Monday 6 February 2017

Taking a new look at Cornish grammar 30 (describing indefinite pronouns)

Let’s have a look at how you use an indefinite pronoun as the subject where the predicate contains a descriptor. For this the descriptive form of boas (SWFM bos) is used. With the indefinite pronouns we only need the third person
present tense Thew SWFM Yth yw
past tense (imperfect) Tho SWFM Yth o

We have already seen some negative examples (and we can easily change their tense):
Nag ew nagonan a bris.
SWFM Nyns yw nagonan a bris.
No-one is important.
Nag ew tra veth dhe les.
Nyns yw tra vyth dhe les.
Nothing is interesting.
Nag o nagonan a bris.
SWFM Nyns o nagonan a bris.
No-one was important.
Nag o tra veth dhe les.
Nyns o tra vyth dhe les.
Nothing was interesting.

Now let’s look at some positive examples. Word order can be varied according to what you want to stress. The most important thing comes first:

Nebonan ew strolyek.
SWFM Nebonan yw strolyek.
Somebody is messy.
Neb tra ew flerüs.
SWFM Neb tra yw flerys.
Something is smelly.
Môsek ew neb peth.
SWFM Mosek yw neb pyth.
Something is smelly.
Thew neppeth apert.
SWFM Yth yw neppyth apert.
Something is obvious.
Thew pubonan pur wheg.
SWFM Yth yw pubonan pur hweg.

Everyone is very nice.
Attes ew pub tra.
SWFM Attes yw pub tra.

Everything is comfortable.
Costek o keniver onan.
SWFM Kostek o keniver onan.

Every single one was expensive.
Keniver tra o drog.
SWFM Keniver tra o drog.

Everything was bad.
Tho kettep hüny lowen.
SWFM Yth o kettep huni lowen.

Everyone was happy.
Tho lies onan plos.
SWFM Yth o lies onan plos.

Many were dirty.
Coynt o lies tra.
SWFM Koynt o lies tra.

Many things were strange.
Teg o lies hüny.
SWFM Teg o lies huni.
Many were beautiful.


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