נאָך פּרטים

The Modal Verbs װעלן (װיל)‏ and דאַרפֿן

Meaning

The verb וועלן expresses a desire to do something.

The verb דאַרפֿן expresses a need or obligation to do something.

Form

A. Present Tense

The infinitive וועלן is irregular. The base form of the verb is וויל.

Just as for קענען (see 3.1), the present tense is conjugated like all regular verbs except for the ער/ז/עס form that has no ending.

B. וועלן/דאַרפֿן + Infinitive or Direct Object

װעלן and דאַרפֿן come with an infinitive or a direct object.

Sometimes the infinitive or object is omitted if it is clear from the context, for example:

The same is true of קענען: examples of קענען + infintive can be found in ‏3.1 נאָך פּרטים; the use of קענען + noun is explained in ‏4.3 נאָך פּרטים.

C. Word Order

Word order with וועלן and דאַרפֿן is the same as with קענען. The subject or an adverb may (but does not have to) be placed between the conjugated form of וועלן/דאַרפֿן and the infinitive. The negative נישט must be placed between the conjugated verb and the infinitive, and is usually right before the infinitive.

See also the general description of word order in ‏5.3 נאָך פּרטים.

Modal Verbs

וועלן, דאַרפֿן and קענען all belong to a group of verbs known as modal verbs. The ער/זי/עס form of modal verbs has no ending. These verbs come with a second verb in the infinitive or a direct object. They don’t express a concrete action, but rather the relationship to the second verb or the object: need, desire, ability, permission, prohibition, supposition, obligation.

Here are other modal verbs and the lessons where they appear: מוזן ‎(4.5)‎, מעגן ‎(6.2)‎, נישט טאָרן ‎(6.2)‎. A table with all the modal verbs that appear in YiddishPOP is included in ‏6.5 נאָך פּרטים.

Compound Words

Two or more words can be put together to form a compound. Several compound words appear in unit 3:

In Yiddish, compound words are sometimes written as one word and are sometimes hyphenated. When is the compound written as one, and when is it hyphenated?

• If one element of the compound is a proper name, it is hyphenated, regardless of the number of syllables. For example,
  • A street named after Itzik Manger is called מאַנגער־גאַס.
  • A school named after the writer Shimen Frug is known as the פֿרוג־שול.
  • Hands like Moby’s could be called מאָבי־הענט.

More information about the spelling of compound words can be found in Rules of Yiddish Spelling (in Yiddish), chapter VII. The Rules appear in The Standardized Yiddish Orthography (New York, 1999).