Language/Paraguayan-guarani/Grammar/Pronouns

Pronouns in Guaraní

Hi Guaraní Learners! 😃

In today's lesson we will learn how to use pronouns in Guaraní.

Happy learning!

Take a moment to explore these relevant pages as you conclude this lesson: How to Use "Be", Future Tense & Give your Opinion.

Guaraní personal pronouns (terarânguéra)

The 'che' Personal Pronoun

Like English, Guaraní has a set of personal pronouns. The English word 'I' is a pronoun in the first person singular.

The Guaraní word for 'I' is 'che'.

Guaraní	Translation
che avei	me too
che mante	just me
ha che ?	and me ?
che nahániri avei	me neither
che nahániri	not me

Other Personal Pronouns in Guaraní

Guarani	English	français
che	I	je
nde	you	tu
ha'e	he she	il elle
[inclusion] ñande [exclusion] ore	we	nous
peê	you	vous
ha'ekuéra	they	ils elles

Person	form	morph test
1st person singular	che	che ↔ che
2nd person singular	nde	nde ↔ nde
3rd person	ha'e	ha'e ↔ ha'e
1st person plural (inclusive)	ñande	ñande ↔ ñande
1st person plural (exclusive)	ore	ore ↔ ore
2nd person plural	peẽ	peẽ ↔ peẽ

Personal pronouns in Guarani are mostly the same as the prefixes used with chendal verbs. They include first person and second person singular, third person (no distinction between singular and plural), first person plural inclusive, first person plural exclusive and second person plural.

		singular	plural
1st person	inclusive	che	ñande
	exclusive		ore
2nd person		nde	peẽ
3rd person		haʼe	haʼekuéra/ hikuái (*)

• Hikuái is a Post-verbal pronoun (oHecha hikuái – they see )

Reflexive pronoun: je: ahecha ("I look"), ajehecha ("I look at myself")

Guaraní Demonstrative Pronouns

The 'ko' Demonstrative Pronoun

Demonstrative pronouns are used with nouns to make them more specific. The demonstrative pronouns 'this' in English is 'ko' in Guarani.

Guaraní	Translation
ko aranduka	this book
ko tapicha	this person
ko mesa	this table
ko yva mansana	this apple
ko kavaju	this horse

Other demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns recognize at least four deictic degrees (from proximal to distal): ko, pe, amo, ku (and their plural forms).

Attributives	Non-attributives
ko	kóva	“near the speaker”
pe	péva	“near the addressee”
upé	upéva	“away from both speaker and addressee”

Note. Chart above reprinted from E. Gregores and J. Suarez.

In Guarani, demonstrative pronouns reflect the proximal-distal dimension of the contexts in which the pronouns are used.

Guaraní possessive pronouns

'che' Possessive Pronoun in Guarani

Possessive pronouns are used in Guaraní to describe possession or ownership.

The Guaraní word for 'my' is 'che'. The word 'che' often causes a sound change in the noun which follows it.

che haiha	my pen
che mansana yva	my apple
che mesa	my table
che tataypy	my kitchen
che pirapire	my money

Other Possessive Pronouns in Guarani

The possessive pronouns of Guarani are essentially the same as the personal pronouns. They include first person singular, second person singular, third person (no distinction between singular and plural), first person plural inclusive, first person plural exclusive, and second person plural. 

Person	form	morph test
1st person singular	che	che ↔ che
2nd person singular	nde	nde ↔ nde
3rd person	ha'e	ha'e ↔ ha'e
1st person plural (inclusive)	ñande	ñande ↔ ñande
1st person plural (exclusive)	ore	ore ↔ ore
2nd person plural	peẽ	peẽ ↔ peẽ

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani_language
• https://wikis.swarthmore.edu/ling073/Guarani/Grammar
• https://www.linguashop.com
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani_dialects#Demonstrative_Pronouns

Other Lessons

• Conditional Mood
• Plurals
• Questions
• Negation
• Future Tense
• Adjectives