Lesson 9 - Questions and Distances

Wegonenan onowe? - What are these?
Wegonenan iniwe? - What are those?
Wegonenan iniwedi? - What are those over there?
Waaka'iganan iniwe - Those are houses.
Jiimaanan iniwe - Those are boats.
Adoopowinan onowe - These are tables.
Desabiwinan onowe - These are chairs.
Desabiwinan iniwe - Those are chairs.
Desabiwinan iniwedi - Those are chairs over there.
Mazina'iganan iniwe - Those are books.
Ininiwag ogowe - These are men.
Ininiwag igiwe - Those are men.
Ininiwag igiwedi - Those are men over there.
Mitigoog igiwe - Those are trees.
Anaangoog igiwe - Those are stars.
Awenenag igiwedi anishinaabeg? - Who are those people over there?
Awenenag igiwe gwiiwizenzag? - Who are those boys?
Awenenag ogowe ikwezenzag? - Who are these girls?
Ningozisag ogowe - These are my sons.
Nindaanisag ogowe - These are my daughters.
 
 

Note.

Plural nouns. The nouns in the last lesson were all singular nouns, all of them referred to a single item. To refer to more than one item (e.g.: 'stars', 'boats', 'houses', 'men'), a suffix is added to a noun. Such a suffix is called a plural suffix, and a noun with a plural suffix is called a plural noun. Plural suffixes will be always placed in brackets after nouns in New Words.

Plural suffix for animate nouns most often, but not always is -ag.
Plural suffix for inanimate nouns most often, but not always is -an.

Remember, that:
The last letter of a plural suffix of an animate noun is always -g;
The last letter of a plural suffix of an inanimate noun is always -n.
So you can easily find out from the list of new words which nouns are alive (animate), and which are not alive (inanimate).

Demonstrative pronouns. Demonstrative pronouns also could be plural, like the words 'these' or 'those'.

Plural animate demonstrative pronouns:
ogowe - these (the closest)
igiwe - those (further)
igiwedi - those over there (the furtherst)

Plural inanimate demonstrative pronouns are:
onowe - these (the closest)
iniwe - those (further)
iniwedi - those over there (the furtherst)

Words awenen (who) and wegonen (what) also have plural suffixes in Ojibwe, unlike English:
awenen - who? (animate - referring to one person)
awenwnag - who? (referring to more than one person)
wegonen - what? (inanimate - referring to one thing)
wegonenan - what? (referring to more than one thing)
 
 

---

Grammar note.

Participles awenen - "who" and wegonen - "what", also have singular and plural.

 

lesson 8 | lessons | lesson 10