Manchu/Lesson 6 - Verbs 1

Dialogue

 * Note: This dialogue is actually a modern song in Manchu by the Manchu singer 宋熙东. The song's title is andasa i mujilen [Click here to listen to/download the song]

Introduction
Manchu verbs (except for three non-changing verbs) all consist of a stem and a final. The dictionary form of a Manchu verb is the present tense form, which includes the verb stem and the suffix ‘-mbi’. E.g.: Arambi (to write) consists of ara + -mbi. All changes for mood or tense in Manchu verbs are done by removing the suffix ‘-mbi’ and by adding another suffix to indicate the tense or mood of the verb (more on this later).

Manchu verbs can be divided into:
 * Original verbs (固有动词) – These are verbs that are not derived from nouns, adjectives or other verbs and include verbs such as ‘arambi’ (to write) etc.
 * Verbs derived from other words (派生动词) – These are verbs that are derived from either nouns, adjectives or other verbs (see voice of Manchu verbs).

Verbs derived from nouns and adjectives are usually formed by adding one of the following suffixes (see table for list of common suffixes) to the end of a noun or an adjective (note the final ‘n’ of the noun or adjective being turned into a verb is usually dropped):

Regular, irregular and non-changing verbs
Verbs can also be divided into three categories depending on the change in the verb suffix:

Regular verbs – These are verbs that follow regular suffix change patterns.

Irregular verbs – These are verbs that don’t follow regular suffix change patterns (see irregular verb table 8.3 for full list).

Non-changing verbs – These are three verbs that only have one fixed form. These verbs consist of only a verb stem, although grammatically, they feature all the same properties as regular and irregular verbs. The three non-changing verbs are:
 * ‘bi’ – To have (有).
 * ‘akv’ – To not have (没有).
 * ‘joo’ – To forget about it, not worry about it (算了)

Tense (时) in Manchu verbs
Unlike say French, the conjugation of Manchu verbs is constant regardless of the person doing the action. I.e. the conjugation for you went and I went would both be 'genehe'. This means only one suffix has to be learnt for each of the tenses. It is convenient to split Manchu tenses into simple tenses (of which there are three) and complex tenses all of which are formed from the simple tenses with the addition of either converbs (such as -me or -fi) or auxiliary verbs (such as bi). See table:

Some examples of the different tenses include:

Present/future tense 1
 * bi niyengniyeri forgon be cihalambi - I love spring
 * te absi genembi? - Where are you going now?
 * suwayan bira mederi de eyeme dosimbi - The yellow river flows into the sea

Present/future tense 2 Past tense
 * mini ama Harbin de ere manju gisun tacire bithe be udaha - In Harbin my father bought this book to learn Manchu
 * cimari ilire ilirakv be sarkv - I don't know if we can stop tomorrow or not
 * Beijing de niyengniyeri isinaha - In Beijing spring has arrived
 * birai juhe emgeri weme deribuha - The river ice has already started to melt
 * ilha yafan de hacin hacin i ilha gemu ilaka - In the gardens all types of flowers are flowering

Indefinite past
 * sini hendurengge inu, mini mujilen de inu uttu gvnihabi - What you said is true, in my heart I had thought that too

Pluperfect

Imperfect

Present Continuous
 * bi te manju gisun be tacime ilihabi - I am currently studying Manchu

Past Continuous

 Lesson 5 (Adjectives) Contents  Lesson 7 (Verbs 2)