-haicha

As You Do: -haicha

Level 4

-haicha joins a verb to the idea “as you…”: reipotaháicha “the way you want”.

How It Works

To say “the way someone does something”, join three pieces at the end of the verb: the verb, the ending -ha, and -icha “as, like”. The pieces are written as one word.

  • reipota “you want” gives reipotaháicha “the way you want”.
  • heʼi “he says” gives heʼiháicha “as he says”.

For a past action, use -hague in place of -ha: erehaguéicha “the way you said”.

The clause with -haicha usually comes second, after the main action: Ejapo katu reipotaháicha “Do it however you want”. In official texts you often see heʼiháicha “as it says”, as in heʼiháicha Léi Guasu 1992-pe “as the Constitution of 1992 says”.

Write -haicha without a space. The Academy grammar writes -icha joined every time.

Examples (4)

  1. Ejapo katu reipotaháicha.

    Do it however you want.

    Reipota “you want” plus -ha plus -icha gives “the way you want”. Katu after a command adds “just”.

  2. Tojapo erehaguéicha.

    Let him do it the way you said.

    Erehague is “what you said” in the past, and -icha gives “the way”. To- is the wish marker: “let him do it”.

  3. Heʼiháicha Léi Guasu 1992-pe.

    As the Constitution of 1992 says.

    Heʼi “says” plus -ha plus -icha means “as it says”. Léi Guasu is the national constitution.

  4. Eñeʼẽ reipotaháicha.

    Speak the way you like.

    Eñeʼẽ is the command “speak”. The rest is the same pattern.

Common Mistakes

  • Writing -ha and -icha apart.

    Ejapo katu reipotaha icha.
    Ejapo katu reipotaháicha.

    The ending -haicha is one word, and the stress mark stays on the á.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

-haichaLevel 4As You Do: -haicha

Learn This First

The ending -haicha joins -ha and -icha, so both come first.

Words in This Pattern

-icha