-ʼỹ

Without: -ʼỹ

Level 4

-ʼỹ takes the thing away: kyhyje “fear”, kyhyjeʼỹ “courage”.

How It Works

WordWith -ʼỹ
kyhyje “fear”kyhyjeʼỹ “courage”
vyʼa “joy”vyʼaʼỹ “sadness”
poʼa “luck”poʼaʼỹ “bad luck”
mendare “married”mendareʼỹ “unmarried”

On a verb, -ʼỹ comes before -va: aipotaʼỹva “what I do not want”. Before -ramo “if” it gives “if not”: rejuʼỹramo “if you do not come”.

The small word rehe takes -ʼỹ too, and with a pronoun it is one word: ndereheʼỹ “without you”.

For a plain “not” in a sentence, Guarani uses the negative nd(a)- … -i. The ending -ʼỹ builds a word that means “without”.

Write the tilde: ỹ is a nasal vowel, and plain y is a different sound. Some words with -ʼỹ are now words of their own, such as poʼaʼỹ “bad luck”.

Examples (4)

  1. Ndereheʼỹ ndavyʼái.

    Without you I am not happy.

    Reheʼỹ is rehe plus -ʼỹ, “without”. With nde- “you” in front it is one word. Ndavyʼái is “I am not happy”, from vyʼa “joy”.

  2. Rejúramo térã rejuʼỹramo.

    Whether you come or not.

    Rejuʼỹramo is reju “you come”, -ʼỹ “without” and -ramo “if”, so “if you do not come”. Térã is “or”.

  3. Péva niko aipotaʼỹva.

    That is what I do not want.

    Aipota “I want” plus -ʼỹ and -va gives “that I do not want”.

  4. Juan mendareʼỹ.

    Juan is not married.

    Mendare “married” plus -ʼỹ gives “unmarried”.

Common Mistakes

  • Writing y for ỹ.

    kyhyjeʼy
    kyhyjeʼỹ

    The ending has the nasal vowel ỹ. A plain y is a different vowel, so the ending is spelled wrong.

How It Connects

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

-ʼỹLevel 4Without: -ʼỹ

Learn This First

The ending -ʼỹ turns a noun or describing word into its opposite, so learners need to know a root can be both.

Words in This Pattern

ʼỹreheʼỹ