Mirad Grammar/Lesson 3

Lesson 3: Where do you live?

In this lesson, you will learn how to conjugate verbs in the basic tenses.

Dialog 3: Verbs in the Simple Active Indicative Tenses

SPEAKER	MIRAD	ENGLISH
Maria	Hay, Joe! Duhoyen se hyas?	Hi, Joe! How is everything?
Joe	Hyas se fia, Maria.	Everything is fine, Maria.
Maria	Duhom et tambese hij?	Where do you live now?
Joe	At tambese zedom hij. Ja his, at tambesa ha yuzdom.	I live downtown now. Before this, I lived in the suburbs.
Maria	Huj, et sa gla yib bi him. Hij, et tambese gla yub.	Then, you were very far from here. Now, you live very close by.
Joe	Va. Duhos et xe av yex hij?	Yes. What do you do for work now?
Maria	At yexe be tolnam yub bi him. At so hum ju ha uj bi ha jeb.	At work at a grocery store near here. I will be there until the end of the season.
Joe	Su baka. Yexu jestay. At hoydo et hij.	Be well. Work hard. I will say goodbye to you now.
Maria	Hoy. Upu ha tolnam hej.	Bye. Come to the grocery store some time.

Grammar Notes

Conjugating Simple Active Verbs

You've seen some uses of the verb ser (to be) in the previous lessons. In this dialog, you see that same verb used in other tenses, aspects, and moods beside the simple present active indicative (is/am/are). In this lesson, you are going to learn that by changing the er ending of the infinitive to one of the vowels a, e, o, and u, you can conjugate any verb in three simple, active tenses plus one other tenseless form that can act as a conditional or imperative. The following chart shows these tenses (first the simple aspect tenses) and how ending are suffixed to the verb stem:

Conjugation in the Simple Active Tenses

ASPECT	VOICE	MOOD	TENSE	ser....to be s-	xer ....to do x-	uper...to come up-
Simple	Active	Indicative	Present	at se....I am	at xe....I do	at upe....I come
Simple	Active	Indicative	Past	at sa....I was	at xa....I did	at upa....I came
Simple	Active	Indicative	Future	at so....I will be	at xo....I will do	at upo....I will come
Simple	Active	Hypothetical	(Conditional)1 (Imperative)1	at su....I would be su!....Be!	at xu....I would do Xu!...Do!	at upu....I would come Upu!....Come!

Note 1: These are TENSELESS forms.

These are called simple aspect tenses and refer to habitual states and actions. In the dialog, the verb form xeye is in the progressive aspect (I am in doing something, as oppposed to I do something as a habitual action), which will be discussed in a later lesson.

Verb forms do not change for person and number:

• At xe....I do
• Et xe....you do
• It xe....he does

The plural pronouns begin with a y:

• Yat xe....We do
• Yet xe....You (pl.) do
• Yit xe....They (pl.) does

Notice that the verb form does not change from person to person or from singular to plural.

Take note also, that the above pronouns are genderless. So it xe can mean he does or she does. The singular pronouns can be marked for specific gender, but we'll get to that in a later lesson. Also, be aware that these personal pronouns do not change form whether they are the subject or object of a verb.

The Conditional and Imperative

If the verb form ends in -u, it is in the tenseless hypothetical mood. It can act as a conditional verb form or an imperative verb form. It acts as a conditional if the subject is present and it is functioning in a main clause:

• Hus su fia.....That would be good.

If the -u verb form has no subject, it can usually be interpreted as a command (= imperative):

• Su baka!....Be well!
• Xu has hij!....Do it now!

Omitting Prepositions after Certain Verbs

Certain verbs contain inherent positionality or directionality and therefore can be followed by an direct object without a preposition. This is done in English a lot with expressions like go home or come this way or live downtown (instead of go to home or come toward this way or live in downtown). Here are some common examples of this omission:

• Upu ha nam hej.....Come (to) the store sometime.
• At tambese zedom.....I live (in) the downtown.
• Du at eta dyun.....Tell (to) me your name.

