Ex. Mele maleke ifa, audati ga ko, the child formerly was good, now he is bad.
3. For other tenses the verb is translated only by the auxiliaries -elele and -angege, for which cf. p. 322, 7.
VIII. Auxiliary Verbs.
1. The particle ga may be used to make any expression whatever attributive.
Ex. Yu g’ua, the water is finished (i.e., is not); malele ga kouatsi, the book is in the box.
In such examples there is almost the sense of a past action, as if it were “The water (has become) nothing,” “the book has been put (is already in) the box.”
2. The verbs ete, tede, to say, or to do, and elele, to become, are often used to form a noun stem into a verb. Ete and tede give the sense of sounding, elele gives the sense of using whatever the noun expresses.
Ex.
fioli, flute, fioliete, to play the flute.
yuve, water, yuv’ elele, to bathe.
ule, thunder, ulonete, to thunder.
ivule, dye, ivul’ elele, to paint one’s self.
andavale, crying, andav’ ete, to weep.
bule, earth, bul’ elele, to cultivate.
3. The Tenses, etc., of these verbs are found as follows: