ÍST

íst is a transcription of the Slovak verb ísť, which means “to go.” In Slovak, this verb is essential for expressing movement from one place to another, whether on foot or by other transport. The spelling with diacritics is important: ísť uses í (i with acute) and ţ (t with caron) in correct Slovak orthography, and it is cognate with related motion verbs in other Slavic languages. The form is used in various constructions that indicate direction, arrival, departure, and general movement.

In present tense, ísť is highly irregular. The standard forms are: idem, ideš, ide, ideme, idete, idú. These correspond to I go, you go, he/she goes, we go, you go, they go. Past tense is formed with the appropriate past participle, for example: išiel (masculine singular), išla (feminine singular), išlo (neuter singular), išli (plural). The contracted forms and agreement with the subject are common in everyday Slovak. For future reference, Slovak also uses compound or periphrastic constructions to convey future movement, and prefixes can alter the meaning (for example, odísť to depart, prísť to come).

í sc a usage notes: ísť is intransitive and often combined with directional prefixes to indicate where the movement is headed or from where it starts. It also appears in imperative forms for giving directions, such as choď (go, informal singular) and choďte (go, formal or plural). The verb forms the core of many motion-related expressions and prefixes, yielding a wide family of related verbs that describe different kinds of motion or arrival.

See also: jít, Czech inflected form jít, related Slavic verbs for going (e.g., Russian идти).