) is possible too, but the optative stands alone, with no të before it.