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.

Here it is again, in tabular form:

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

You might like to try writing and saying these prefixes with a range of other intransitive verbs, e.g. dowen (be unwell), durndeng (return), nalkbun (cry), yerrkan (sit), dolkkan (stand).