Ye stím te kyós tl’ John.

John’s car goes fast.

Ye stím te kyós tl’ John means ‘John’s car goes fast’

Literally it means ‘Travelling fast (is) the car of the John’).

Vocabulary and pronunciation

• Ye – this word has no direct translation, but you use it at the start of sentences that involve travelling or motion
• stím – fast, powerful
• te – the.
• kyó – car
• -s – you use this to mark that a third person (not me or you) possesses the object
• tl’ – the (you use this before proper names, like ‘John’)

In this phrase, Elizabeth Herrling uses the English pronunciation for ‘John’, which is common for bilingual speakers. Some speakers would say Chól.

Audio: Elizabeth Herrling
Note: the -s ending is not audible in the audio recording, probably because Elizabeth is speaking quite quickly. In slow speech, it would normally be required.

Structure

The structure of this phrase is as follows: