Khasi/Grammar

Parts of speech

Nouns

Gender and Number

• Articles 'ka' and 'u' function respectively as the feminine and masculine singular articles. They typically come before nouns.
  • ka khun<n><sg><f> ↔ 'daughter'
  • u khun<n><sg><m> ↔ 'son'
• The gender of a noun cannot be shown by the article in the plural, as the plural article is 'ki', and it carries no gender. Instead, a marker-word is often attached to indicate gender, such as the most general 'kynthei' meaning female and 'shinrang' meaning male.
  • ki lang-kynthei<n><pl><f> ↔ 'she-goats', 'ewes'
  • ki lang-shinrang<n><pl><m> ↔ 'he-goats', 'rams'
• There are more specific terms for some words. These specific terms are often epithets describing a feature of a male or female of such a word. For example:
  • ki massi-kyrtong<n><pl><m> ↔ 'bulls', 'male cows'
    • massi<n> ↔ 'cow'
    • kyrtong<adj><m> ↔ 'fat', 'strong'

Verbs

• kyrhuh<vblex><pres><actv> ↔ 'roar'
• bam<vblex><pres><actv> ↔ 'eat'

Adjectives

• babha<adj> ↔ 'good'
• barit<adj> ↔ 'small'

Prepositions

• jong<pr> ↔ 'of'
• ha<pr> ↔ 'in, to, at, on'

Pronouns

• nga<prn> ↔ 'I'
• ngi<prn> ↔ 'we'