To ask a Yes-No question, you use the question tag laa, e.g., “Is he/she coming?” Thuh lah laa or “Is it hot today?” Dih nayt puh laa.
Note the high tone in laa. By contrast, the verb “to come,” lah is in the long tone, so it’s pronounced with a lower pitch.
TENSES
Burmese verbs don’t change no matter when the action takes place, thus thuh lah dae could mean “He/she is coming” or “He/she came”. If you wanted to make a sentence with “yesterday” ma-nayt ga, you could say Ma-nayt ga thuh lah dae “He/she came yesterday” or Ma-nayt ga puh dae “It was hot yesterday”.
When talking about future events or actions, change the sentence-end word from tae to mae as well as the question tag to ma-laa. For example: Ma-net phyan thuh lah mae “He/she will be coming tomorrow” or Ma-net phyan puh ma-laa “Will it be hot tomorrow?”
For Who, What, Where, When or Why questions about the future, use ma-laee as the question tag, e.g., Bae thuh lah ma-laee “Who’s coming?” or “Who will be coming?”
With future-negative sentences, the sentence-end word remains unchanged, e.g., Dih nayt ma-puh boo “It’s not hot today” or Ma-net phyan ma-puh boo “It won’t be hot tomorrow.” If you really want to emphasize that an action has already occurred—entirely optional, since native speakers sometimes omit it as well—you may add khaet (sometimes pronounced gaet), that is, “Yesterday he/she came” is Ma-nayt ga thuh lah gaet dae, or literally “Yesterday he come (already)”.
SUBJECT AND OBJECT TAGS
In a statement like Thuh Yangon thwaa mae, the subject and the object are quite clear. No reasonable person will conclude that Yangon, a city will be traveling, thwaa “to go”, to thuh “he/she”. The only logical interpretation is “He/she will go to Yangon.”
But what about a statement like Ma Ma Oo Layy mayy dae? The verb mayy, “to ask” is clear enough. But there are two people involved: Ma Ma and Oo Layy. Who is the subject doing the asking? Who is the object being asked? In such cases, you should use subject and object tags to clarify your meaning, like this: Ma Ma ga Oo Layy goh mayy dae.
The subject tag ga, (sometimes pronounced ka) shows that Ma Ma is the one asking questions. The object tag goh (sometimes pronounced koh) shows that Oo Layy is the one being asked. Now it’s clear that the statement means, “Ma Ma asks Oo Layy [a question].”
With these tags correctly placed behind the subject and the object, you can even flip the order of the two nouns and still be confident your meaning is clear. Oo Layy goh Ma Ma ga mayy dae still has exactly the same meaning as Ma Ma ga Oo Layy goh mayy dae. Subject and object tags are important in statements like these:
• I bought him coffee. Kya-naw ga thu goh kaw phe tike tae.
• Oo Layy took Ma Ma to the market. Oo Layy ga Ma Ma goh zayy po payy dae.
PLURALS
In spoken Burmese, form plurals by adding the tags, do (short tone, sometimes pronounced to) for humans, and dway (long tone, sometimes pronounced tway) for most animals and inanimate objects, e.g., “flowers” paan dway. For example, “Ma Ma and her group” would be Ma Ma do, and “flowers” paan dway.
| I (male) | kya-naw | I (female) | kya-ma |
| We (male) | kya-naw do | We (female) | kya-ma do |
| You (male) | kha-myaa | You (female) | shin |
| You (male) | kha-myaa do | You (female) | shin do |
| He (male), she (female) | thuh | ||
| They (male and female) | thuh do |
With plural verbs, you may add the tag kya (sometimes pronounced ja) to indicate the action is taken collectively by more than one person. Compare “He/she goes to school” Thuh kyaungg thwaa dae and “They go to school” Thuh do kyaungg thwaa ja dae. But native speakers do not always use the plural tag, so you may omit it for simplicity.
TIP: In this book, we use [MALE] and [FEMALE] so readers can easily identify which phrase they should use, according to their gender.
POSSESSIVES
The first-person pronoun for a male speaker is kya-naw. The word ends in the long tone, with a lingering vowel sound. To make it the possessive “my”, pronounce it with the short tone, so it becomes kya-nawt, thus “my coffee” will be kya-nawt kaw phe.
The first-person pronoun for a female is kya-ma, pronounced in the short tone. You use the same phrase for “I” or “my”, thus “my coffee” is kya-ma kaw phe.
The pronoun for “he/she” is thuh. It’s pronounced by default in the mid tone, with a lingering vowel sound. To make it possessive, pronounce it with the low tone to become thu. “His/her coffee” will then be thu kaw phe.
Similarly, with proper names, like Kelly or John, you use the possessive tag yaet. “Kelly’s coffee” is Kelly yaet kaw phe, and “John’s coffee” is John yaet kaw phe.
The same tag is also used to form plural possessives.“Our coffee” (males) is kya-naw do yaet kaw phe, “our coffee” (females) is kya-ma do yaet kaw phe and “their coffee” is thuh do yaet kaw phe.
TIP: If converting first-person and second-person pronouns into the possessive form through tones is too problematic, you can use the possessive tag yaet, (short tone) for all instances. With this approach, you might come across as overly correct or proper, but the formula will be consistent and easy to follow.
WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY
The question tag for the “W-questions” is generally laee, (high tone, for present and past events) or ma-laee (high tone, for future events). The expressions to ask these “W-questions” in Burmese are as follows:
Who: Bae thuh, e.g., “Who is coming to Yangon?” Bae thuh Yangon lah laee or “Who is he/she?” Thuh bae thuh laee.
What: Bah, e.g., “What will you be eating today?” Dih nayt bah saa ma-laee or “What did he eat?” Thuh bah saa gaet laee.
Where: Bae, (or) Where at: Bae hmah, e.g.,“Where is Shwe Dagon?” Shwe Dagon bae hmah laee or “Where will you be going (lit., will you go) today?” Dih nayt bae thwaa ma-laee. (“You” is implied, not stated.)
When: Bae dawt, e.g., “When will you be going (lit. you go) to Yangon?” Bae dawt Yangon thwaa ma-laee. (“You” is implied, not stated.) “When will they be coming (lit., will they come)?” Bae dawt thuh do lah ma-laee.
Why: Bah lo, (or) Bah jaunt, e.g., “Why is he coming (lit. does he come) to Yangon?” Bah lo thuh Yangon lah laee or “Why is he not coming (lit. does he not come) to Yangon?” Bah lo thuh Yangon ma-lah lae.
PREPOSITIONS
In statements that involve multiple people and places, some prepositions are necessary. For example:
With or And: Naet, e.g., “I am going to Yangon with Ma Ma.” (Male speaker) Kya-naw Ma Ma naet Yangon thwaa dae or Kya-ma Ma Ma naet Yangon thwaa dae. (Female speaker)
From: Ka, sometimes pronounced Ga and To: Koh, sometimes pronounced Goh, e.g., “He/she is coming from Mandalay to Yangon.” (lit., He/she comes from