Pronominal Prefixes I1

Pronominal Prefixes: intransitive singular
When we refer to action by a single individual, we use the singular prefixes.

nga- (I) is for first person singular, e.g. ngare (I go), ngawam (I went).

yi- (you singular) is for second person singular, e.g. yire (you go), yiwam (you went).

∅- (he/she/it) is for third person singular, e.g. kare (he/she/it goes), wam (he/she/it went).


 * The ∅- means nothing, a zero prefix.


 * There is an extra ka- which only shows up in third person singular in present tense. You'll hear it all the time, so you need to know it.


 * Just like "go" has an irregular past tense "went" (not "goed"), Kunwok re (go) has an irregular past tense wam (went).

Here it is again, in tabular form:

Here are more examples, this time for bidbun (climb) and mankan (fall).

It's your turn to try this with some new verbs:

Finally, you could make a table of words with their prefixes for some other intransitive verbs: e.g. dowen (be unwell), dolkkan (stand), keyo (sleep), di (be present), bebme (arrive), yayme (be itchy), borrkke (dance), wayini (sing).

Next: Intransitive Verbs 2