Determination
1. A noun can either be indeterminate or determined. The indeterminate
form has no special marker. In English the indefinite articles "a"
and "an" are used, but in Tigre there is no such marker:
Example 12.1:
feres a horse
adg a donkey
Telit a goat
dmu a cat
kelb a dog
Hayet a lion
biet a house
qelem a pen
Examples 12.2:
male feres zabeko Yesterday I bought a horse
male Hayet re'eko Yesterday I saw a lion
2. The determined form of the noun denoted in English by the
definite article "the" is expressed in Tigre by a prefix
element "le" attached to the noun
Example 12.3:
leferes the horse
le'nas the man
lebiet the house
Examples 12.4:
leferes beda The horse is lost
lebiet zebet The house is sold
lekelb nebHa The dog barked
le'nas giesa The man went ( left )
le feres lemale zabekuwu beda The horse that I bought yesterday
is lost
le melehayka men ta smu? What is the name of your friend?
le qeyaH mekinet nay men ta? Whose is the red car.
3. The marker of determination is gender independent and is the
same for female and male. eg.
Example 12.5 :
lewelet the girl
le'nas the man
leHSan the child
4. The marker "le" is also used for singular and plural.
Example 12.6:
lewelet the girl
le'awald the girls
leAd the village
leAdotat the villages
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In this lesson we have learned the following new words:
feres horse
adg donkey
Telit goat
dmu cat
Hayet lion
zabeko I bought
zabet she bought
HSan child
beda lost
qelem pen
qeyeH red (m)
qeyaH red (f)
mekinet car
Ad village
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End of Lesson 12
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thus, it can not be distributed in any form.
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