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 person sg	es	protu	pratu		pratīšu	—
2nd person sg	tu	proti	prati		pratīsi	proti
3rd person sg	viņš, viņa	prot	prata		pratīs	lai prot
1st person pl	mēs	protam	pratām		pratīsim	pratīsim
2nd person pl	jūs	protat	pratāt		pratīsiet, pratīsit	protiet
3rd person 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