Grammar 12: The suffix -qa for the third person

The suffix -qa is essential in Quechua, it appears everywhere and in all kinds of sentences, so it is vital that you learn it. We will start with the use of this suffix in the third person.

This suffix marks the main topic or topic of the sentence, has an emphatic function, goes to the end of the word that you want to emphasize (we already saw a little of this suffix in the lesson about the verb Kay). It has no equivalent in English.

For example, the sentence: ‘He is helping her’, without -qa would be: ‘Pay payta yanapashan‘, it sounds a bit weird to say in a run way: ‘Pay payta’, but with -qa it would look like this: ‘Payqa payta yanapashan‘.

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