vietoj

Vietoj is a Lithuanian preposition meaning in place of or instead of. It is used to express substitution, replacement, or an alternative and governs the genitive case, requiring the following noun or pronoun to appear in its genitive form. The construction is common in both spoken and written language and can be used with nouns, pronouns, and noun phrases.

In practice, vietoj is followed by a word in genitive: for example, kavos in vietoj kavos (instead of coffee). A common fixed phrase is vietoj to, meaning “instead of that.” The pronoun forms in genitive are used after vietoj as well, as in vietoj manęs (instead of me), vietoj tavęs (instead of you), and similar patterns with nouns. The preposition emphasizes a substitution of one option by another and can relate to actions, choices, or replacements.

Vietoj can appear in various clauses to contrast choices or outcomes, often replacing phrases like “instead of doing X.” It is used across formal and informal contexts in standard Lithuanian. It does not take the dative; its governing case is the genitive, which influences the form of the following word.

Etymologically, vietoj is a native Baltic preposition, closely aligned with related terms in Baltic languages that convey substitution or replacement. See also Lithuanian grammar on prepositions and the genitive case for related usage and case-marking rules.