Asking
Questions About The Past.
We have seen two ways of making
poasitive statements about the past – the preterite (simple past tense) and the
compound preterite, e.g.:
Nei eth tre. We went home.
Nei ’wrüg moas tre. We did go home. We went home.
However, for asking questions and making negative statements you must
use the compound preterite. This is a slightly simplified version[1] (which
also misses out the verbal particle a):
wrüga
vy? did I?
wress’tajy?
did you? (familiar)
wrüg
ev?
did he?
wrüg
hei? did she?
wrüssa
nei? did we?
wrüssa
whei? did you? (formal
and plural)
wrüg
anjei?
did they?
na wrüga
vy I did not
na
wress’tajy you did not (familiar)
na wrüg ev he
did not
na wrüg
hei she did not
na wrüssa
nei we did not
na wrüssa
whei you did not (formal and
plural)
na wrüg
anjei they did not
Making some of our previous sentences into questions or negative
statements:
Wrüssa nei golhy an
lestry?
Did we wash the dishes?
Na wrüssa nei golhy an
lestry.
We did not wash the dishes.
Wrüg hei omwisca e’n mettin?
Did she get dressed in the morning?
Na wrüg hei omwisca e’n
mettin.
She did not get dressed in the morning.
Wrüga vy omjersya war
bluvek?
Did I make myself comfortable on a cushion?
Na wrüga vy omjersya war
bluvek?
I did not make myself comfortable on a cushion.
[1] There are also other forms which have a pronoun incorporated with the verb, which we will deal with later.
[1] There are also other forms which have a pronoun incorporated with the verb, which we will deal with later.
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