Tenses
High Valyrian 1
Course 1 · Chapter 7 · Verbs 2: Tenses, Moods and Commands
Chapter 6 gave the present tense of dohaeragon "to serve". High Valyrian has seven tenses in all, and Peterson's verb sheet prints every one of them for this verb. This chapter reads them off the sheet, adds the subjunctive and the imperative, and ends with how to say "not". All forms below are the active voice.
The Seven Tenses of dohaeragon
The sheet pairs each table with an English gloss for the first person; the glosses are shown below.
| Tense (gloss) | I | you (sg.) | he/she/it | we | you (pl.) | they |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present "I serve, I am serving" | dohaeran | dohaerā | dohaerza | dohaeri | dohaerāt | dohaerzi |
| Imperfect "I was serving" | dohaerilen | dohaerilē | dohaeriles | dohaerilin | dohaerilēt | dohaerilis |
| Perfect "I served" | dohaertan | dohaertā | dohaertas | dohaerti | dohaertāt | dohaertis |
| Pluperfect "I had served" | dohaerten | dohaertē | dohaertes | dohaertin | dohaertēt | dohaertis |
| Future "I will serve" | dohaerinna | dohaerilā | dohaerilza | dohaerili | dohaerilāt | dohaerilzi |
| Aorist "I serve" (general) | dohaerin | dohaeria | dohaeris | dohaeriti | dohaeriat | dohaerisi |
| Past habitual "I used to serve" | dohaertin | dohaertia | dohaertis | dohaertiti | dohaertiat | dohaertisi |
What each tense is for
- Present. Something happening right now (Chapter 6).
- Imperfect and perfect. The imperfect describes a past action in progress ("was serving"); the perfect describes a completed one ("served").
- Pluperfect. An action completed before another past action ("had served").
- Future. "Will serve".
- Aorist. The sheet glosses it "I serve". A community wiki page says general or timeless statements go in the aorist, not the present. The famous valar dohaeris uses the third-person aorist dohaeris, from this very table.
- Past habitual. A repeated action in the past ("used to serve").
The Subjunctive
Each tense also has a subjunctive column. The present subjunctive is built on the same stem with -o- where the indicative has -a-:
The sheet does not describe what the subjunctive means. The wiki sentence Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor "A dragon is not a slave" (Chapter 4) contains iksos, which is the subjunctive of "to be" on the sheet, so the mood appears in negative sentences at least.
The Imperative
The imperative is a command. The sheet gives two present forms, one singular and one plural, with the stress on the last syllable (Chapter 2 said the imperative is the exception to penultimate stress):
| Command | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Serve! | dohaerās | dohaerātās |
| Be! (from "to be") | sās | sātās |
Do not confuse this with the third-person command in Chapter 1, Dohaeriros māzigon! "May a slave come!", which uses a vocative noun with an infinitive.
Saying "Not"
The word daor means "not". In the wiki sentence Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor "A dragon is not a slave", it comes after the verb.
The Passive, in One Line
The sheet marks the passive voice with -ks: for example the present passive dohaeraks and the aorist passive dohaeriks. The passive is outside this course, but the pattern is useful to recognise.
Hands-On Exercises
Choose the tense and write the first-person form of dohaeragon for: "I was serving", "I served", "I will serve", "I used to serve".
📄 View solutionWrite the third-person singular of dohaeragon in every tense, and say which one appears in valar dohaeris.
📄 View solutionWrite the present subjunctive (all six persons) and the imperative (both numbers) of dohaeragon. Then explain what daor does in Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor.
📄 View solutionChapter 7 Quick Reference
- First person: present dohaeran, imperfect dohaerilen, perfect dohaertan, pluperfect dohaerten, future dohaerinna, aorist dohaerin, past habitual dohaertin
- Subjunctive (present): dohaeron, dohaerō, dohaeros, dohaeroty, dohaerōt, dohaerosy
- Imperative: dohaerās (sg.), dohaerātās (pl.)
- Not: daor, after the verb
- Passive: marked with -ks