Lesson 6 – Descriptive Words

Adjectives (descriptive words) are really handy to help develop your sentences in Nukunu.

Let’s begin with learning a few basic adjectives and colour words and then we’ll move onto some endings.

Adjectives

Colours

Let’s also look at some colours.

Let’s take a look at some sentences that use some adjectives and also some of the body parts we learned in the last lesson.

If someone’s face is dirty you might say Nhungku ngarnta murta. Nhungku means your, ngarnta means face and murta means dirty.

If a boy has black hair you could say Kunga maṛu marra. Kunga means boy, maṛu means black and marra means hair.

If your father has a a fat belly you could say Ngatyu maama munthu marni-marna. Ngatyu means my, maama means father, munthu means belly and marni-marna means fat, in good condition.

If your legs are cold you could say Ngatyu ngathi-warlpu manya. Ngatyu means my, ngathi-warlpu means legs and manya means cold.

If a dog has long nails or claws you could say Katli waraku pirrintyi. Katli means dog, waraku means long and pirrintyi means nails or claws.

Adjective endings on words

In Nukunu you can also describe things with certain word endings. Let’s touch on a couple of these.

If something was missing or lacking you could use the word ending -wakanha.

A good example of this is if something or someone is missing teeth. You could say yiira-wakanha. yiira means teeth and the ending -wakanha means without.

Another descriptive word ending you can use is -pila. This word ending indicates something is a pair.

A good example of this is miina-pila which translates to a pair of eyes or both eyes. Miina means eye and -pila indicates you are talking about a pair of eyes or both eyes.