Verb

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

A verb is either:

• A single-word atomic verb. (See that article for why "young" is a verb in Toaq.)
  • Nıo nháo da. "They are young."
• An analytic verb, consisting of more than one word:
  • An object-incorporating verb (po, mea, jeı) followed its incorporated object noun phrase, optionally terminated by ga.
    • Mea chíeme nháo da. "They are among the class."
  • A name verb (mı, mıru, mımo) followed by a name phrase (mımo has to be closed by ga)
    • Mı Sara nháo da. "They are Sara."
  • A free relative construction: lu … (ky), where the phrase's resumptive pronoun hóa is the argument of the verb.
    • Lủ sẻa hóa dãqleı ky nháo da. "They are someone who rarely rests."
  • A serial verb, made by juxtaposing a non-serial verb with another verb.
    • 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, 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