Weather and tense

In this lesson, we'll learn how to talk about the weather in the past, present, and future. Taking the present tense as the default, the past and future show up as different endings on the verb.

In general, past = -p and future = -tew (sometimes, you see other letters hanging on to these ones to make them easier to pronouce).

For example, to talk about rainy weather yesterday, you say:ulagu, gigpesaqap: yesterday, it rained; today, you say:gisgug, gigpesaq: today, it's raining; tomorrow, you say:sapo'nug, gigpesatew: tomorrow, it will rain.

One more thing about the future tense: in addition to adding -tew at the end of the verb, the future tense can also change the beginning of the word. It happens when the FIRST vowel of the present tense form is an e, and the change basically just removes the e in the future tense. Then to make it easier to say, a ' is often added to the start of the word.

You'll get the hang of this the more you speak the language; for now, just learn these forms and watch out for the "remove e" rule in the future.

Vocab 1

Vocab 2

Vocab 3

Vocab 4

Vocab 5

Vocab 6

Vocab 7

Vocab 8