Verb phrase

In Toaq, a verb phrase (jeotoame) is any phrase with the same grammatical behavior as a single verb.

Toaq is built around verbs, so verb phrases are everywhere. All of the tones actually operate on verb phrases: doesn't just turn a verb into an adverb, it turns a verb phrase into an adverb phrase.

A verb phrase is either:

• A single-word verb. (See that article for why "young" is a verb in Toaq.)
  • Nỉo nháo da. "They are young."
• An object-incorporating verb (po, mea, jeı) followed its incorporated object noun phrase, optionally terminated by ga.
  • Mẻa chíeme nháo da. "They are among the class."
• A name verb (mı, mıru) followed by a name phrase, optionally terminated by ga.
  • Mỉ Sảra nháo da. "They are Sara."
• A free relative construction: lu … (ky), where the phrase's resumptive pronoun hóa is the argument of the verb phrase.
  • Lủ sẻa hóa dãqleı ky nháo da. "They are someone who rarely rests."
• A serial verb, made by juxtaposing a non-serial verb phrase with another verb phrase.
  • Jỏaı kảqshıa nháo da. "They seek glasses."
  • Pỏ súq ga chỉetuache nháo da. "They are your teacher".
    • The common pỏ X ga Y "is X's Y" construction is a serial verb of pỏ X ga ("is X's") and Y. The ga is mandatory in this position, otherwise súq chỉetuache would be interpreted as a serial verb conjugated in .

When tone-conjugating a verb phrase, only the on the first word changes to the new tone:

nío the young one	nïo hóa cy …who is young	nỉo is young	nîo (súq) cy that (you) are young
méa chíeme the one among the class	mëa chíeme hóa cy …who is among the class	mẻa chíeme is among the class	mêa chíeme (súq) cy that (you) are among the class
mí Sảra (the) Sara	mï Sảra hóa cy …who is Sara	mỉ Sảra is Sara	mî Sảra (súq) cy that (you) are Sara
lú sẻa hóa dãqleı ky the one who rarely rests	lü sẻa hóa dãqleı ky hóa cy …who is someone who rarely rests	lủ sẻa hóa dãqleı ky is someone who rarely rests	lû sẻa hóa dãqleı ky (súq) cy that (you) are someone who rarely rests
jóaı kảqshıa the glasses-seeker	jöaı kảqshıa hóa cy …who seeks glasses	jỏaı kảqshıa seeks glasses	jôaı kảqshıa (súq) cy that (you) seek glasses