Walloon/Grammar

Parts of Speech

Noun

Sometimes mark gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural), either in article or certain suffixes.

Examples:

• Masculine (singular): tchvå<n><m><sg> ↔ tchvå ("horse")

• Masculine (plural): tchvå<n><m><pl> ↔ tchvås ("horses")

• Feminine (singular): båshele<n><f><sg> ↔ båshele

Pronoun

Personal pronouns vary by person, number, gender, and function syntactically (subject, reflexive, object, etc.)

Examples:

• 1st person singular subject: dji<prn><p1><sg> ↔ dji ("I")
• 1st person plural subject: nos<prn><p1><pl> ↔ nos ("we")
• 3rd person singular subject: i<prn><p3><sg> ↔ i ("he/she/it")

Adjective

Show gender and number through -e, -s, with certain extra patterns for endings (-î/-ire, -s/-sse, etc.) Examples:

• Masculine singular: grand<adj><m><sg> ↔ grand ("tall, big")
• Feminine singular: grand<adj><f><sg> ↔ grande ("tall, big")
• Feminine plural: grand<adj><f><pl> ↔ grandès ("tall, big")

Determinant

Many articles and determiners (definite, indefinite, partitive, etc.) Examples:

• Indefinite article (masculine singular): on<det><ind><m> ↔ on ("a")
• Indefinite article (feminine singular): ene<det><ind><f> ↔ ene ("a")
• Definite article (plural): les<det><def><pl> ↔ les ("the")

Verb

Conjugated for tense, mood, person, number, etc. Examples:

• 1st person singular (present): tchanter<v><pres><p1> ↔ tchant-e ("I sing")
• 2nd person singular (present): tchanter<v><pres><p2> ↔ tchant-es ("you sing")
• 3rd person plural (present): tchanter<v><pres><p3> ↔ tchant-èt ("they sing")