prast

See also: präst, and praṣt

Latvian

From an earlier *prasti, from *prat-ti, from Proto-Baltic *prat-, from Proto-Indo-European *pret-, *prot- (“to understand”); the first-person form is derived from a variant with an extra n, *prantuo, from *prantu, from protu. Up until the 17th century, prast basically meant “to understand,” “to perceive,” i.e, it was synonymous with saprast; the present-day meaning occurred alongside the older meaning and became dominant only by the end of the 19th century. Cognates include Lithuanian pràsti (“to get used to, to understand, to perceive”), Old Prussian issprestun (“to understand”) (compare Latvian izprast), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌸𐌾𐌰𐌽 (fraþjan, “to think, to recognize, to understand”), 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌸𐌹 (fraþi, “mind, intelligence”), Latin interpres (“intermediary, mediator, interpreter”), Tocharian A pratim, etc.^[1]

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prast (transitive or intransitive, 1st conjugation, present protu, proti, prot, past pratu)

(often with an infinitive) to know how to, to be able to do (a certain activity, task, etc.)
prast šūt, zīmēt, lasīt ― to know how to sew, draw, read

Oto labi prata visus zvejas darbus ― Oto knew well all the work of fishing
to know, to speak, to be fluent in (a language)
Puškins prata vairākas valodas ― Pushkin knew several languages

viņš labi prata angļu valodu un bez kādām grūtībām varēja lasīt katru grāmatu vai laikrakstu ― he knew English well and could read all books and magazines without any difficulty
(intransitively) to know, to be able
“dzīvojam, kā kurais prot,” vecais jūrnieks norūca ― “we live as each (of us) can”, the old sailor growled

tu esi man laba bijusi, es gribu tev laba būt, kā jau nu es, muļķe, protu ― you have been good to me, I want to be good to you, as (much) as I, poor fool, am able

conjugation of prast

	INDICATIVE (īstenības izteiksme)				IMPERATIVE (pavēles izteiksme)
		Present (tagadne)	Past (pagātne)	Future (nākotne)	IMPERATIVE (pavēles izteiksme)
1st pers. sg.	es	protu	pratu	pratīšu	—
2nd pers. sg.	tu	proti	prati	pratīsi	proti
3rd pers. sg.	viņš, viņa	prot	prata	pratīs	lai prot
1st pers. pl.	mēs	protam	pratām	pratīsim	pratīsim
2nd pers. pl.	jūs	protat	pratāt	pratīsiet, pratīsit	protiet
3rd pers. pl.	viņi, viņas	prot	prata	pratīs	lai prot

RENARRATIVE (atstāstījuma izteiksme)			PARTICIPLES (divdabji)
Present	protot		Present Active 1 (Adj.)		protošs
Past	esot pratis		Present Active 2 (Adv.)		prazdams
Future	pratīšot		Present Active 3 (Adv.)		protot
Imperative	lai protot		Present Active 4 (Obj.)		protam
CONDITIONAL (vēlējuma izteiksme)			Past Active		pratis
Present	prastu		Present Passive		protams
Past	būtu pratis		Past Passive		prasts
DEBITIVE (vajadzības izteiksme)			NOMINAL FORMS
Indicative	(būt) jāprot		Infinitive (nenoteiksme)		prast
Conjunctive 1	esot jāprot		Negative Infinitive		neprast
Conjunctive 2	jāprotot		Verbal noun		prašana

prefixed verbs:

other derived terms:

^ Karulis, Konstantīns (1992) “prast”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca‎^[1] (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN