Qasunattuuji verbs

Qasunattuuji verbs are known for their complexity: a single conjugated verb may stand for a whole sentence. Also, they exhibit noun incorporation: for example: do a speech is rendered as speech-do.

General features

Every verb has an obligatory inflection for person, number, and mood (all marked by a single suffix), and can have other inflectional suffixes such as tense, aspect, modality, and various suffixes carrying adverbial functions, and can have nouns incorporated to them.

Tense

Tense marking is always optional. The only explicitly marked tense is the future tense. Past and present tense cannot be marked and are always implied. All verbs can be marked through adverbs to show relative time (using words such as "yesterday" or "tomorrow"). If neither of these markings is present, the verb can imply a past, present, or future tense.

Future tense

Tense	Example
Present	Pijavimiq telephone-INSTR vigiipuk. talk-we-1DU.3SG Pijavimiq vigiipuk. telephone-INSTR talk-we-1DU.3SG We (two) talk on the phone.
Future	Pijavimiq telephone-INSTR viniagiipuk. talk-we-DU-FUT Pijavimiq viniagiipuk. telephone-INSTR talk-we-DU-FUT We (two) will talk on the phone.
Future (implied)	Suujuqqanu give birth probably savisuhuu sister's ilaa I kaluuŋiluuk. tomorrow Suujuqqanu savisuhuu ilaa kaluuŋiluuk. {give birth probably} {sister's} {I} tomorrow My sister (will) give(s) birth tomorrow. (the future tense "will" is implied by the word tomorrow)

Aspect

Marking aspect is optional in Qasunattuuji verbs. It has a perfective versus imperfective distinction in aspect, along with other distinctions, such as: frequentative (-ataq; "to repeatedly verb"), habitual (-simavi; "to always, habitual verb"), inchoative (-hiŋaat; "about to verb"), and intentional (-sahuma; "intend to verb"). The aspect suffix can be found after the verb root and before or within the obligatory person-number-mood suffix. number-mood suffix.

Mood

Qasunattuuji has the following moods: Indicative, Interrogative, Imperative (positive, negative), Coordinative, and Conditional. Participles are sometimes classified as a mood.

Participle can be used to form relative sentences.

xavix qijajuat kinakutut.
/ˈʂaviʂ qiˈʐaʐuat kinaˈkuʐut/
xav-	-ix	qijak-	-tuat	kinak-	-u-	-tut
dog	-abs.pl	bark	-3p.part-	hunger-	-be.X-	-3p.indic
The dogs that are barking are hungry

Conditional is used to make conditional sentences

kinakukama qiniajuŋa
/kiniakuˈkama qiniaˈʐuŋa/
kiniak-	-u-	-kama	qit-	-niaq-	-tuŋa
hungry-	-be.X	-1s.cond.impf-	-3p.part-	eat-	-fut	-1s.ind
I will it if I get hungry

The Coordinative mood has a wide range of uses, including the formation of dependent sentences that function as modifiers of independent sentences.

puuvajijaluŋa qittuŋa
/puːvaʐiʐaˈluŋa qittuŋa/
puuvatijax-	-luŋa	qit-	-tuŋa
read-	-1s.coord	eat-	-1s.ind	eat-
While I read, I eat

isinaluŋa aŋŋuajuŋa
/isinaˈluŋa aŋŋaˈʐuŋa/
isinap-	-luŋa	aŋŋuaq-	-tuŋa
read-	-1s.coord	eat-	-1s.ind	eat-
Singing, I dance