Basic past tense (VAI)

So far, we've learned the present tense for VAI verbs in both independent and conjunct forms, one of two forms of the future tense, and a conditional mood. We've also briefly touched on the imperative, in the form of "Let's [do something]".

We haven't yet gone into the past tense. In fact, for whatever reason, Pimsleur chose not to include it in its 30 lesson course. So I'm including some basics here.

The rules are as simple as when forming the future tense. Instead of using "wii", we'll be using "gii". So to ask if it was cold yesterday, for example, we would say "Gii-gisinaa agwajiing?"


Some other examples, using both independent and conjunct form, and a negative:
Examples using "minikwe"

• Awenen gaa-minikweyan makade-mashkikiwaaboo? ** - Who drank the coffee? (Remember that because we're using a question word ("Awenen") we need to conjugate the verb in conjunct form.)
• Gigii-minikwe zhingobaaboo na? - Did you drink the beer?

** More on why minikwe takes "gaa" as a past tense marker in a later post.

Examples using "izhaa"

• Gigii-izhaa na iwidi niimi'iding bijiinaago? - Did you go to the pow-wow yesterday? 
• Oodenaang nigii-izhaa dibikong. - I went to town last night.

Here's an example of using the past in a negative form:

• Gaawiin ningii-izhaasii adaawewigamigong. - I didn't go to the store.

New words:

• bijiinaago - yesterday
• dibikong - last night

Things get more complicated once we move beyond VAI verbs. I'll cover those in another post (or two), but for now, this is a basic start using the past tense with VAI verbs.

Stepping through a course - Lesson 17

Another short dialog with just a couple new verbs, a noun, and a number. I've supplemented this lesson with how to form negative statements.

Dialog -

F: Gidayaawaa na zhooniyaa?
M: Gaawiin. Imbiigoshkaa.
F: Indayaawaa zhooniyaa.
* * * * * * * * * *
F: Midaaswaabik na gidayaawaa?
M: Midaaswaabik indaaawaa.
* * * * * * * * * * *

Here's a line-by-line breakdown:

F: Gidayaawaa na zhooniyaa?

• Both the new verb have [SOMETHING] (ayaaw] and the noun for money (zhooniyaa) are introduced. She's asking "Do you have any money?"

M: Gaawiin. Imbiigoshkaa.

• Another new verb, "biigoshkaa", meaning "to be broke" in this case. He answers "No. I'm broke."

F: Indayaawaa zhooniyaa.

• She says "I have some money."

* * * * * * * * * *
F: Midaaswaabik na gidayaawaa?

• We have a new number "midaaswi" (ten). When combined with waabik (dollar), the "wi" is dropped to form "midaaswaabik" (ten dollars). Notice that waabik is not in a plural form.  She asks "Do you have ten dollars?"

M: Midaaswaabik indaaawaa.

• He answers "I have ten dollars."

New words this lesson:

• midaaswi - ten
• zhooniyaa - silver; money
• biigoshkaa - be broke
• ayaaw - have SOMETHING

Forming negative sentences

We briefly saw how to form a negative verb conjugation back in lesson three with the verb nisidotan (understand) and in lesson seven with gikendan (know), as well as the sentence "Gaawiin,Anishinaabe-inini aawisii." (He is not an Anishinaabe man).

In all these cases we used "gaawiin" in front of the verb, and added either "sii" or "ziin" at the end of the verb. The basic rule is that if the verb ends in a vowel, it takes "sii" as the ending and if it ends in a consonant it takes "ziin" as the ending.

So, some practice with some verbs we've already learned.

• Biigoshkaa? Henh. Gaawiin, odayaanziin zhooniyaa. Is he broke? Yes. He has no money.
• Gibaabaa na a'aw? Gaawiin, Nibaabaas aawisii. Is that your father? No, that's not my father.
• Bakwezhigan giwii-adaawen na? Gaawiin, niwii-adaawesii. Do you want to buy some bread? No, I don't want to buy any.
• Giwii-izhaa na iwidi adaawewigamigong? Gaawiin, Adaawewigamigong ni-wii-izhaasii. Do you want to go to the store? No, I don't want to go to the store.

In a future post I'll go over how to form negatives for weather verbs, since they're slightly different.

Stepping through a course - Lesson 16

Another short dialog today, with a couple conditionals and the verb "to bring", both animate and inanimate.

We also have a new question, "How much?"

