-na / -kom / -hom

Plural Attached Objects

Level 3

Plural object suffixes distinguish person without distinguishing gender.

How It Works

The plural direct-object series is -na, ‘us’, -kom, ‘you’ addressed to several people, and -hom, ‘them’. These endings do not distinguish masculine and feminine groups. They attach to an appropriate stem while subject morphology identifies the participant performing the action.

Final letters alone cannot establish their role. In particular, -na also appears in first-person plural perfect subject marking. Compare rajna, ‘we saw’, with ratna, ‘she saw us’: the complete forms distinguish subject and object. Indirect participants instead use -lna, -lkom, -lhom. Stem changes matter too: the object forms of nesa include nsiena, nsiekom, nsiehom. Preserve the ordinary spelling of these complete combinations.

Examples (3)

  1. Marija ratna ħdejn il-baħar.

    Maria saw us beside the sea.

    -na identifies the plural object.

  2. Marija ratkom fil-pjazza.

    Maria saw you all in the square.

    -kom refers to several addressees.

  3. Marija rathom fuq il-karozza tal-linja.

    Maria saw them on the bus.

    -hom identifies a third-person plural object.

How It Connects

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

-na / -kom / -homLevel 3Plural Attached Objects

Learn This First

Introduce us, plural you and them as attached objects through a singular female actor. Complete stems and agreement distinguish their roles, while l-based plural forms identify indirect participants separately.