Tés means ‘to reach, to get to’. You can also use it for ‘to get close to, to approach’.
You use tés to talk about getting to a place, reaching for something, or getting close to a place or thing. Elders also use this term when saying what time it is, e.g. tes te stú:xws– ‘at nine o’clock’ is’ , lit. ‘(it) has reached nine o’clock)’.
Pronunciation
Tés sounds like this: TISS
Audio: Elizabeth Herrling, Elizabeth Phillips
-ing
Tés has a special ‘ing‘ (‘continuative’) form, to describe an ongoing action, like this: tetés – getting to, approaching, reaching (audio here).
Elders make this kind of plural by partly doubling (reduplicating) the word.
Related words
Tés is the root for a number of related words, including:
- stetís – be near, be close to
- tesét – to go up to, to approach (this is the ‘transitive’ form of tés)
- teséstexw – bring someone near
- teséthet – get close to, bring yourself close to (you would use this for coming to sit with a group)
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