Is t’wa eystexwes kw’es las lex̲éywa

Is t’wa eystexwes kw’es las lex̲éywa means ‘I guess he liked to go torchlighting.’.

You could also translate it as ‘He must have liked to go torchlighting’.

Audio: Elizabeth Herrling

Structure and Vocabulary

The structure of this phrase is as follows:

• i – an untranslatable auxiliary (‘helper’) verb, related to the meaning ‘here’
• -s – here, marks the presence of a third person (neigher you nor me) subject, in this case the understood ‘it’
• t’wa – maybe, would be, could be. see is t’wa
• éystexw – to like, to enjoy
• -es – here, marks that a ‘third person’ (the understood subject ‘he’) is the subject.
• kw’es – that, to
• la – an auxiliary (‘helper’) verb, a reduced form of lám –to go
• -s – here, again a form of third person subject agreemtnt
• lex̲éywa – to torchlight