Lesson Three - Part Two
Animate (AI) versus Inanimate (II) Subjects - Continued
When putting verbs together, one part of the verb always stays the same, or almost the same. In the previous examples, these would be niihoo- ("yellow"), bee'- ("red), woo'(o)tee- ("black"), and nii'- ("good"). This is known as the root of the verb. The other part of the verb changes according to whether it is used with an animate or inanimate thing. The rule is:
| root + -(n)eihi- | Animate things |
| root + -(y)oo- | Inanimate things |
When the root ends in a vowel, then -n- is added before -eihi- and -y- is added for inanimate things, as with niihoo- (these are called glide consonants by linguists). When the root ends with a consonant, as in "heniiyoot-/ heniiyoo3-," this is not necessary. The root combined with these verb suffixes forms what we call the verb stem. With this rule, you can take many different roots and make whole words with them:
| neniice'- | (gray) |
| nenííce'éíhinoo | I am gray |
| nenííce'éé'
|
It is gray |
| nenííce'eihínee | You two are gray |
| nenííce'éí'i | Those are gray |
| hee- | (long/tall) |
| heenéíht | He is long/tall |
| heeyóó' | It is long/tall |
 heeneihí3i'
|
They are long/tall |
|
heeyóu'u |
Those are long/tall |