December 13, 2012

Suffixations - Learn Uzbek Language

Assalomu alaykum,


In this lesson we learn Suffixations in Uzbek language. I try to include all possibilities. Take your time to review them, as I know it might be difficult to learn all of them in one lesson. I will try to make another lesson out of it with some quizes and more examples.

You can also check out earlier lesson about Personal pronouns here and its suffixes forms, because it is also related to the subject.

grammar in uzbek, uzbek grammar, suffixations in uzbek language


The lexical meanings and grammatical functions of Uzbek words are indicated primarily by adding elements called suffixes to the ends of the words.

for example,

ko'z+lar+im  'eye+s+my'='my eyes'

1. Word formation suffixes.

Nominals and verbals with new lexical meanings can be created in Uzbek language through suffixation.So by adding suffixes we create new lexical meaning:

bosh head (anatomy)
boshliq chief, foreman
boshlamoq to begin (infinitive)

Adding a suffix to a verbal root or word also produces a nominal or a verbal with a new lexical meaning:

boshlanmoqto be begun (infinitive)
boshlang'ichbeginning, elementary

2. Grammatical suffixes

Grammatical functions like number, case, mood or tense is accomplished by adding suffixes to words. These grammatical suffixes chage the relationship of one word to other words in a sentence, but they do not change the basic lexical meaning of the word:

LexicalGrammatical
uy homeuydaat home
uylamoqto marryuyga keldihe came home
uylanmoqto get marrieduylandihe got married


3. Plural suffix

The Uzbek language plural suffix -lar is added to nominals to indicate that there is more than one subject or object, but also to verbals to indicate that there is mor than one subject. But NOTE that after a numeral, the plural suffix is not added to nominals:

qizdaughterkeldihe came
qizlardaughterskeldilarthey came
uch qizthree daughters


4. Case suffixes

Case suffixes express relationships between nominals and verbals and are equivalent to English 'to', 'in', 'from' and other ideas:

o'g'ilsono'g'ilgato the son
xalqpeoplexalqdanfrom the people
kitobbookkitobdain the book


5. Possession suffixes

Uzbek has several means of expressing possession. One means require adding possessive suffixes to a nominal:

kitobimmy bookkitobimizour book
kitobingyour bookkitobingizyour book
(singular) - (plural)

A second means requires the possessive relationship construction.
In Uzbek, the possessor of an object is placed first, often with the suffix -ning, while the person or object possessed is placed second, always with the suffex -i or -si (plural -lari). The Uzbek equivalent of an English phrase like 'my daughter's book' is the following:

qizimning kitobidaughter+my+of book+her= my daughter's book


6. Infitive suffix

The Uzbek equivalent of the English infinitive of verbs ('to enter', 'to see', etc.) is created by adding suffix -moq to the verbal root. Without this or other suffixes, the verbal root express the familiar or at times impolite imperative mood:

kirmoqto enter (infinitive)
kir!enter (singular, familiar, impolite)

7. Mood suffixes

To express moods like the imperative or the conditional, Uzbek adds suffixes to verbal roots:

kiring!come in! (singular, familiar, polite)
kirsaif he enters


8. Tense suffixes

In Uzbek, tenses like past, present, and future are formed by adding suffixes to a verbal root, including the past tense suffix -di:

kelmoqto come (infinitive)
keldi he came

Uzbek combines the meanings of English present and future tenses into one idea that is expressed by the suffix -a or -y. This present-future tense indicates hat an action occurs as a habit in the present and may occur at some point in the future:

o'qimoq to read (infinitive)
o'qiydihe reads (as a habit), he will read (tomorrow)


Enjoy learning and practicing, if there are questions, please don't hesitate to post in the comments!

Coming up: Quiz and examples (Suffixations), and some entertainment videos about Uzbekistan.

Ko'rishguncha!


Suffixations - Learn Uzbek Language
Last Reviewed by UzbekClasson Dec 13 2013
Rating: 4.7

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for the post! Please post more lessons about grammar, especially tenses in Uzbek language.

    I like lessons about sentences as well: http://uzbeklanguage.blogspot.se/2012/11/negative-sentences-learn-uzbek-language.html

    ReplyDelete