96 CHAPTER 3. MORE GRAMMAR
affirmative negative
present
( )
( )
past
( )
( )
Next up are the verbal adjectives. Verbal adjectives have one polite
affirmative form, using , and two polite negative forms, because we
can either use , or the polite counterpart to : (the polite
negative form of the verb ), This leads to the following inflection table:
affirmative negative
present plain +
polite + + +
polite (2) +
past plain + (c) +
polite + (c) + + +
polite (2) + +
(In this scheme, (c) indicates that a contraction occurs)
For completeness, the two irregular verbal adjectives get their own
tables. First, (which is really ):
affirmative negative
present plain /
polite /
past plain
polite
(of the two possible , is considered normal, while is
considered formal)
And then finally, the helper adjective of negation, ( ):