Ability

We use "ability" verb forms to talk about the ability of a verb to happen. For example:

Making the ability roots and stems

To make these "ability" forms we will need to modify the 🌳 roots and stems of the verb.

1. Use the roots for the stems as well
2. Add a tail ی - ay or ای - aay
3. Add the perfective roots and stems of کېدل - kedúl (to become)

ی - ay /

ای - aay

Have a look through these verbs and notice how the same formula is always used to make the "ability" roots and stems.

لیکل - leekúl

to write

BasicAbility

split head

Imperfective Stem

لیکـ

leek–

Perfective Stem

ولیکـ

óoleek–

Imperfective Root

لیکل

leekúl

LongShort

Perfective Root

ولیکل

óoleekul

LongShort

Neg.Pos.

Pers.	Singular	Plural
1st	زهلیکم zuleekum I write • I am writing	موږلیکو mooGleekoo We write • We are writing
2nd	تهلیکې tuleeke You write • You are writing	تاسېلیکئ táaseleekey You (pl.) write • You (pl.) are writing
3rd	هغهلیکي hagháleekee he/she/it writes • he/she/it is writing	هغویلیکي haghwéeleekee They write • They are writing

Using the ability roots and stems

We can uses these ability roots and stems just like we did with regular verb tenses, but now using these "ability" roots and stems.

Present Ability

Subjunctive Ability

Future Ability

Imperfective Future Ability

Perfective Future Ability

Past Ability

The past ability in Pashto is interesting because just like with the regular past tense, you can use the imperfective (continuous) or the perfective (simple) forms.

Simple Past Ability

This means that I was able to get out of the house in one instance or at one point in time. We're looking at the past ability from the perfective aspect, and saying that in one particular snapshot of time I was able to do something.

Continuous Past Ability

This is a very different statement, meaning that I had the ability to leave the house in an ongoing sense. It means that I had the ability to leave the house whenever I wanted to. We're looking at the ability from the imperfective aspect.

With transitive verbs

Ability verbs will follow the same VP structure as other verbs, so with past tense ability verbs the object is king.

With habitual past

Of course we can also use the habitual past forms with ability, simply by adding به - ba as we would with the regular verb forms.

Exceptions

With certain verbs we can't use the perfective roots, so they lose the aspect and just use the imperfective form. This is true for

• verbs with irregular perfect roots

• intransitive stative compound verbs

With verbs with irregular perfective roots

There are a few verbs like تلل - tlul (to go) and وړل - wuRul (to to bring) that have irregular perfective roots. With these verbs we can't make an ability form from the perfective roots, and we just have to use the imperfective form for everything. Here are some examples:

• تلل - tlul (to go)
• راتلل - raatlúl (to come)
• درتلل - dartlúl (to go - to second person)
• ورتلل - wartlúl (to go - to third person)
• وړل - wuRul (to bring)
• کېدل - kedul (to become)
• کېدل - kedul (to happen)

These ones will also use the imperfective roots and stems on both sides, because you can't say something like ❌ زه لاړلی شوم ❌ - ❌ zu laaRúlay shwum ❌ (I was able to go). You have to use the imperfective stems and roots and say زه تللی شوم - zu tlúlay shwum (I was able to go), regardless of the aspect.

The verbs کول - kawul (to make) and کول - kawul (to do) are exceptions to this exception 🤪 ... because with these you can use the perfective roots.

With intransitive stative verbs

With intransitive stative compound verbs we can't use the perfective roots because of the rule above, and because it would be awkward doubling up the کېدل - kedúl (to become) helper verbs. For example, you can't say ❌ داخل شولی شوم ❌ - ❌ daakhil shwulay shwum ❌ (I was able to enter) because ❌ شولی شوم ❌ - ❌ shwulay shwum ❌ (I was able to enter) is just... no.

So for the ability roots and stems of intransitive stative compound verbs we just use the imperfective roots and stems for both sides.

This means that when someone says:

They could be talking about it in a imperfective sense (I was able to enter whenever I wanted to) or a perfective sense. (I was able to enter in one instance) Both are exactly the same with these kinds of verbs.

تلل - tlul

Imperfective Stem

تللی شـ

tlulay sh–

LongShort

Perfective Stem

تللی شـ

tlulay sh–

LongShort

Imperfective Root

تللی شول

tlulay shwul

LongShort

Perfective Root

تللی شول

tlulay shwul

LongShort

Variations

As we mentioned before we can either use ی - ay or ای - aay for the tail in these ability roots and stems. We can also use the long or short forms of the roots. This means that there are a lot of possible ways to make these verb forms. For example:

Notes on blocks and the negative

If you look up at the blocks in the examples above you'll notice that the verb is actually made up of two parts:

These two parts switch places when the negative is used.

But you can still say the negative without swapping the blocks if you want to sound emphatic.

Shortcuts

You may notice that some ability statements can feel a bit tricky, especially when using the past tense. There are actually a couple of things that Pashto speakers do to make these ability statements easier.

Wildcard ending with the past tense

In colloquial/informal spoken Pashto, people often use a wildcard ای - aay ending when making past tense ability statements with transitive verbs. Instead of bothering to make the verb agree with the king they will often just throw an ای - aay an the end and be done with it.

As a learner try to also be able to say the proper past tense endings, because people won't always use this shortcut. You don't exactly wanna be like...

Using کول - kawul "to do" + subjunctive

Another extremely common thing to do is to make ability statements using the verb کول - kawul (to do) and then a subjunctive clause right after that. For example:

Here کول - kawúl (to do) is used as a grammatically transitive verb, as if it has an unspoken 3rd person masculine singular object. "I can do ..." So In the past tense the verb will always be 3rd person masculine singular.

This kind of sentence structure is likely a direct influnce of Farsi, and is probably heard more in Afghanistan. It is easier to say because you just have to now how to say زه کولی شم - zu kawulay shum (I can do...) in all the tenses and then no matter what tense you're using, you just use a subjunctive verb for the next clause.