Verb phrases often include a verb marker. These markers are short words that may be placed before the verb in order to give more details about how it is to be understood.

Lugamun has two verb markers indicating the time (formally: tense) when an action takes place: li marks the past, while ga marks the future.

Ya li mai ruma. – He/She bought a house. (sometime in the past)
Le ga go a Paris. – They will go to Paris. (sometime in the future)

No tense marker is used for actions taking place in the present (at this moment).

Wanita soma buku. – The woman reads / is reading a book.

However, the absence of a tense marker does not necessarily indicate that the present tense is intended. If the context suggests another time, the tense markers may likewise be omitted. For example, adverbs and time expression can explain more precisely when an act takes place. In such cases, there is no need to include a tense marker as well, hence it is usually omitted.

Safirja [arrive] baru. – A/The traveler has just arrived.
Ya lai kwai. – He/She is about to come. / He/She will come soon.
Ya mai ruma nyen laste. – Last year he/she bought a house.
Le go a Paris den tali. – Tomorrow they will go to Paris.
Wanita soma buku si tem . – The woman is now reading a book.

If you want, you can include the matching tense marker in such cases too – that’s not wrong, just a bit verbose. Adverbs are usually placed at the end of the verb phrase; time expressions are often placed in the same position or somewhere later in the clause (say, after the object, or at the very end).

Ya ga lai kwai. – He/She is about to come. / He/She will come soon.
Ya li mai ruma nyen laste. – Last year he/she bought a house.

Adverbs and time expressions are not the only way to express context. When describing a past event, it’s often clear that one is talking about the past, hence in such cases it’s fine to omit the li. Novels and other narratives frequently omit it as well – maybe li is used once, to establish the past context, but in further sentences it is omitted. When no tense marker is used for the main course of events described, li and ga can instead be used in a relative rather than an absolute manner. Hence li might refer to acts that happened earlier than the main events, while ga refers to acts taking place later.

XXX Update this, since na is now again the (optional and relatively rarely used) present-tense verb marker.

Two other verb markers express what’s called by linguists the mood of a verb – the speaker’s attitude towards the indicated act.

Ba indicates that the speaker is unsure about the indicated action or regards it as something that is not real or at least not certain. Linguists may call it the “irrealis mood”; in English, it is often translated as ‘would’. It can be used to express possibilities, hypothetical situations, desires, fears, and opinions. It can also be used to make polite requests.

Mi yau to ya ba lai. – I wish he/she would come.
Mi ba go, se mi habe tem. – I would go if I had the time.
Ti ba abri [window] ka? – Would/Could you open the window?

Note that in clauses introduced with se ‘if’, ba is usually omitted, as explained in the section on that conjunction.

As an alternative to ba, adverbs such as rubama ‘perhaps, maybe’ may be used to express the speaker’s attitude.

Ya lai rubama den tali. – Perhaps he/she will come tomorrow. (I do not really know whether they will come, but I consider it possible)

Li ba, the combination of the past tense marker li with ba, is used for things that can no longer become true, also known as “counterfactuals”. It often corresponds to ‘would have’ in English.

Ya li ba xi [teacher] hau. – He/She would have been a good teacher. (but for whatever reasons they chose another profession, and now it’s too late)

In clauses introduced with se, the ba marker is again usually considered implied, meaning that only li is used.

Se [taxi] li [arrive on time], nas no li ba [miss flight]. – If the taxi had arrived on time, we would not have missed our flight.

Du is used to mark commands and requests. Linguists may call it the “imperative” and “hortative” mood.

Most typically it is directed at one or several persons one speaks with. In such cases the subject pronoun (ti or tum) is usually omitted, just as in English.

Du nulis! – Write! (talking to one or several persons)
Du fa safi kamar ti! – Clean up your room! (talking to a single person, as the possessive pronoun makes clear)
Du fa safi kamar tum! – Clean up your room! (talking to several persons)

But it’s not wrong to include the pronoun, if you want to – occasionally it may be useful to make it clearer whether just one person or rather a group of persons is the intended recipient.

Ti du fa safi kamar ya! – Clean up her/his room! (explicitly talking to a single person)
Tum du fa safi kamar ya! – Clean up her/his room! (explicitly talking to several persons)

When addressing another group of persons, a pronoun or noun phrase identifying them must be used in the usual way. Most typically that’s the case when addressing a group that includes the speaker themselves.

