The animacy-based agreement rule: animate plurals take plural verbs, inanimate plurals take singular verbs.
I can apply the animacy rule and let towers stand in the singular.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
ბავშვები ეზოში თამაშობენ.
The children are playing in the courtyard.
მთის სოფლებში ძველი კოშკები დგას.
Old towers stand in the mountain villages.
მაგიდაზე წიგნები და გაზეთები დევს.
Books and newspapers lie on the table.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Georgian verbs agree in number only with ANIMATE subjects: ბავშვები თამაშობენ (children play-PL) but კოშკები დგას (towers stand-SG). Inanimate plurals - houses, books, mountains - take singular verbs. This sounds wrong to every European ear and is one of the surest marks of polished Georgian.
Apply this grammar in B2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesEuropean-style plural verbs with inanimates (*sakhlebi dganan) - the singular is correct and obligatory.
Plural verbs with inanimate plural subjects
Animacy-sorting drills: children play-PL, towers stand-SG.
ბავშვები ეზოში თამაშობენ.
The children are playing in the courtyard.
Animate plural subject - plural verb: tamashoben.
მთის სოფლებში ძველი კოშკები დგას.
Old towers stand in the mountain villages.
Inanimate plural koshk'ebi takes a SINGULAR verb: dgas - the Svaneti-towers rule.
მაგიდაზე წიგნები და გაზეთები დევს.
Books and newspapers lie on the table.
Even coordinated inanimates stay singular: devs, not *dganan.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in B2 course exercises