This section is an overall summary of the TA verbs. It lists every single possible form of the verb in tables. You will probably not want to memorize the tables, but they are presented here for the sake of reference. You should continue practicing with the verbs and endings you already know, and you can slowly add the rest of the endings as you need them.

As we saw in Section Eighteen, the person ranking system determines what the ending suffix is for TA verbs. Between the end of the verb and the final suffix is a middle suffix, which essentially indicates whether the person is referred to by the ending suffix is doing the action, or having the action done to them. The following table summarizes this:

 

Suffix	Action Indicated
-é3e-	action by 1S on 2
-í-	action by 2 on 1S, (or 3PL on 1S)
-ee- / -eé-	action by 2 or 3 or 4 on 1PL
-éi'ee-	action by 2 or 3 or 4 on 1PL
-oo-	action by 1 or 2 on 3, or 3 on 4
-éí- / -éi-	action by 3 on 2 or 1, or 4 on 3

 

The person/number markers which follow these direction-of-action markers indicate with more detail the exact identity of the subject or object, and whether it is singular or plural:

 

-é3e-n	action by 1 on 2 singular	nonóóhobé3en 'I see you(sg)'
-é3e-nee	action by 1 on 2 plural	nonóóhobe3énee 'I see you(pl)'
-éi'ee-t	action by 3 singular on 1PL	beniinéi'eet 's/he has given it to us(excl)'
-éi'ee-3i'	Action by 3 plural on 1PL	beniinéi'éé3i' 'they have given it to us(excl)'

 

 

Go on to Part Two of this Lesson