Grammar 11: Demonstrative pronouns – This, That

The demonstrative pronouns are: this, that, these, those; in Quechua there are 3😃:

KayThis, these (near me)
ChayThat, those (near you)
HaqayThat, those (far from you and me)

The plurals “kaykuna, chaykuna and haqaykuna” aren’t used as demonstrative pronouns (most of the time)

Look at these examples:

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Grammar 2: Personal Pronouns in Quechua Cusco

Now that you know the pronunciation of Quechua consonants, let’s talk about the language itself. Let’s start with personal pronouns.

NoqaI
QanYou
PayHe / She
NoqanchisWe (including the addressee[s], including)
NoqaykuWe (not including the addressee[s], excluding)
QankunaYou [plural] (you guys, you people, you all)
PaykunaThey

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Vocabulary 9: Months and days of the week in Quechua

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.

Months of the year in Quechua

Keep these words in mind:

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Vocabulary 6: Quechua numbers – Cardinal and Ordinal

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.

Cardinal numbers

From 1 to 10

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Vocabulary 5: Greetings, farewells and courtesy expressions in Quechua

This time we will learn to say hello and goodbye in Quechua, in addition to other expressions of courtesy.

NroQuechuaEnglish
1¿Imaynallan kashanki?How are you?
2¿Allillanchu?What’s up? / How are you? (literally: All right?)
3¿Allillanchu kashanki?What’s up? / How are you doing? (literally: Are you ok?)
4Allillanmi kashaniI’m fine.
5AllillanmiI’m good.
6¿Qanri?And you?
7¿Iman sutiyki?What’s your name?
8Sutiymi JoséMy name is José
9PaqarinkamaSee you tomorrow
10Huk p’unchaykamaSee you soon (literally: until another day)
11TupananchiskamaGoodbye! (literally: until we meet again)
12Ama hina kaychuPlease
13Anchata kusikuniI’m so glad
14Allin p’unchay kachunGood morning / May you have a good day
15Hinallataq qanpaqpasAlso for you
16KusaGood! Excellent!

How do you say “thank you“?

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Vocabulary 2: The family in Quechua

In this section we will see the nouns that refer to people and family members.

Family: Ayllu

Note that after centuries of living with the Spanish language, there are many Spanish words that are used daily in Quechua, this free course is not the place to discuss whether this is right or wrong; I only inform you to take it into account.

I am in favor of a language evolving and enriching itself by acquiring words and concepts from other languages that do not exist in Quechua (for example, what is related to technology, science and other modern things), but I don’t like what words that are perfectly understandable in Quechua are Spanishized.

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