Introduction to Nahuatl: Lesson 3

So now that we know how to use instransitive verbs, we can learn some transitive verbs. Transitive verbs need an object, and it goes between the subject and the verb.

The object prefix for me is nēch.

The verb to see is itta.

?You see me|Tinēchitta

What if it is the other way around?

The object prefix for you is mitz.

?I see you|Nimitzitta

The verb to love is tlazohtla.

?I love you|Nimitztlazohtla

Remember that he, she, it and they don’t have a prefix for verbs or nouns. Can you guess the following sentence?

?Nēchtlazohtlah|They love me

But he, she and it have an object prefix version for verbs:

qu before e and i.

?I see it|Niquitta

c before consonants, a and o.

?I love her|Nictlazohtla

qui before consonants if it doesn’t have a subject prefix.

?She loves him|Quitlazohtla

The verb to hear is caqui

The object prefix for us is tēch.

Can you guess the following sentences?

?Titēchcaqui|You hear us

?Tēchcaquih|They hear us

When a word starts with a vowel, the i in the prefixes ni and ti disappears.

The object prefix for you all is amēch.

?I hear you all|Namēchcaqui

?We hear you all|Tamēchcaquih

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NOTE: This appears to be the last lesson so far. The course is not marked as finished so there should probably be more lessons in the future. In the meanwhile, you might want to check out some of the other courses we have:

Introduction to Nahuatl (Spanish version)	a course of Nahuatl with 3 lessons produced by motanz
Introduction to Afrikaans	a course of Afrikaans with 5 lessons produced by Linas
Introduction to Norwegian	a course of Norwegian with 5 lessons produced by Linas
Introduction to Dutch	a course of Dutch with 5 lessons produced by Linas

You can also return to the main page of the labs to see all of the courses we have here.