5. Koı úmo ba / Let's walk

In this lesson, we’ll cover the different words that can come at the end of a sentence, and take a look at how to form nouns.

Conversation

Lucas: Jadı, hóı Míqte!
Míqte: Jadı, hóı Lúka. Ma seakuaı súq móq?
Lucas: Zı, chuqkuaı jí.
Míqte: Fa úmo Pícajıaq ba. Koı úmo ba.
Lucas: Inha.

Lucas: Â, ma pıcarıaq Pícajıaq?
Míqte: Nho.
Lucas: Ina. Gı ké chua.
Míqte: Jaq gı máo ké pıca nha.

Míqte: Obe, tı Tóma Sáqmeı da!
Lucas: Ma eq ní naq Tóma móq?
Míqte: Nho. Zuche máo Tóma. Paı nháo jí dâ. Hıchu, hóı Tóma!
Tóma: ?

Vocabulary

Word Meaning
… da. ends a statement
… dâ. ends an explanation
… móq? ends a question
… nha. ends a promise
… ba. ends a wish
ma … ? yes-or-no?
ké verb the verb
ní verb this verb
jaq … very …
máo noun also noun
úmo us (you and me)
nháo he/she/they (singular)
nhána they (plural, people)
hóı noun addressing someone
Word Meaning
fa ▯ goes to ▯
koı ▯ walks
gı ▯ is good
chuq ▯ eats ▯
chuqkuaı ▯ is hungry
sea ▯ rests
seakuaı ▯ is tired
chua ▯ is a name of ▯
pıca ▯ is a pizza
rıaq ▯ is a location
paı ▯ is a friend of ▯
tı ▯ is at/in ▯
eq ▯ is ▯
â aha! / oh, I get it!
obe oh! (surprise)
hıchu hey! / oi!

Kinds of sentence: da nha ba móq

By default, the sentences we make are statements: Koı úmo means “we walk.” There are some sentence-ending words that change this:

Koı úmo nha.
A promise: “We’ll walk.”

Koı úmo ba.
A wish/encouragement: “Let’s walk.”

Koı úmo dâ.
An explanation: “(It’s just that) we walk.”

If you don’t say a sentence-ending word, da (which ends a regular statement) is implied.

To ask questions, we use the sentence-ender móq, but we also need to change the sentence a bit to make it clear just what it is we’re asking. This alone won’t do:

Seakuaı súq móq?
An improper question: “You are tired?”

We need the word ma in front of the sentence to make a proper yes–no question.

Ma seakuaı súq móq?
A yes-no question: “Are you tired?”

And in fact, a sentence that starts with ma doesn’t need móq to be a question. If there is a question word in the sentence, móq is implied instead of da.

Ma seakuaı súq?
“Are you tired?”

Later, we’ll learn how to form other kinds of question.

Nouns with ké and ní

For the first time, this dialogue contains nouns that aren’t proper nouns. In Toaq, nouns are formed from verbs, by adding an article before a verb. The two articles introduced in this lesson are ké (the) and ní (this here).

pıca → ké pıca
▯ is a pizza → the thing which is a pizza

ké pıca
the pizza

de → ní de
▯ is beautiful → this here thing which is beautiful

ní de
this beautiful thing

Toaq doesn’t have separate singular and plural forms of nouns. A description like ké pıca can really mean the pizza or the pizzas.

Making nouns from two-slot verbs

If paı means “▯ is a friend of ▯”, can we say ké paı to mean “the friend”?

Well… maybe. Toaqists certainly do this a lot, but it really faces the same problem as “underfilling”, as we discussed in the previous chapter: “the friend” of whom? It’s hard to pick a reasonable default to fill the second slot with.

In a future lesson, we’ll learn how to make a noun from a verb while also filling the second slot. But for now, let’s pretend you can only make nouns out of one-slot verbs.

Some two-slot verbs have one-slot variants, for ease of underfilling or making nouns out of them.

Word Meaning
chuq ▯ eats ▯
haqchuq ▯ eats food
pao ▯ is a parent of ▯
deopao ▯ is a parent

The verb to be, eq

So far, we’ve encountered plenty of sentences where there isn’t an equivalent word to “is” in the Toaq sentence. The “is” is usually already baked into the verb. For example, naq means “___ is a man”, and Naq Tóma means “Tóma is a man.”

Sometimes, though, you have two nouns and just need to link them with an “is.” In this case (and only in this case) Toaq uses the verb eq.

eq
▯ is ▯

Eq ní naq Tóma.
This man is Tóma.

Eq Tóma ní naq.
Tóma is this man.

Eq jí nháo.
I am him.