Mike
Nahuatl Future Tense I've been going through a book called "Malintzin Itlahtol" available on the IDIEZ website (www.macehualli.org). I have a grammar question about the following sentence: "Techpactia tiquinchihchihuazqueh huan tiquinpatlanaltizqueh in papalomeh." I want to translate this sentence as: "We enjoy decorating and flying kites." (Literal word by word translation: "It gives us pleasure - we will adorn them - and - we will make them fly - the - butterflies [i.e. kites]") My question is what to do about the verb tense. The grammar text I'm using identifies verbs ending in "-zqueh" as plural future tense, but these come after a verb in the present tense ("Techpactia"). Is it alright to translate these future tense verbs in the present "-ing" form or am I missing something important?
Feb 27, 2015 7:43 PM
Answers · 1
The translation using -ing is correct. The literal translation sounds weird and is incorrect The verb 'pactia' works as the verb 'like' in English adding another verb in -ing , in this case 'pactia' is followed by a verb in future tense, that is the way we talk about our likes or activities we enjoy the most. E.g Nechpactia ni cochiz - I like sleeping Ni cochiz- -I will sleep
March 3, 2015
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