“E gëzofsh!” The little wish for anything new

A friend sits down at the café in a new coat. In English you might say “Nice coat!” An Albanian speaker might instead say E gëzofsh!, “May you enjoy it.” It isn’t really a compliment on the coat. It’s a wish for the person who will wear it.

A verb ending that only makes wishes

Gëzofsh comes from gëzoj, “to enjoy, to be glad of.” The ending -fsh puts the verb in the optative, a mood used for wishes (and sometimes curses). Albanian is one of very few modern European languages that builds this into the verb itself, with its own stem and endings. English has to add a separate word such as “may.”

The small e in front is the object pronoun “it,” meaning the coat.

Three wishes, one pattern

1. Something new. Say E gëzofsh! to one person you know well. Say E gëzofshi! to several people or to someone you address politely. It works for a new car or a new home, and even for a lovely name.

2. A good time ahead. Kalofsh mirë! literally means “may you pass well.” It’s a wish that someone has a good time. For a group, say Kalofshi mirë!

3. Newlyweds. U trashëgofshi! wishes a married couple children. You may also hear Të trashëgoheni!, which gives the same blessing using the subjunctive with të.

That last pair shows something useful. For wishes in general, the subjunctive (të + verb) is actually more common. The optative tends to appear when the good thing lies outside the speaker’s control, such as happiness, luck or children. You can’t give someone joy in their coat. You can only wish it.

In messages

In texts you’ll often see e gezofsh, without the ë. The standard spelling keeps it: gëzofsh.

Try it

A colleague shows you the flat she and her partner have just bought. What do you say?

Answer: E gëzofshi! The -shi ending is right because the wish is for both of them, and it’s also the polite form. For a close friend’s new bike, E gëzofsh! would do.