Medial activity verbs: i-prefixed futures/aorists (imushavebs, imushava) and ergative aorist subjects without objects.
I can conjugate activity verbs through all series with the i-pattern and ergative aorists.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
შაბათს მთელმა ოჯახმა იმუშავა ვენახში.
On Saturday the whole family worked in the vineyard.
ხვალ ბავშვები სცენაზე იცეკვებენ.
Tomorrow the children will dance on stage.
ქარი ღამით ძალიან ქროდა.
The wind blew hard during the night.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Medials name activities without objects: მუშაობს (works), მღერის (sings), ცეკვავს (dances), წვიმს (rains). Their quirks: futures and aorists take ი- instead of a preverb (იმუშავებს, იმუშავა), and aorist subjects go ERGATIVE despite the missing object. Activity verbs of sound, weather, and motion-in-place all live here.
Apply this grammar in C1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesHunting for a preverb to make the medial future (*daimushavebs) and nominative subjects in the aorist.
Preverbed futures for medials or nominative aorist subjects
Medial-paradigm drills: i-futures and ergative aorists for activity verbs.
შაბათს მთელმა ოჯახმა იმუშავა ვენახში.
On Saturday the whole family worked in the vineyard.
ojakhma imushava: ergative + i-prefixed aorist - the medial signature.
ხვალ ბავშვები სცენაზე იცეკვებენ.
Tomorrow the children will dance on stage.
Medial future = i- + -eb: itsek'veben, no preverb needed.
ქარი ღამით ძალიან ქროდა.
The wind blew hard during the night.
Weather and sound medials (kris, kukhs) follow the same pattern - imperfect krooda for the background.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in C1 course exercises