In Pashto the jussive form is used to make orders or commands directed towards the 3rd person. This is also used for blessings and curses.

In English we would say something like "May he...", "Let them...", "May God..."

In Pashto you encounter phrases like this:

There are a couple of questions that can confuse learners when they encounter these types of phrases:

1. What does the دې - de particle refer to? Is it a mini-pronoun or a jussive marker?
2. Why do some verbs end with ـي - ee, and some with ـه - a ?

In this section, we'll explain how this all works.

Spoiler quick answer:

• Basic form: Jussive phrases are made using the jussive دې - de particle with subjunctive or present verbs.
  • Verbs end in ـي - ee (like the first example above)
• Exception: when there's a conflict with another 2nd pers mini pronoun like دې - de, we leave out the jussive دې - de marker and instead use the 2nd person imperative form.
  • Verbs end in ـه - a (like the second example above)

The jussive دې form

The jussive دې - de is a particle that goes in the kids' section. And it is not to be confused with the 2nd person mini-pronoun دې - de!

Notice how you can use either:

• the perfective subjunctive for a one-time or instantaneous sense
• the imperfective present for an on-going or continuous sense

You can also use the subjunctive equative. For example:

When it conflicts with the mini-pronoun دې

Earlier we mentioned that this jussive particle دې - de is not to be confused with the 2nd person mini-pronoun دې - de.

So what happens when we need to use both in a sentence?? They both go in the kids' section, but we can't have two دې - de's in there. We can't ever say, "دې دې - de de."

First let's look at an example without this دې conflict:

In this example تا - taa (you) is the servant so we can 🪄 shrink it into a mini-pronoun دې - de.

But now we've got the problem of the two دې - de (you) particles. We can't say this:

So here's the solution in Pashto... 🥁 Instead we get rid of the jussive دې - de and use a 2nd person singular imperative form.

This is interesting, because normally we only use that imperative form when making commands to a a 2nd person singular (ie. "you"), but because we lost the ability to use the jussive دې - de, we are using to make a 3rd person jussive phrase.

Here are more examples of how we use this to resolve the دې دې - de de conflict:

Remember that mini-pronouns can come from either shrunken servants or shrunken possessives. The same thing happens when resolving conflicts with دې - de when it comes from a shrunken possessive.

When it conflicts with the mini-pronoun مو

Things get a little more interesting when the jussive دې - de clashes with the mini-pronoun مو - mU. What happens depends on whether مو - mU is:

• مو - mU, or
• مو - mU

With مو as 2nd person plural

Just like you can't say دې دې - de de, you also can't have the jussive دې - de together with the second person plural مو - mU.

with مو as 1st person plural

But if the is a 1st person plural pronoun, then it can co-exist with the jussive دې - de.

Notice for all these examples we never use the 2nd person imperative form, because we are still able to use the jussive دې - de.