Episode 9: Irregular Verbs, Bleh

Mba’éichapa. This is Guaranime. Podcasting, in English, from the Glory Land of Guarani, here in Yataity, Paraguay, this is Paulita.

I just wanted to let you all know that I have quasi-fixed the problem of seeing how words are spelled. If you have an MP3 player that has a video screen, such as an ipod, you can look at the screen during the podcast, and the words will pop up. In between I just put in some pretty pictures of Paraguay. If you push the little center button on an ipod three times, they’ll be nice and big.

Ugh, today we’re talking a irregular verbs. It’s not fun, but you’ll use them a lot, so it’s important. Irregular verbs don’t really follow a pattern, those little poo-faces. The irregular verbs are these: to come, to go, to say, to eat or drink, to fall, to swim, and to drink water, which has its own special verb on top of just saying, “I drink water.” Today we’re just going to look at to come, to go, to say and to eat or drink, and save those others for another time.

The only way to do this is to get out a pen and paper. Make a little chart. Down the left side of the paper put all the pronouns, che, nde, ha’e, peẽ, ñande, ore, and ha’ekuéra. Then across the top, write as the column titles: to come, to go, to eat or drink, to say. If you want to do this in an Excel spreadsheet, I support that. Or if you’re too lazy, you can just look up the one I put below. I support that too.



Let’s go through them one at a time, and as we do, you can fill in the chart. What you’ll notice is that all these verbs almost have a pattern, but a few of the little rascals ruin it. With each word, we’ll talk about the pattern that’s almost there, and which ones spoil it for everyone. It might seem overwhelming at first, but just listen now and then you can break it up into chunks for memorization later.

Let’s start with “to come”. We already know “I come”, which is Che aju, so if you want to write it out you can fill in the first box with aju. For most of the “to come,” forms, you could just treat it as the verb is ju and add the beginnings we already know. So, “You come” is Nde reju. It’s with the he or she form that we run into trouble. Inexplicably, to say “he comes” or “she comes”, it’s Ha’e ou. As with all the other verbs, the ha’e and the ha’ekuéra verb forms are going to be the same. So for they come, he comes or she comes, you use the ou.

You’ll hear this a lot with hína. Ou hína Karen is “Karen’s coming”. Something else you’ll hear this combined with a lot is “to come” and that future -ta and then the question caboose -pa. You’ll use this to ask if someone is coming later. To say, “Is Shola going to come?” is Shola outapa. “Will you come” is Rejutapa.

Continuing on, we have the pattern just using the ju and the regular beginnings. “You all come” would be what? Peẽ peju. How about, “Will you all come?” Peẽ pejutapa. Then, “We all come.” Ñande jaju. “Just us come.” Ore roju.

Moving on to “to go.” We know this for the first person, which is Che aha. And in this case, the first person is the brat, along with the ñande form. We already know that form, jaha, as well, which means “let’s go” or “we all go.” Ok, well all the others are going to follow a pattern with a root of ho, like hi-ho Silver. So you go is Nde reho. "He or she goes" is Ha’e oho. "You all go" is Pee peho. What would be “Just us go”? Ore roho. "They go?" Ha’ekuera oho.

One of the things you will hear all the time is Ohoma. Like if someone’s asking if Suzy’s around, but Suzy already left, they’ll say, Ohoma Suzy. Or you might hear it with that question caboose iko. Ohomaiko Suzy? Héẽ, ohoma.

The next word is “to eat and to drink”, the root of which is just an ‘u, kind of weird. And, unfortunately, these are all weird. “I eat or drink” is Che ha’u, as we already know. "You eat" is re’u, which is not all that surprising. ***You might also hear he'u instead of re'u, although technically that is the command: eat. But you might hear, Mba'e he'uta: "What are you going to eat?"He eats" gets a little weird because it’s got an h on the front, and is ho’u. "You all eat" is Peẽ pe’u. “We all eat” is Ñande ja’u. This Ja’u is also that form which means let’s eat. “Just us eat,” Ore ro’u. “They eat” is Ha’ekuéra ho’u.