Nas du nomu! – Let’s drink!

Except for the combination li ba, combinations of tense with mood markers are rare. But should you ever feel the need for such a combation, put the tense marker first (just as with li ba).

Sai indicates an action in progress. Linguistics calls this the progressive aspect; in English it is usually translated as ‘be …-ing’.

Ya li sai soma – She/He was reading.
Mi sai kula. – I’m eating / I’m in the middle of eating.

Note that the progressive aspect is used much rarer than in English. In English, it is commonly used with certain verbs at least in the present tense, while in Lugamun you use it only if you really want to stress that an action is in progress – but not when describing it as simply taking place.

Nas kula. – We are eating. (usually a statement such as this is sufficient and there is no need for sai)

Sai is placed after any tense and mood markers that may be used with the same verb.

XXX There is no habitual aspect (English has one, but only in the past: ‘used to (do something)'), but an adverb such as ?? ‘usually’ may be used to express actions occurring habitually.

Bi is used to form the passive voice. It is placed after any other markers used with the same verb.

Nas ga bi kula! – We will be eaten!

The agent responsible for an action expressed in the passive can be specified using the preposition be ‘by’.

Xuan li [bite] kat. – The dog bit the cat.
Kat li bi [bite] be Xuan. – The cat was bitten by the dog.

The verb marker tu introduces the infinitive. It is used between verbs to connect them to verbs chains.

Mi yau tu xuo. – I want to speak.
Ti ama tu nulis. – You love to write.

It it also used to refer to activity in general – in such cases it often corresponds to the English gerund (“-ing” form).

Tu dansa xi [fun]. – Dancing is fun.
Mi ama tu kula. – I like eating / I like to eat.

Occasionally the infinitive may be used together with other verb markers. In this case, it is placed before them.

tu bi … – to be shot
tu li bi … – having been shot
Ya deklara tu li ingi ama ya. – She/He declared to have loved her/him very much.

In the most typical case, the subject of the first verb implicitly applies to any chained verbs as well.

Mi yau tu nulis buku. – I want to write a book.

But one can also use the infinitive if the first verb clearly indicates that some other person or group is addressed.

Mi minta tu xuo lugamun. – I request that one speaks Lugamun.

Verbs used with tu never have an explicitly expressed subject, but they can have an object.

Tu dansa tango no asan. – Dancing tango is not easy.

Verbs preceded by tu can be considered as hybrids between regular verbs and nouns. On the one hand, they can be used as subject of a clause, just like any other noun. On the other hand, when used after another verb, they are not considered as object, but rather as part of a verb chain. Hence they are never preceded by o.

Mi yau tu aprende tu dansa tango. – I want to learn to dance (the) tango. / I want to learn to tango dancing.

(XXX Probably revise this?) In English, verbs in the infinitive can have a subject of their own, which at the same time is the object of another, superordinate verb. Such a construct does not exist in Lugamun – instead one can use subordinate clauses, typically introduced by to, to express such cases.

Mi yau to Tina nulis buku. – I want that Tina writes a book. / I want Tina to write a book.

Auxiliary verbs are verbs that are always followed by another verb in a verb chain, rather than by a noun or pronoun used as object, or by nothing at all. Since a verb is known to follow, it’s not necessary to use the infinitive marker tu between the auxiliary and the following verb. It’s not wrong to use tu there either, but since it’s not needed, that particle is typically omitted.

Lugamun has only two nonderived auxiliary verbs:

• bisa – can, may, be able to
• debe – must, have to

Bisa is used in both senses of ‘be able’ and ‘have permission’, since most widespread languages use the same word for these concepts. If desired one can alternatively use more precise expressions.

XXX Give some examples.

Additionally, the suffix -u can be used to turn a normal verb into an auxiliary one. If the verb ends in a vowel, its final vowel is replaced by u, as per the usual rules of word formation. This suffix can be quite convenient since it removes the need to put tu between two chained verbs.

Mi amu nulis. – I love to write.

-u is especially useful in fixed expressions made up of two verbs, such as kaixu cuan ‘put on, don’ (begin to wear). Such expressions could be quite heavy if an additional tu was needed as well, hence they are commonly used with the -u suffix and are usually listed only in this form in the dictionary. Nevertheless, the tu form is always possible as well, so if you prefer saying kaixi tu cuan, you certainly can.