Dialog - 

M: Gidaa-biidoonan makizinan.
F: Gidaa-biinaa gimisenh.
M: Ingaa-biinaa na nimisenh?
F: Ingaa-biinaa na animosh?
* * * * * * * * * * * *
M: Aaniish minik?
F: Bezhigwaabik.
* * * * * * * * * * * *

A line-by-line breakdown:

M: Gidaa-biidoonan makizinan. 

• Here we have a new preverb, "daa", which functions as a conditional "should".  It's formed with the verb just as "wii" is - pronoun-tense marker-verb root. The verb, "bidoon", means "bring SOMETHING". So he says "You should bring your moccasins."

F: Gidaa-biinaa gimisenh. 

• We've got another new verb here, "binaa", also meaning "bring", but this is the animate verb, "bring SOMEBODY/SOME LIVING THING". We also have the word "gimisenh", meaning "your sister". She is saying "You should bring your sister."

M: Ingaa-biinaa na nimisenh? 

• The preverb "gaa" is a future tense preverb, and can mean "shall", or "should".  But because it's a question of possibility, it functions as "can" or "could". So he's asking "Can I bring my sister?" Again, sister has the possessive pronoun "ni" affixed at the beginning of the word.

F: Ingaa-biinaa na animosh? 

• This is the same concept using another animate noun, "animosh", "dog".  She is asking "Can I bring the dog?"

* * * * * * * * * * * *

M: Aaniish minik? 

• This new word "minik" means "amount". Literally, He asks "What amount" or "How much?"

F: Bezhigwaabik. 

• We have the number "one", "bezhig" attached to "waabik", literally meaning "metal", but here we are using it to denote currency. She's saying "One dollar."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

New words this lesson:

• daa- - should; might; would
• gaa- -will; shall; should
• bezhig - one
• nimisenh - my older sister
• animosh - dog
• waabik - dollar
• minik - amount
• Aaniish minik? - How much is it?
• biidoon - bring SOMETHING
• biinaa - bring SOMEBODY

Other vocabulary:

• wa'aw[e] - this 
• Awenen wa'aw? - Who's this?
• i'iw[e] - that
• Wegonen i'iw? -(What's that?

• gigozis - your son
• nindaais - my daughter
• obaabaayan - his father

Possessive pronouns. These are always attached to the beginning of relative words, such as son, daughter, brother, sister, etc.

• ni- My
• gi- Your
• o--an his/hers (Note that there is also a suffix added for the third person singular possessive.)

A list of other relatives and relationships can be reference here on the Family Members page. 

Stepping through a course - Lesson 15

This lesson, aside from the review dialog and a couple words, we'll focus on how to make plurals.

Dialog - 

F: Niwii-izhaa iwidi niimi'iding.
M: Giwii-izhaa na iwidi niimi'iding?
F: Henyanh, niwii-izhaa iwidi niimi'iding.
M: Niwii-adaawen gegoo iwidi niimi'iding.
F: Daga, izhaadaa.
M: Aaniish apii niimi'iding?
F: Waabang gigizheb.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
M: Niwii-adaawenan makizinan.
* * * * * * * * * * * *

Here's a line-by-line breakdown:

F: Niwii-izhaa iwidi niimi'iding.

• We learned the verb "izhaa" in the summary of lessons 1-10, but it is reintroduced here. She is saying "I want to go (there) to the pow-wow.

M: Giwii-izhaa na iwidi niimi'iding?

• "Do you want to go (there) to the pow-wow?"

F: Henyanh, niwii-izhaa iwidi niimi'iding.

• "Yes, I want to go (there) to the pow-wow."

M: Niwii-adaawen gegoo iwidi niimi'iding.

• We also learned the verb "adaawe" (buy) in the summary of lesson 1-10. He is saying "I want to buy something (there) at the pow-wow."

F: Daga, izhaadaa.

• In lesson 8, we learned that "daga" means "please" or "come on". "Izhaadaa" is the 3rd person imperative for "go", so she is saying "Come on, let's go."

M: Aaniish apii niimi'iding?

• "When is the pow-wow."

F: Waabang gigizheb.

• "Tomorrow morning." (Learned in lesson 13.)

* * * * * * * * * * * *

M: Niwii-adaawenan makizinan.

• "makezin" is a new word, meaning "moccasin". There's an "an" ending, making it plural. He says "I want to buy moccasins."

