6. Some adjectives have various plurals, as miek, much; whose plural is miektin, miekintin or miekin.
In most cases the adjective and its substantive agree in number. The only means of expressing gender is by adding the words okichtli, male, and zivatl, female.
In the absence of a regular declension the cases are formed as follows: The genitive is indicated by the possessive pronoun or by the juxtaposition of the words, the dative by means of verbs called applicatives, the accusative by certain particles accompanying the verb or by juxtaposition, the vocative by adding e to the nominative or by the change of i into e in words ending in tli or li and the in into e in words ending in tzin.
The ablative is indicated by various particles and prepositions. The language surpasses the Italian in the number of its augmentatives and diminutives. The former take the syllable pol, the latter tontli and ton. The Aztec is richer in verbal nouns than any other language. Those derived from active, neuter, passive, reflective and impersonal verbs, terminate in ni, oni, ya, ia, yan, kan or ian, tli, li, liztli, oka, ka, ki, k, i, o, tl.
Table of Pronouns.
| Personals. | Possessives. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nevatl, neva, ne, | I. | No, | Mine. |
| Tevatl, teva, te, | Thou. | Mo, | Thine. |
| Yevatl, yeva, ye, | He, or somebody. | I, | His. |
| Tevantin, teva, | We. | To, | Ours. |
| Amevantin, amevan, | You. | Amo, | Yours. |
| Yevantin, yevan, | They. | In or im, | Theirs. |
| Te, | Of or belonging to others. | ||
“The possessives,” says Pimentel, “are always used in composition, and change the final syllable of the word to which they are joined; as, teotl, God, noteuh, my God,” etc.[728]
The modes of the verb are: the indicative, imperative, optative and subjunctive. The indicative has the following tenses: present, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, future. The subjunctive has one tense which is translated by the imperfect.
The following example of the conjugation is given from Pimentel:
| Indicative. | |||
| Present. | |||
| Ni-chiva, | I make. | Ti-chivâ, | We make. |
| Ti-chiva, | Thou makest. | An-chivâ, | You make. |
| Chiva, | He makes. | Chivâ, | They make. |
| Imperfect. | |||
| Ni-chiva-ya, | I made. | ||
| Perfect. | |||
| Oni-chi-uh, | I have made. | ||
| Pluperfect. | |||
| Oni-chi-uhka, | I had made. | ||
| Future. | |||
| Ni-chiva-z, | I shall make. | ||
| Imperative. | |||
| Present: | Ma xi-chiva, | Make thou. | |
| Future: | Ma ti-chiva-z, | Make thou presently. | |
| Optative. | |||
| Imperfect: | Ma ni-chiva-ni, | Would that I should make. | |
| Perfect: | Ma oni-chi-uh, | Would that I have made. | |
| Subjunctive. | |||
| Imperfect: | Ni-chiva-zkia, or Ni-chiva-zkiayo, | That I should make. | |