Lastly we have “to say”, the root of which is an ‘e. “I say” is Che ha’e. "You say" is a weirdo, as
"you say" is Nde ere. My Guarani tutor uses this all the time, to ask me, "What will you say?", for an example. She says Mba’e ereta. "He said or she said", you will hear all the time in conversations, it’s Ha’e he’i. ***You will also hear all the time: Mba'e he'i: "What did he/she say?"*** How about “You all say.” Out of absolutely nowhere, this has a j in it. Peẽ peje. To say “we all say” is Ñande ja’e. "Just us say" is Ore ro’e. "They say" is ha’ekuéra he’i.

Here’s a little side note on the word: he’i, and how you can use it to mean “What does that mean.” The literal translation is a little weird. Let’s say you want to know what the word kuehe means. What would ask is, Mba’épa he’ise 'kuehe.' Literally, this translate to, “What does kuehe want to say,” right? But in use it translates to “What does kuehe mean?” And to answer, the person would say, “Kuehe he’ise 'yesterday.'” Kuehe wants to say yesterday, kuehe means yesterday. End of side note.

Basically, these irregular verbs are just 28 words that you have to memorize separately. But there are some tricks to help you.

What are some patterns we can pick out here, horizontally across our chart? Well, the we’s, ñande and ore, give us something. For the ñande form words, they all start with ja-. And for all the ore words, they all start with ro-. Same thing with the Peẽ form, they all start with pe-.

This will help you guess in conversation, which is basically just what you need to do. When you want to use one of these, but you’re not sure exactly what it is, just guess. If you’re wrong, people will correct you and that will help you learn. You’ll say, Suzy he’e and people will say, he’i and it will go like that until you’ve got them down. Also, listen for these in conversation.

Another good tactic is to make flashcards of each word and put all the forms on the other side. If you can get the rhythm of reciting all of them, that might help you come up with the right one when you need it.

Or you might want to break it up into little goals. Learn all of the forms of one word, then go onto the next.

Just don’t get all overwhelmed and fry things, like I did.

Ok, now we’re going to review like nobody’s business. I made the mistake of not getting these down pat for a really long time, and I think it will be best if you just rock these out.

I’m going to break the review into 4 sections. You might just want to practice a section a day, because it’s probably too much to do in one day. The point is that it will drive you crazy if you just kind of know these, so you want to know them well.

Part 1. We’re going to review them in order of the word, starting with the English.
Part 2. We’re going to review them in order of the word, going from Guarani to English
Part 3 I’m going to mix up the order and ask them in English
Part 4, We’re just going to do 10 sentences like the usually review.


Ok, jaha.

Part 1.

To come:
I come: Che aju
You come: Nde reju
He or she comes: Ha’e ou
You all come: Pee peju
We all come: Ñande jaju
Just us come: Ore roju
They come: Ha’ekuéra ou
Command to come: Eju

To go:
I go: Che aha
You go: Nde reho
He or She goes: Ha’e oho
You all go: Pee peho
We all go: Ñande jaha
Just us go: Ore roho
They go: Ha’ekuéra oho

To eat or drink:
I eat: Che ha’u
You eat: Nde re’u
He or she eats: Ha’e ho’u
You all eat: Pee pe’u
We all eat: Ñande ja’u
Just us eat: Ore ro’u
They eat: Ha’ekuéra ho’u
Command form to eat: He’u

To say:
I say: Che ha’e
You say: Nde ere
He or she says: Ha’e he’i
You all say: Pee peje
We all say: Ñande ja’e
Just us say: Ore ro’e
They say: Ha’ekuéra he’i



Part 2. We’re going to review them in order of the word, now going from Guarani to English
To come:
Che aju: I come
Nde reju: You come
Ha’e ou: He or she comes
Pee peju: You all come
Ñande jaju: We all come
Ore roju: Just us come
Ha’ekuéra ou: They come

To go:
I go: Che aha
You go: Nde reho
Ha’e oho: He or She goes
Pee peho: You all go
Ñande jaha: We all go
Ore roho: Just us go
Ha’ekuéra oho: They go

To eat or drink:
Che ha’u: I eat
Nde re’u: You eat
Ha’e ho’u: He or she eats
Pee pe’u: You all eat
Ñande ja’u: We all eat
Ore ro’u: Just us eat
Ha’ekuéra ho’u: They eat

