-ta

Future with -ta

Level 1

-ta turns a verb into the future.

How It Works

Add -ta after the verb, with the person marker in front as usual. The suffix has no stress of its own, so the stress stays where it was in the root.

VerbWith -ta
aha “I go”aháta “I will go”
ambaʼapo “I work”ambaʼapóta “I will work”
jajogua “we buy”jajoguáta “we will buy”
og̃uahẽ “he arrives”og̃uahẽta “he will arrive”

The root had its stress on the last syllable, so you see an acute accent on that syllable once -ta comes after it. A nasal vowel needs no accent, because its tilde already shows the stress.

You can add a time word such as koʼẽrõ “tomorrow”, but -ta alone already says that the event is ahead. Questions use it too: Moõpa repytáta? “Where will you stay?”

The negative future uses a different ending, -moʼã, which has its own entry.

Examples (5)

  1. Ambaʼapóta koʼẽrõ.

    I will work tomorrow.

    -ta marks the future, and the accent shows that the stress stays on po.

  2. Aháta che rógape.

    I will go to my house.

    The root ha keeps the stress, so it is written aháta.

  3. Jajoguáta juky.

    We will buy salt.

    -ta follows the ja- verb jajogua.

  4. Mbaʼépiko jajapóta?

    What are we going to do?

    -ta works in questions too.

  5. Moõpa repytáta?

    Where will you stay?

    Pyta “stay” plus -ta gives the future.

Common Mistakes

  • Leaving out the accent when -ta is added.

    Ambaʼapota koʼẽrõ.
    Ambaʼapóta koʼẽrõ.

    The suffix -ta is unstressed. Without the accent on po, the word reads as if -ta carried the stress.

How It Connects

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

-taLevel 1Future with -ta

Learn This First

The future ending is added to the plain verb and it moves the stress, so learners need both first.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

-ta