UNIT 05 · LESSON 12
More things you do
Present tense with new verbs, and how to say “not”.
By the end of this lessonForm the present tense of xwarin and nivîsandin, and say that you do not do something.
The idea
Every present-tense verb follows the same recipe: di- + present stem + person ending (-im, -î, -e, -in). Xwarin (to eat) has the stem xw: dixwim, dixwî, dixwe, dixwin. Nivîsandin (to write) has the stem nivîs: dinivîsim, dinivîsî, dinivîse, dinivîsin. To make the present negative, replace di- with na-: naxwim (I do not eat).
See it in a sentence
Ez dixwim.I eat / I am eating.
Tu dinivîsî.You write / You are writing.
Ew naxwe.He / she does not eat.
Em nanivîsin.We do not write.
Learn the present stem together with each verb. The endings never change, but the stem is not always predictable from the infinitive.
Grammar reference: Thackston, Verb tenses