To say:
Che ha’e: I say
Nde ere: You say
Ha’e he’i: He or she says
Pee peje: You all say
Ñande ja’e: We all say
Ore ro’e: Just us say
Ha’ekuéra he’i: They say


Part 3
Ok, now the big mix-up in English first:
We all come: Ñande jaju
Just us go: Ore roho
They say: Ha’ekuéra he’i
He or she eats: Ha’e ho’u
Just us say: Ore ro’e
They go: Ha’ekuéra oho
You all come: Pee peju
You eat: Nde re’u
You all say: Pee peje
They eat: Ha’ekuéra ho’u
You go: Nde reho
You say: Nde ere
We all eat: Ñande ja’u
We all say: Ñande ja’e
He or She goes: Ha’e oho
You come: Nde reju
He or she says: Ha’e he’i
You all go: Pee peho
I eat: Che ha’u
He or she comes: Ha’e ou
I go: Che aha
Just us come: Ore roju
Just us eat: Ore ro’u
I come: Che aju
You all eat: Pee pe’u
We all go: Ñande jaha
I say: Che ha’e
They come: Ha’ekuéra ou
Part 4: Sentences

1. Do you all want to eat pizza?
Peẽ pe’use piko pizza

2. Are you going to go tomorrow?
Nde rehotapa ko’ẽrõ

3. What did you say to Sasha?
Mba’e ere ra’e Sashape.

4. We want to eat pizza this afternoon.
Ore ro’use pizza ko ka’aru.

5. Is Oscar going to go tonight?
Oscar ohotapa ko pyhare

6. Máva piko ho’u ra’e che pizza.
Who ate my pizza?

7. Ohoma Justin.
Did Justin go already?

8. Moõ piko peho kuehe.
Where did you all go yesterday?

9. Araka’e piko ja’uta sushi.
When are we all going to eat sushi?

10. Obama outa Paraguaipe.
Obama’s coming to Paraguay.

Episode 8: Question Words

Mba’éichapa. How are things? Good, I hope. I have a little tweak on something we talked about last week, using oiko to mean something works. Like food that’s just ok, oiko, it’s work, it’ll do the trick. And then I said that Oiko porã means that it works well. Well apparently, there is a third level I was previously unaware of, the top level of "That really works very well," would be Oikoite. This is a combo we’ll learn about later, but just so you know, if you want to say that anything works really well, it’s oikoite. If someone asks about the food they made you, Oiko? The best thing you can say about it is Oikoite.

Ok, now on to today’s lessons: Questions!

For the most part, when a stranger comes up to in Paraguay and just starts jabblin’ in Guaraní, they’re probably asking you some kind of question. Who are you? What’s your name? Where’s the nearest liquor store? Today we’re going to figure out what those question are and how to answer. First we’ll look at how questions are formed in Guarani, then we’ll learn how to use those question words, such as who, what, when and where.

As a mostly oral language, Guaraní doesn’t have question marks. Instead, they have little cabooses that show they’re asking a question. Let’s start looking at these while using our old buddy mba’e as an example. You’ll remember that mba’e means “what”.

One of the cabooses you will hear to show that someone is asking “What?” is Like, "whaaaat?" Sometimes you’ll also hear someone just say piko. Mba’e piko.piko. I picture this like in a cartoon when a question mark just pops over someone’s head. Or I guess you could translate it as like, “really?”

You’ll hear piko a lot with that word oĩ, which mean to be, as in, Oĩ pizza, “There’s pizza.” So to ask, “Is there pizza?”, you’d say Oĩ piko pizza. How would you say “Is there sushi?” Oĩ piko sushi?

Sometimes you will hear this shortened to just iko. In my host family, when the mom calls one of the kids, they always respond with Mba’eiko! Like, “Suzy!” “Whaaaaaat?” Mba’eiko! That sounds familiar, right? The two words kind of meld together. It’s not Mba’e...iko. It’s Mba’eiko.

Another of these endings that will form a question is -pa. You’ll hear this thrown in to the sentence wherever to show that the sentence is a question. Mba’epa is another way to say “What?” You’ll also hear Chepa, to mean, me? Like, “Go milk the cows." Chepa.

