If you spend enough time speaking with Albanians, you’ll eventually notice a unique grammatical trick we use when we’re surprised.

In English, when you discover something unexpected, you might use exclamation words like “Wow!”, “Really?!”, or phrases like “It turns out…”

But in Albanian, we actually change the verb itself to show that we’re surprised.

This is called the admirative mood, or mënyra habitore in Albanian.

The word habi literally translates to “surprise” or “astonishment”.

As an Albanian learner, understanding this mood is a huge milestone. It’ll make your Albanian sound much more natural and native-like.

Here’s exactly how it works and how you can start using it.

What is the admirative mood in Albanian?

The admirative mood (mënyra habitore) is a special verb form used to express surprise, wonder, or a sudden realization.

It is one of the most unique features of the Albanian language.

Instead of adding extra words to a sentence to say “I didn’t know that!” or “Wow, look at that!”, we just change the ending of the verb.

For example, if you look outside and suddenly realize it’s raining, you wouldn’t just use the normal indicative verb. You would use the admirative verb to express that it caught you off guard.

How to form the present tense admirative

The admirative mood exists in several tenses, but as a beginner, you only need to focus on the present tense.

Forming the present admirative is actually quite simple once you know the secret formula.

You take the participle of a verb, and you attach the present tense endings of the verb kam (to have) to the end of it.

To keep things easy, let’s look at the two most important verbs in Albanian: jam (to be) and kam (to have).

The participle of jam is qenë.

The participle of kam is pasur.

When we apply the admirative endings, we get these highly common forms:

You will hear qenka and paska all the time in everyday Albanian conversations.

Examples of the admirative in action

The best way to understand the admirative is to see it in context.

Here are a few common scenarios where an Albanian would use this mood to show surprise.

Imagine you meet a foreigner, and suddenly they start speaking fluent Albanian to you. You are shocked! You would say:

Imagine you step outside expecting a warm sunny day, but a freezing wind hits you. You realize it is surprisingly cold:

Imagine you visit a friend’s new apartment for the first time, and it is incredibly beautiful. You want to express your pleasant surprise:

Imagine you are waiting for a bus, and your friend points out that it has already arrived without you noticing:

When to use the admirative mood

To summarize, you should reach for the admirative mood in these specific situations:

• Expressing pure surprise: When something amazes or shocks you.
• Sudden realizations: When you discover a fact you didn’t know a moment ago (like realizing you lost your keys: I paskam humbur çelësat!).
• Sarcasm and irony: Sometimes Albanians use it to mock a situation or express disbelief at someone’s silly actions.
• Compliments: It is a fantastic way to give a compliment because it implies you are blown away by how good something is.

Regional variations and spoken slang

As I always mention in my guides, spoken Albanian can differ from the standard textbook grammar.

The standard admirative (which is based on the Tosk dialect of the south) uses the full spellings like qenka and paska.

However, if you are in Tirana or traveling through the Gheg-speaking regions of northern Albania and Kosovo, you will hear people shorten these words in fast speech.

• Qenka (it is!) often becomes qeka.
• Paska (he/she has!) often becomes paka.

Don’t be confused when you hear this! It is just the lazy, conversational way of saying the exact same admirative verbs.

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Mastering the mënyra habitore will instantly make you sound more like a native Albanian speaker.

You don’t need to memorize every single verb right away. Just start by practicing qenka (wow, it is!) and paska (wow, it has!) in your daily life.