ba3 [bá] aux.
to pretend to be doing something; to fake:
Te ọ ba viẹ ― “He is pretending to cry”
(also ma).
ghà [ɣà] aux.
(occurs in conditional sentences):
1. if, when:
ọ gha rre, u ghi rhie ne ẹnrẹn “If/when he comes, give it to him.”
;
2. would have, (when it occurs in the consequent clause of a hypothetical sentence):
Akpawẹ i mwẹn ígho, i gha dẹ ọre. If I had money, I would have bought it
. In this context, the subject pronoun always has a high tone.
ghẹ [ɣɛ́] aux.
1. expresses negation in imperative and subjunctive sentences:
Ghẹ rhie nẹẹ ― “Do not give him.”
;
2. (with a mid tone) it expresses the negative of ghà in the consequent clause of a hypothetical sentence: (i.e. would not have)
I kpa rẹn, i ghẹ dẹ ― Had I known, I would not have bought (it)
.
ghi1 [ɣí] aux.
1. occurs as a temporal particle in clauses:
Ọ ghi rre, ọ na rri evbare ― “When he arrived, he ate.”
;
2. as an aux in negative clauses, meaning “any more”:
E i ghi yo ugbo ẹghẹ hia ― “He does not go to the farm all the time any more.”
It has a variant
ghu after the 2nd per. pron.
3. as an aux in an affirmative sentence to express resultative meaning “to become”:
Ọ ghi dọn: “He has become lean”
.
ghi2 [ɣí] aux.
occurs in the consequent clause of a conditional sentence as the conditional marker
U gha miẹ ẹnrẹn, u ghi tuẹ ọre ― “If you see him, you should greet him.”
(also occurs as
ghu after 2nd pers. sing. pron.)^
he3 [hé] aux.
indicates that an action was “finally” performed after much reluctance or difficulty:
ọ he kpaọ ― “He finally left (thank goodness!)”
.
ka1 [ká] aux.
1. indicates that “the subject” of the clause was first to perform the action in the verb:
mẹ ọ ka rre ― “I came first”
;
2. that the action had been performed before in the past:
Ma ka rri ẹvbo naa yi ― “We had come to this town before.”
kaa [káa] aux.
(< ka-gha) same as ka (adv.).
Iran ọ kaa sẹ ẹvbo naa ― “They were the first to come to this town”
.
ke3 [ké] aux.
(often occurs with ghi) sequential marker: indicates that the action in the main verb occurred sequentially after the action in the verb of the preceding clause:
Ọ ghi sẹ evba, ọ ke totaa: “When he got there; he then sat down.”
khian3 [xyã́] aux.
inceptive marker; indicates that the action in the verb is about to begin, or that it will take place: it may be translated by: about to; going to; or want to:
Ọ khian gbẹe: “^He is going to beat him”
;
I khian kpaọ ― I am about to leave; I want to leave; etc
.
kpa3 [k͡pá] aux.
1. occurs as the conditional element in the hypothetical clause of a conditional sentence:
1.
kpa rẹn, i ghẹ rre: “Had I known, I would not have come”
;
2. occurs in the idiom: Ọ kpa maa . . . meaning “It is just as well . . .”^:
Ọ kpa maa ighẹ ọ ma yo, ẹ ghẹ họn ẹmwẹn ne iran ta “It is just as well that he did not go, he would not have heard what they were saying”
.
ma4 [mã́] aux.
to pretend to be doing something:
Ọ ma viẹ ― “He is only pretending to be crying.”
ma6 [mã́] aux.
1. indicates that the action in the main verb had been performed sometime before:
Ọ ma nọ ọnrẹn nẹ ― “He had asked him already before.”
te1 [té] aux
1. almost:
Ọ te de ― “He almost fell.”
;
2. before:
Ozo te kpaọ, ọ keghi tuẹ iran ― “Before Ozo left, he greeted them.”
te2 [té] aux.
1. (with psychic st. vbs, such as hoo ― “like”, “want”; roo ― “think”; etc.): implies that the state expressed in the verb was not attained:
Ọ te hoo ne i wu ― “He had wanted me to die.”
;
2. (with over vbs.): implies that the state or action described in the vb., though attained or accomplished, is still lacking in truth-value or effect, in some respect, and so the clause is usually followed by another clause introduced by sokpan (but):
Ọ te sẹe, sokpan ọ ma gua mwẹn egbe ― “He sewed it alright, but it did not fit me.”
te3 [té] aux
It occurs optionally at sentence initial position to indicate affirmation with a general meaning that may be glossed as: “It is the case that . . . ”
Te ọ yẹ mwẹn ― “It is the case that I like it”
(i.e. I do like it). When it occurs in a sentence ending with the question particle “ra”, te is usually the focus of the question:
Te ọ yẹ ruẹ ra? “Is it the case that you like it? (i.e. Do you like it?)”^
If the answer to such a question is affirmative, then “te” introduces the sentence:
Eẹn, te ọ yẹ mwẹn ― “Yes,I like it.”
If for any reason it is deleted, the high tone on its vowel replaces the low tone of the pronoun:
Ọ yẹ mwẹn ― “It is the case that I like it.”