Also, sometimes when the siblings in my host family are fighting, one says, Mba’epa nde? And that is Mba’e + pa + nde, the word for “you”. It’s kind of like, “What’s your deal?” “What do you want?” Mba’pa nde?

Another one that is invented and not in the Guaraní books is pio. My expert on the down and dirty street language laughed when I tried to find this in the books. He said it’s invented but also the one they use most. Mba’epio, you might hear. Or, you might just hear it shortened even more to just io. Using pio, how would you ask, “You?” Ndépio. How about “You’re going to speak?” Ndépio reñe’ẽta. How about “I’m going to speak?” Chepio añe’ẽta. How about “You’re going to speak in Guarani?” Ndepio reñe’ẽta Guaranime.

In that example, you could put the question caboose, pio, after then noun, nde, or the verb, reñe’ẽ. Or some people just throw them on the back of the sentence as if they really were question marks. I think it depends on what you’re question emphasizes. For example, this one is “You are going to speak in Guaraní," with the emphasis on you. If someone were going to say, “You’re going to skydive?,” the pio would probably come after the skydive. Think of which word sounds like it might be written in italics.

We also need to go over one more tidbit. It’s kind of like -kuri’s twin brother, that steps in once it’s question. This is the caboose -ra’e. You’re going to attach -ra’e to the back of verbs, as in questions about the recent past, such as, “Did you clean?” Ndépa remopotĩra’e. “Did they go out?” Ha’ekuérapio osẽra’e. Just like -kuri, ra’e is optional. You’re going to use it when it makes things clearer. But you can leave it off when it’s obvious that you’re asking about the past. If I say, “Did you clean yesterday,” I could phrase it as Kuehe remopotĩ piko. And because I started out with the word for yesterday, it’s obvious that I’m talking about the past tense.

Now let’s figure out what those strangers might be mumbling to us in Guaraní. We can use that old reporter’s guide, the Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

Number one, who? “Who used my ipod?” The word for “who” is spelled máva, but I have never heard anyone pronounce the v in this word, so it comes out ma-a. So let’s use piko on this one. “Who used my ipod?” How would we start with “Who” as a question. Máva piko then we’ll continue on, using the third person with that aireal verb "to use", which is poru. So now we have Máva piko oiporu, and then my ipod, che ipod. Máva piko oiporu che ipod.

How about, "Who’s going to clean?" Máva piko omopotĩta. What does this mean: Máva piko ojapo ko sushi. "Who made this sushi?"

(***When someone says, "Did you hear that Stacy made out with that crazy guy?" And you want to say, "Stacy who?", in Guaraní you put the "who" before Stacy. So you'd say, "Máva Stacy?"***)

Something else you might hear with máva is the caboose, ndi, with means “with”. Mávandi is “with whom,” With whom am I rollin’ to the party? I’m going with Rebecca would be Aha Rebeccandi. How about, “I will work with Liam.” Amba’apota Liamndi. How about, “With whom will I speak?” using pa as the question word. Mávandipa añe’ẽta.

Ok, so we got the who, now on to the what. You already know the word for what, which is mba’e. One of the questions you’ll hear a lot with this is Mba’e rejapo, which means “What are you doing?” Kind of like, “What’s up?” Mba’e rejapo doesn’t have a pa or a piko, right, so how will the other person know it’s a question? Well, would it make more sense for me to say, “Hey, what are you doing?” Or “Hey, what you do"? That’s just another lesson in the spirit of Guaraní, that if we know what you’re saying, no worries. So you’ll hear some questions without a question caboose, if it’s obvious that it’s a question.

Another phrase you’ll hear with mba’e as a question is mba’epe, that pe which means “in, to or at.” In this case, mba’epe, it’s mostly used as “in what.” If I say Ahata Brazilpe, “I’m going to Brazil,” someone might say, Mba’epe, In what. As in, am I going in a bus or in a plane.

Something else you’ll hear with mba’e is Mba’e reipota. What does that mean? It means “What do you want.” Whoa, easy, a little rude, right? Not really in Guaraní, think of it as "May I help you?"

