noqa The future tense in Quechua is also very easy, but unlike the past tense where the suffix -ra/-rqa was used for every grammatical person, to conjugate the future tense in Quechua you have to learn new verb endings. All verbs are regular, that does not change.
Look at the following table where the endings of the present simple and future simple are compared:
This is the reason why we did not do the past simple before, because once we know the conjugation in the present continuous (-sha), so we can achieve 2 objectives with a single effort: The past simple and the past continuous.
In English the present perfect is formed by adding the verb ‘to have’, i.e. “I have brought”, in Quechua there is no such tense.
Perhaps, in learning the simple present conjugation of Quechua you were wondering about the past or future tense, do not worry, we talk about it in future lessons, but first let’s talk about the present continuous.
We use the suffix -sha to express the present continuous in Quechua, it is added between the verb root and the verb ending, very easy, right? Look at this formula:
The good news is that virtually all Quechua verbs are conjugated in the same way, all are regular verbs (Although there is an exception, but it does not vary much😅)
To conjugate verbs in Quechua, the suffix -y of the infinitive verb must be removed and then we add to the root (raiz verbal) the ending indicating the grammatical person and tense (in this case present simple).
Now that you know the pronunciation of Quechua consonants, let’s talk about the language itself. Let’s start with personal pronouns.
| Noqa | I |
| Qan | You |
| Pay | He / She |
| Noqanchis | We (including the addressee[s], including) |
| Noqayku | We (not including the addressee[s], excluding) |
| Qankuna | You [plural] (you guys, you people, you all) |
| Paykuna | They |
It is necessary to dedicate the first lesson to the pronunciation of Quechua, since being a language that is not related to English has sounds that do not exist in that language.
Even so, it should be mentioned that most Quechua sounds also exist in Spanish.
For that reason I recommend that you watch these videos in which the pronunciation of Spanish is explained:
The Incas had lunar months, so they had 12 months like us, but I’m not sure if they divided the months into weeks of 7 days, forgive my ignorance.
Almost everyone names the months and days of the week by their names in Spanish, so it is not necessary to learn their Quechua equivalents to be able to communicate with a Quechua-speaker, but it can be interesting to learn.
Keep these words in mind:
Nro Quechua Español 1 Yuraq White 2 Yana Black 3 Puka Red 4 Q’ello Yellow 5 Q’omer Green 6 Ancas Blue 7 Ch’unpi Brown 8 Ch’eqchi Heather, mottled, with spots of different color
Nro Quechua English 1 Alqo Dog 2 Michi Cat 3 K’anka Rooster 4 Wallpa Hen 5 Chiwchi Chicken 6 Ch’uspi Fly 7 Huk’ucha Mouse 8 Qowi Guinea pig 9 Llama Llama 10 Paqocha Alpaca 11 Atoq Fox 12 Puma Puma 13 Khuchi Pig 14 Piki Fleas 15 Q’ente Hummingbird 16 Urpi Andean pigeon 17 Kuru … Read more
Quechua uses a very transparent system when it comes to numbers.
Unfortunately, Quechua numbers are less and less used in everyday speech, from 1 to 10 are still widely used, and also multiples of 10, multiples of 100 and 1000, but, for example, to express amounts of money other than round numbers, many people prefer to use Spanish numbers, which are perfectly understood among the majority of Quechua-speakers.