Possession (my)

If you want to say "my father" or "my mother" in Tuvan, first, you need to add an appropriate ending to the word (Step 1) and, if you want to, use a possessive pronun before the noun, but it's optional (Step 2).

Listen and repeat the sentences from the song "Кочегар."

Step 1. As you can see from the examples above, 1st person possession (my) is expressed in these sentences via various endings (-м, -ым). The table with all the possible endings for all the different types of words is provided below (Salzynmaa, 1980).

How do you use this table? For example, if you want to say "my mother," first you find out the word for "mother" in Tuvan. It is "ава." What is the last letter of the word? A vowel. What is the vowel in the last syllable of the word. It is a vowel "а." The table tells us that we need to add "-м" to the word "ава" to say "my mother." Voila! "Авам."

Step 2. In addition to the appropriate ending, you can also indicate possession using a possessive pronoun.

мээӊ - my

Listen and read the phrases:

To continue studying Song #3 and words for family members and occupations, please click here.