Identifying Objects with 'Kay' and 'Chay'

¡Allinllachu! Welcome back to your second Quechua lesson.

In our first session, you learned how to describe objects using adjectives, forming phrases like sumaq wasi (a beautiful house). Today, we will build directly on that knowledge. The goal of this lesson is to learn how to point out those objects in space using the demonstrative pronouns kay (this) and chay (that).

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to combine what you've learned to form phrases like "this beautiful house" and make simple statements to identify things near you and near the person you're speaking with.

1. This and That: Kay and Chay

In Quechua, as in English, we use different words to point to things depending on their distance from the speaker. The two most fundamental demonstratives are:

• Kay: Used for a person, animal, or object that is close to the speaker. It translates to "this."
• Chay: Used for a person, animal, or object that is close to the person being spoken to, or a little further away from the speaker. It translates to "that."

To hear the pronunciation and see these concepts in action, let's watch a short video.

As the video explains, kay refers to what is near the speaker ("este, esta"), while chay refers to what is near the listener ("ese, esa").

To reinforce this, let's look at a quick reference guide.

You may have noticed both resources also mention a third demonstrative, haqay, for things far from both the speaker and listener. We will set that aside for now to master kay and chay.

2. Combining Demonstratives with Nouns and Adjectives

Just like adjectives, demonstratives come directly before the noun they modify. This creates a logical and expandable structure.

Structure 1: Demonstrative + Noun

• kay wasi - this house
• chay allqu - that dog

Now, let's combine this with what you learned in the last lesson. The order is always: Demonstrative + Adjective + Noun.

Structure 2: Demonstrative + Adjective + Noun

• kay hatun wasi - this big house
• chay huch'uy allqu - that small dog
• kay sumaq t'ika - this beautiful flower
• chay puka punchu - that red poncho

This structure is a powerful tool, allowing you to create very specific and descriptive phrases by simply adding words in the correct order.

3. Forming Sentences

Now let's turn these phrases into complete sentences.

Identifying Objects

To state "This is a house" or "That is a dog," you can use the demonstrative as a pronoun. The structure is simple. You attach the evidential suffix -mi (or -m after a vowel) to the noun to show you are stating a fact based on direct knowledge.

Structure: Demonstrative + Noun + -mi/-m

• Kay wasim. - This is a house.
• Chay allqum. - That is a dog.

Sometimes, you will see the topic marker -qa on the demonstrative, like this: Kayqa wasim. Both forms are common.

Describing Objects

To make a descriptive sentence like "This house is big," we can expand on the sentence structure you practiced in the last lesson (Noun-qa Adjective-mi).

Structure: Demonstrative + Noun + -qa + Adjective + -mi/-m

• Kay wasiqa hatunmi. - This house is big.
• Chay allquqa yanam. - That dog is black.
• Kay churanaqa sumaqmi. - This dress is beautiful.

The resource "Quechua Lesson 2" shows a similar structure for identifying a person: Kay runa Pidru-m (This man is Pedro). This demonstrates how versatile this pattern is for identifying and describing.

4. Practice

Let's put it all together. Imagine you are in a market with a friend.

Activity 1: Pointing out items
How would you say the following phrases?

1. this new hat (musuq muchiku)
2. that old house (mawka wasi)
3. this white cat (yurak misi)
4. that beautiful flower (sumaq t'ika)

(Pause to formulate your answers.)

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Answers:

1. kay musuq muchiku
2. chay mawka wasi
3. kay yurak misi
4. chay sumaq t'ika

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Activity 2: Making statements
Now, turn these into full sentences.

1. This is a small dog. (huch'uy allqu)
2. That cat is black. (yana misi)
3. This poncho is new. (musuq punchu)

(Pause to formulate your answers.)

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Answers:

1. Kayqa huch'uy allqum. (or Kay huch'uy allqum.)
2. Chay miseqa yanam.
3. Kay punchuqa musuqmi.

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Excellent work. You can now identify and describe objects using demonstratives.

Conclusion

Today, we've added a crucial layer to your descriptive abilities in Quechua.

Key Takeaways:

• Kay is used for things near the speaker ("this").
• Chay is used for things near the listener or further from the speaker ("that").
• The word order for descriptive phrases is Demonstrative + Adjective + Noun (e.g., kay hatun wasi).
• You can form identification sentences like Kayqa wasim (This is a house) and descriptive sentences like Chay wasiqa hatunmi (That house is big).

Preview of the Next Lesson:

You can now point to an object and describe it (Kay wasiqa hatunmi). But what if you don't know what the object is? In our next lesson, we will learn how to ask "What is this?" using the question word ima. You'll learn to form questions like Imataq kay? (What is this?) and Imataq chay? (What is that?), allowing you to start having simple, interactive conversations about the world around you.

Tupananchiskama