New words this lesson:

• makizin - shoe, moccasin
• izhaa - go [SOMEWHERE] (We actually learned this in the Summary and review of Lessons 1-10)

A note on plurals.

Forming plurals in Ojibwe is done in two ways, one for animate objects and one for inanimate objects.

As we see with the inanimate moun "makizin", we only need to add an "an" to it to make it plural (makizinan). If the noun ends in a vowel, just an "n" is added.

For animate mouns, an "ag" is added when the noun ends in a consonant or "wag" when the noun ends in a vowel. So let's take a look at the word "ikwe" (woman). To make it plural (women), we simply add "wag" since it ends in an "e", making "ikwewag".

Another example of a word ending in a consonant is "waakaa'igan" (house). To make it plural, we simply add "an" to the end, making it "waakaa'iganan" (houses).

Here are a few new words to practice making plurals:

Inanimate nouns -

• mazina'igan (book), plural form is mazina'iganan
• mazinaatesijigan (television set), plural form is mazinaatesijiganan

Animate nouns - 

• animosh (dog), plural form is animoshag
• gaazhagens (cat), plural form is gaazhagensag
• bineshiinh (bird), plural form is bineshiinyag (because bineshiinh ends in a nasalized 'nh", we change the "nh" to a "ny".

Example sentences:

• oshki- (new), attach to beginning of the noun
• Niwii-adaawenan niizh oshkimazinaatesijiganan.  * (I want to buy two new television sets.)
• Animoshag nibaawag. * (The dogs are sleeping.)
• Gaazhagensag bakaded. * (The cats are hungry.)
• nagamo (sing)
• Bineshiinyag nagamod.  * (The birds are singing.)

* The verb must also be plural.

Talk about the weather

Pimsleur lessons have been progressing rapidly, so I wanted to take a break from the lessons and talk about weather in Ojibwe.

Amazingly, the Pimsleur course doesn't touch on weather at all in any of its 30 lessons! I'm not sure why, either, as it's an important aspect of Ojibwe culture, and also could have easily been tied into a later lesson on hunting. Talking about the weather in Ojibwe is straightforward once one simple concept is taken into account.

In Ojibwe, all weather words are in fact verbs, so while the concept of "it's raining" may fit with that, "it's sunnying" will seem odd, but that's how the language works.


So let's take a look at some weather verbs:

• mino-giizhigad - a good/nice day
• biiwan - blizzard
• mizhakwad - clear
• gisinaa - cold
• gizhide - hot
• gimiwan - raining
• zoogipon - snowing
• noodin - windy

And let's include a preverb to intensify:

• gichi- - great, very, big, a lot

If we want to say for example, that the weather is very hot, we simply attach "gichi-" to the verb "gizhide" (hot), so "Gichi-gizhide." means "It's very hot."

We've already learned a couple of these adverbs, but these words can further define the weather verb:

• minawaa - again
• geyaabi - still
• aazha - already
• megwaa - right now

Finally, some full example sentences:

• Mino-giizhigad. (It's a good/nice day, It's nice out.)
• Gichi-gisinaa noongom. (It's very cold today.)
• Wii-mino-gizhide. (It's going to be hot.)
• Wii-gimiwan dibikak. (It's going to rain tonight.)
• Wii-zoogipon waabang. (It's going to snow tomorrow.)
• Gimiwan minawaa. (It's raining again.)
• Geyaabi gimiwan. (It's still raining.)
• Megwaa gimiwan. (Right now it's raining.)
• Megwaa gichi-zoogipon. (Right now, it's snowing a lot.)
• Maagizhaa wii-gizhide waabang. (Maybe it will be hot tomorrow.)
• Aazha zoogipon. (It's already snowing.)
• Wii-zoogipon dibikak. (It's going to snow tonight.)

Notice that, while this is not a hard-and-fast rule, words like "dibikak" (tonight), "waabang" (tomorrow) and "noongom" (today or now) usually follow the weather verb, while words like "minawaa"(again), "geyaabi" (still), "aazha" (already) and "megwaa" (right now) precede the weather verb. "Gimiwan minawaa." (It is raining again.) is the only example I've included that puts "minawaa" at the end.

I've only included present and future tenses, because that's all we've covered so far in the course, but once we get to the past tense (it'll be introduced in a supplemental lesson, as Pimsleur doesn't cover it), they can easily be applied to these same examples.