Tenses in Kuanua

Tenses

 Ismael Isikel  Edited 3/10/2017

The Kuanua past tense depends on how long ago an event took place. The recent past (tar, itar) and the past past (ga, iga) are the two groups of tenses used.  For the recent past tar and itar are used. The past past in Kuanua is three days ago and beyond where ga and iga begin to be employed to describe past past events. tar , itar, ga, and iga  are not added to a word like the ed in English to change the form to past tense. Of course some English words do not require the ed to change the form to past tense. The spelling is changed, for example, eat to ate. In Kuanua they are placed before the verb as separate words as shown in the table below with English Translations.

The first two or three letters of a verb is repeated to change its form to present continuous as you see in the table of tenses.

Table: Tenses

Present Tense           Past Tense                 Present continuous             

wana   go                    Itar wana, iga wana,             wanawana, going

warwut     run            Itar warwut, Iga warwut        warwarwut, running

rabai    weed               Itar rabai, Iga rabai                rabarabai, weeding

tutun    cook               Itar tutun, Iga tutun                tututun, cooking

raut   cut                     Itar raut, Iga raut                   raraut, cutting

(cut as in cutting grass)

tata   talk                     Itar tata, Iga tata                    tatata, talking

Kaugu robong diga piria mara mapina ul.(My basket was woven from coconut frond.)

Note the word 'diga' in the caption of the of the picture.In this case it means 'it was'.