Lesson 4: How old are you?

Perfect Aspect Verbs

In the past lessons, you learned the simple and progressive aspect tenses of the verb. Here you will learn the perfect aspect, which act just as the perfect tenses in English (I have studied, I had studied, I will have studied, and I would have studied). The sign of the perfect aspect is the infix ay (as opposed to ey, the infix for the progressive aspect tenses).

Here is a chart showing the new set of tenses (active voice only):

Perfect Aspect Tenses

ASPECT	VOICE	MOOD	TENSE	INFINITIVE = ser...to be STEM+INFIX = s+ay-
PERFECT	ACTIVE	INDICATIVE	PRESENT	at saye....I have been
PERFECT	ACTIVE	INDICATIVE	PAST	at saya....I had been
PERFECT	ACTIVE	INDICATIVE	FUTURE	at sayo....I will have been
PERFECT	ACTIVE	HYPOTHETICAL	(CONDITIONAL)	at sayu....I would have been

Examples:

• At tambesaye him ji glaj.....I have lived here for a long time.
• Et saye fua.....You have been bad.
• At voy tayu hus.....I would not have known that.
• At jay tajayu haj hu et pyua ela jabi jaga.....I had been born already when you reached twenty-one years of age.
• Be ata tajjub, at tejayo ilyo jabi.....On my birthday, I will have lived thirty-five years.

Counting and Telling One's Age

A full explanation of numbers and counting can be found in the chapter on Numbers. The units, when counting, end in -wa. The teens end in -lo, -la, -le, -li, etc. The hundreds in so, -sa, -se, etc.

The question for asking someone's age is usually Et se hojaga?....How old are you?

The answer is usually phrased as At se x-number (jabi) (jaga).....I am x-number (years) (old) where either word in the parentheses can be omitted. The Mirad word jabi means years and jaga means old or of age. So, to say I am forty-two years old, you would say At se ule jabi jaga or just At se ule., or At se ule jaga.

The word jaga can just be the adjective old, the opposite being joga....young. Jag as a noun means age. An old person is jagat, while a youth is jogat.

The "dimension" jag (age) can be prefixed with all the h- deictic prefixes and all the quantitative prefixes like ga, go, or gla. For example:

• hojaga?....how old?
• hijaga....this old
• hujaga....that old
• hejaga....somewhat old
• gajaga (vyel)....older (than)
• gejaga (vyel)....as old (as)
• gojaga (vyel)....less old (than)
• gwajaga....eldest
• grajaga....too old
• grojaga....minor
• glajaga....very old

All of the above terms and others can be pronominalized animately or inanimately:

• Grojagati voy upo.....Minors will not come.
• Hujagasi se vua.....Things that old are ugly.

The word joga, when referring to things can be translated as new:

• At ayse jogas av et.....I have something new for you.

When joga applies to people, it means young:

• Hijuba jogati te glos.....The youth of today know little.

Adding Gender to Nouns

Nouns do not have inherent gender in Mirad. For example, tad simply means spouse (husband or wife).

To make a gender-neutral noun masculine or male, insert a w just before the stem vowel.

• tad....spouse becomes twad....husband

Similarly, to make a gender-neutral noun feminine or female, insert a y just after the stem vowel or vowel cluster:

• tad....spouse becomes tayd....wife (tayd is pronounced exactly like Am. Eng. tide)

Other examples:

• tud....child

• twud....son
• tuyd....daughter

• tob....person, human being

• twob....man
• toyb....woman

Singular personal pronouns can be genderized similarly:

• it....he or she, him or her

• wit....he or him
• iyt....she or her

• at....I or me (gender unspoken)

• wat....I or me, being a male
• ayt....I or me, being a female

• et....you

• wet....you, being a male
• eyt....you, being a female

The plural personal pronouns yat, yet, and yit stay gender-neutral.

Deictic pronouns can be genderized unless the deictic prefix begins in hy-:

• hut....that person, he or she, him or her
• hwut*....that guy, he or him
• huyti....those gals, they (being females)

* The hw is pronounced as Am. Eng. wh in where.

Quantitative Deictic Determiners

Determiners specifying quantity and answering the question hogla (how much) are show in the following chart:

Examples:

• At se huugla iva van et upa.....I am so happy that you came.
• Hyagla ata tixuti se fia. Hyoglati se fua.....All of my students are good. None of them are bad.
• Yat ayse higla drari.....We have this many pencils.
• At ta hyigla dudi vyel et.....I knew as many answers as you.
• Hoglati te eta tajjub?....How many people know your birthday?

Quiz

Fill in the following blanks with the Mirad equivalent of the underlined English:

1. Yat ___________ him av ser bay yeta tudi.....We have come here to be with your children.
2. Et ____________ hogla tixuti be hia tistam?....How many students have you taught at this school?
3. Duven et ____________ eta tamyex?....Have you done your homework?
4. Ha gwajaga tixut be ata tistam se ____________.....The oldest student at my school is nineteen years old.
5. Eta tuxut tuxaye be hia tistam _______________?....How many years has your teacher taught at this school?
6. ___________ bi yet te ata dyun?....How many of you know my name?
7. Gla jagati __________ jabi ja van et taja.....Many old people had lived years before you were born.
8. Iva tajjub! Et se ____________ hij?....Happy Birthday! How old are you now?
9. Eta tuyd ______________. Se _____________ uva jub.....Your daughter has died. It is such a sad day.