Quiz on Simple Active Verbs

Fill in the blanks with the Mirad equivalents of the underlined English verb forms: (Note: upper/lower case is significant.)

1. At hum.....I will be there.

2. eta yex hij.....Do your work now.

3. Duhom et ?....Where did you live? ( = Say where you live)

4. Hot bay et.....Who will come with you?

5. Duhos et hij?....What do you do now? ( = Say what you do now?)

6. Hus fia.....That would be good.

Deictic Adverbs

In the dialog, you see words like hoyen? (how), hij (now), and him (here). These are called deictic adverbs, because they point to the context of manner, time and place. This chart shows a few of these forms, which are correlated:

Correlative Deictic Adverbs

TYPE	PLACE	TIME	MANNER
Interrogative	duhom?....where?	duhoj?....when?	duhoyen?....how?
Indefinite	hem....somewhere	hej....sometime	heyen....somehow
Proximal	him....here	hij....now	hiyen....this way
Distal	hum....there	huj....then	huyen....that way

There are quite a few more types that can be correlated this way, but you will learn them in future lessons.

Examples of usage:

• Duhom yit se?....Where are they?
• Yit tambesa him.....They lived here.
• Yat tambeso hem.....We will live somewhere.
• Ha tuxut upo hum.....The teacher will come there.
• Upu hij!....Come now!
• Duhoj et upo?....When will you come?
• Duhoyen et xeye?....How are you doing?
• At tambesa hum.....I lived there.

A complete list of deictic adverbs can be found in the chapter on Determiners.

Quiz on Deictic Adverbs

Fill in the following blanks with deictic adverb equivalents underlined in English:

1. et tambese?....Where do you live?

2. et xeye?....How are you doing?

3. Upu !....Come here!

4. Yat upo zedom .....We will come downtown sometime.

5. At xo has .....I will do it somehow.

Forming Adverbs

Adverbs can be formed from descriptive adjectives by adding -y to the end of the adjective:

• jesta....diligent --> jestay....diligently (or hard as in to work hard)
• baka....healthy --> bakay....healthily
• fia....good --> fiay....well
• fua....bad --> fuay....poorly
• via....beautiful --> viay....beautifully

There are words in Mirad that are inherent adverbs and do not required a change of form, such as:

• yub....near
• yib....far
• gla....very
• duhom?....where (and all of the other deictic adverbs)

The adverbs yub and yib can be used in the following prepositional phrases, using bi (of, from):

• yub bi ha dom....near the city
• yib bi ha tolnam....far from the grocery store

These two adverbs can also be converted to adjectives with the suffixation of -a:

• ha yuba tam....the nearby house
• hua yiba nam....that faraway store

These two adjectival derivatives and be further adverbialized to produce two words with special meanings:

• It se yubay him.....He (or she) is almost (=nearly) here.
• Hus voy se yibay fia.....That is not remotely good.

Lesson 3 Vocabulary

Nouns:

• zedom....downtown (ze = middle + dom = city)
• yizdom....suburb (yiz = beyond + dom = city)
• yex....work
• tam....house
• jeb....season
• tolnam....grocery store (tol = foodstuffs + nam = store)
• uj....end (vs. ij = beginning)

Adjectives:

• baka....healthy, well (vs. boka....ill)
• jesta....diligent

Verbs:

• xer....to do
• tambeser....to live, reside (tam = house + beser = to stay)
• yexer....to work
• uper....to come
• hoyder....to say goodbye (hoy = bye + der = to say)

Adverbs:

• jestay....diligently, earnestly
• yub....near, nearby (yubay....almost)
• yib....far, far away (yibay....remotely)
• gla....very (vs. glo....not very)
• duhom?....where?
• duhoj?....when?
• duhoyen?....how?
• hem....somewhere
• hej....sometime
• heyen....somehow

Pronouns:

• hyas....everything (vs. hyos....nothing; see Determiners).

Prepositions and conjunctions:

• bi....of, from (vs. bu....to)
• ja....before (je....during, jo....after)

• ja his....before this (jo his....after this)

• ju....until (vs. ji....since)
• av....for (vs. ov....against)

• av hus (or: husav) ....for that (reason), so