Grammar 12 |
a) The past tense of the copula verb The copula verb introduced in 4b) also appears in the past tense:
The examples introduced in 4b) in the past tense are:
b) The verb: The imperfect The imperfect is formed by means of the present base and the past morpheme -wa ܘܰܐ which is appended to the forms of the 3rd and 2nd person. As for the 1st person, however, it is extended to –way ـܘܰܝـ and inserted between the present base and the inflectional suffix:
The imperfect in Surayt indicates an action that was ongoing in the past or that took place habitually:
c) The verb: The pluperfect Just like the imperfect is formed by means of the present base, the pluperfect is formed by means of the preterite base and the past morpheme -wa. Consequently, in the pluperfect, like the preterite, one distinguishes between transitive and intransitive verbs. As for transitive verbs, -wa ܘܰܐ as –way ـܘܰܝـ is inserted in between the preterite base grëš- ܓܪܷܫـ and the inflectional suffix. Therefore, the deviation of the 3rd and 2nd person is to be borne in mind. The verbs introduced in the chapter on the preterite (cf. Grammar 8a) have the following forms:
The pluperfect of intransitive verbs is formed correspondingly to the imperfect. The extension -wa is identical with the one of the imperfect:
The pluperfect is equivalent to the English past perfect simple. It indicates an action that took place before a certain time frame in the past and is completed:
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