The verb Kay is probably the most important and most used verb of Quechua, as we saw in lesson 3, this verb can have several meanings (to be, to have) how to know what it means? It all depends on the context of the sentence and there are also fixed structures that will help you.
Most commonly, the verb ‘kay‘ means ‘to be‘.
It can be used for:
- Describing someone or something, to indicate identity, qualities, defects, occupation, condition (I am Maria: Noqan kani Maria; you are a teacher: Yachachiq kanki)
- Showing that something exist.
- Giving a fact or your opinion about something.
It can not be used for:
- Showing where someone or something is.
- Showing how old is a person.
It can be used as an auxiliary verb in the following situations:
- To form verbs in potential mode.
- To form verbs in mandatory mode.
- For being used with the past participle of other verbs to form the passive voice.
It can not be used as an auxiliary verb in the following situations:
- For being used with the continous form of other verbs to describe actions that are or were still happening (I am doing, you were doing)
- For being used with other verbs to describe actions that will happen in the future (I am going to travel next week)
The verb ‘to have [something]’ itself does not exist in Quechua, but there are 2 ways to express the possession of something, and in one of them the verb kay intervenes.
The verb ‘to have‘ in Quechua is not used as in English, where, for example, it is used for the present perfect: ‘I have …’, ‘you have …’, etc., but we will talk about it in another lesson.
1. Conjugation of the verb Kay (to be)
This verb is conjugated in almost the same way as the others:
| Noqa | kani | I am |
| Qan | kanki | You are |
| Paymi (payqa) | He/She is | |
| Noqanchis | kanchis | We are (including the addressee) |
| Noqayku | kayku | We are (not including the addressee) |
| Qankuna | kankichis | You [guys] are |
| Paykuna | kanku | They are (you can also simply say Paykunan) |
2. Third person of the verb Kay
As you can see, the verb “kay” cannot be conjugated in the third person as with the other verbs, this is because kan is used as an auxiliary particle.
Some people simply say Paykunan (they are), but others say ‘Paykuna kanku’ (they are), personally I use the latter.
There are 2 ways to combine the third person of “kay”: with the suffix -mi/-n and with the suffix -qa + -mi/-n
Suffix -mi / -n
Do not confuse the suffix -n with the verb ending -n we use to conjugate the third person of the other verbs.
You have to use -mi when the word ends in consonant, and -n when the word ends in a vowel, look at these examples:
| Paymi mamay | She is my mom |
| Marian ñañay | Maria is my sister (being me a woman) |
| Paymi Juan | He is Juan (being me a man) |
| Rosan panay | Rosa is my sister (being me a man) |
We have also learned something more from the possessive “my”😎. Here you can learn more from the possessive endings, if you come from that lesson do not take this into account.
This is a simple way to conjugate the third person of “kay”, but the second way is also very common:
Suffixes -qa + -mi / -n
There is a simple formula for using the suffix -qa (remember that -mi is added to words that end in consonant and -n to those that end in vowel)
Subject-qa + predicate-mi/-n
But, you will surely understand it better with examples:
| Payqa taytaymi | He is my dad |
| Juanqa waynan | Juan is young |
| Payqa Marian | She is María |
| Mariaqa panaymi | María is my sister (being me a man) |
I hope the colors help you 😄. The word “is” has 2 colors, since both -qa and -mi/-n participate in forming the 3rd person of the verb ‘kay’ which in English is a single word, but in Quechua can be 2. Learning this will be very useful in the future, because it is used quite frequently.
As our vocabulary and grammar understanding increases we can make more complex examples, for now we are laying the groundwork.
Make your own examples in the comments and let’s see if you’ve got the idea.👍