How would you ask, “What are you going to do today?”, putting the -pa ending on the mba’e. Mba’epa rejapota ko’ara. How about “What are you making?”, again using -pa. Mba’epa rejapo hína.

FYI, mba’e can also mean, "which"? As in "which one"? You also might hear this combined that word oiko, mba’e piko oiko, to mean, “What happened?”

How about “when”? When is, akara’e. But this is more of a when in a general sense. If you’re asking when today, like what time, people are more likely to use, Mba’e óra, which is “what hour”, with the Guaraní “what” and Spanish hora, (Guaranize to be spelled óra,) which is hour. You can also use mba’e día, which is “what day,” with the Spanish día for day. Akara’e is more for time in general. “When will I go” would be Araka’e piko ahata. What time are we cleaning today would be Mba’e óra ñamopotĩta ko’ara. How about "When will you use my ipod?," using the -pa ending after araka’e. Araka’epa reiporuta che ipod.

Ok, now how about where. Where is moõ, like cows moõ. To remember this I thought, Where are the cows? Moõ. Or that’s where. Moõ I hear a lot with piko. Free beer! Moõ piko. Or you might use this a lot with that ime verb we learned in the last podcast. To say "where is", like where is my sushi? Moõ oime che sushi. A question you’ll hear all the time is Moõ reho. Where are you going? Moõ reho. Reho is the you form of "to go", wheras aha is the first person. We’ll get to irregular verbs in the next episode, although I really don’t want to because they suck. Anyway, Moõ reho. So how would you say, "Where’s my sushi?" Using -piko. Moõ piko oime che sushi. And what does this mean? Moõ reho Suzyndi. “Where are you going with Suzy?”

The idea of “why” is kind of broken into two parts. One is used more for the past tense. “Why did you punch your brother in face?” That one is mba’ére. This is why. The other one is more “for what, why?” And that is ma’erã. (Also spelled marã) In Spanish, this is “para que.” I can’t help but think of that because my host mom always yells it at me when I spend money. Para que did you buy another pair of shoes.

I guess you could say the mba’ére is more about the past, about causes. Like if I said, I think my dog is sick, someone would say, Mba’ére? Why? Ma’erã is more about the future. For what. Ma’erã reipota y. “For what do you want water?" I think in a lot of cases you could use either one.

How is mba’éicha. You’ll use this alot with pa. And now you realize that you’ve been walking around saying Mba’éichapa, which is just “How,” like a cartoon indian. When you’re not using it as a greeting, mostly you’ll use Mba’éichapa with oiko, to mean what’s the deal with something or how does something work. Oiko comes from iko, that word that you’ll remember means to work or function. Mba’éichapa oiko the stock market. Mba’éichapa oiko quantum physics. You can also use it more literally, like, “How did you make this sushi?” Mba’éichapa rejapora’e ko sushi.

Next we have mboy, which means how much or how many. You’ll use this in the store. Sometimes someone will pick up and item and just look at the cashier and say, Mboy. You can also use this with that verb sẽ, which means to go out but also means to cost. If you want to ask how much something costs, you can just hold it up and say Mboýpa osẽ. How would you say, “How many are there?” Mboýpa oĩ.


piko, pio, io: ?, really?
pa: ?
máva: who
ndi: with
araka’e: when
moõ: where
mba’ére: why
ma’erã: for what
mboy: how much
ra’e: ? in past tense


1. When will I know? (use pa)
Araka’epa aikuaata?

2. How much does this sushi cost? (use piko)
Mboy piko osẽ ko sushi.

3. Who will make pizza tonight? (use piko)
Máva piko ojapota pizza ko pyhare.

4. What time do you all want to terere today?
Mba’e órapa petererese ko’ara.

5. Where is my sushi? (pio)
Moõ pio che sushi.

6. Mba’ere oiporura’e che y.
Why did they use my water?

7. Ma’erãpio remopotĩta mandi’o.
For what are you going to clean the mandioca?

8. Mavandi ahata Brazilpe.
With whom am I going to Brazil?

9. Mba’éichapa peiko.
How ya’ll doin?

10. Nde ikatu remopotĩ ko’ara
Can you clean today?