Usually -u is only used on verbs that end in a vowel, since this reduces the number of syllables compared to the version using tu. If a verb ends in a consonant, the number of syllables stays unchanged, so there is little reason for using -u. Also, it is rarely used with verbs that have just one syllable, since such verbs are still nicely short even if followed by tu.

Note that -u cannot be used with verbs that already end in a simple -u, because in this case the auxiliary form of the verb would be indistinguishable from the normal one. In such cases, tu must be used instead.

Auxiliaries formed using the -u suffix are never re-used as nouns, since there is no need to do so – the original form of the word is used instead (e.g. kaixi).

XXX Mention that adverbs, other verb markers, and determiners may still interrupt verb chains and give some examples.

The copula xi – translated as a form of ‘be’ in this context – connects a noun phrase with an adjective or noun phrase that describes it. If a adjective follows, it can be and often is omitted, but if a noun phrase follows, it should always be used. Note that the expression that follows xi is considered a complement rather than an object, therefore it never takes the object marker o.

Ti (xi) ingi dulse. – You’re really sweet.
Uma (xi) bai. – The horse is white.
Ya (xi) mardi den laste . – Yesterday he/she was ill.
Ya xi baba hau. – ‘He’s a good father.'
Ta wanita xi [actor] maxuhur. – That woman is a famous actress.

The negated form of the copula is just no – xi is never used in this case.

Ta no sehati. – That’s not healthy.
Ya no man hau. – He’s not a good man.

When a noun is followed by several adjectives and no verb, one can consider the last adjective as descriptive complement.

Uma gran lela. – The big horse is tired.

For maximum clarity, it may be better to use the copula in such cases.

Uma gran xi lela.

Several other verbs are likewise commonly followed by a complement: an adjective or noun that complements their meaning. Such complements immediately follow the verb, and they may be followed by an object or a prepositional phrase. While the object marker o is usually optional, after a complement it must be used, since otherwise there might be some confusion about where the complement ends and the object starts.

• ban – become
• fa – do, make
• xiende – seem, look (like), appear

XXX Give some examples – of the verbs listed here, only fa can take a direct object (introduced by o)?

Determiners referring to the complement are placed before it, as usual. Adverbs referring to the verb phrase are usually placed at the end of the verb phrase, i.e., after the complement.

Ya ban ingi lal ku suden. – He/She suddenly became very red.

A few verbs have a special meaning when used without a subject.

Subjectless habe means ‘there is, there are’.

Habe wanita ni dor. – There is a woman at the door.

Subjectless xi is used to describe the weather. In such expressions, it often corresponds to English ‘it’s / it is’.

Xi garam garam si den. – It’s very hot today.

The negation particle no ‘not’ is usually placed before the verb.

But noun phrases can also be negated when this is needed: ‘No person could have done it.’ / ‘No (other) doctor is better than her.’

If the subject or object is a negated pronoun (‘nobody’, ‘nothing’ etc.), the verb is negated as well.

XXX Likely this is also the case with other negated noun phrases as mentioned above, and with negated time expressions such as ‘never’ and ‘nowhere’?

XXX Explain that determiners, including no, are placed after verb markers.

Mi li no miru ya. – I didn’t see him/her.

XXX Explain how negation works in verb chains and with auxiliaries: debe no ‘must not’ vs. no debe ‘doesn’t have to’.

A complete verb phrase, with just a single verb but including everything else that can potentially occur in a verb phrase, will have the following order:

verb markers – determiners – verb – complement – adverbs

The whole verb phrase may be preceded by a time expression, but such expressions are not considered a part of the verb phrase itself. Complements may themselves be preceded by determiners referring to them, but this is not shown here, to stop things from getting too complicated.

In verb chains, the whole sequence as described above may in principle be repeated two or more times – except that only the last verb of a chain may have a complement. Each verb in the chain, except for the last one, must be an auxiliary verb, or the marker tu must be placed between it and the subsequent verb. The final verb must not be an auxiliary verb.

Markers before a verb tend to occur in the following order:

• The infinitive marker tu
• The tense markers li and ga
• The mood markers ba and du
• The progressive aspect marker sai
• The passive voice marker bi

Each verb is preceded by at most one marker of each kind – it would not make sense to use both tense or both mood markers before the same verb.