**What are the parts of speech in Ojibwe?** The parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, and particles including quantifiers, adverbs, and conjunctions. **What are nouns?** Nouns name things, beings, and abstractions: > waakaa'igan - house. > animosh - dog. > zaagi'iwewin - love. > > **How are nouns inflected?** > Nouns are inflected by taking on prefixes and/or suffixes which give grammatical information about them. > > **What are some things affixes attached to nouns can indicate?** > Some things that affixes attached to nouns can indicate include: > * Animate or inanimate (gender). > * Number. > * The relationship to other parts of a phrase or sentence (e.g. obviative or locative form). **What are nominal pronouns?** Nominal pronouns refer to nouns or stand in place of nouns: > awenen - who. **What are personal pronouns?** Personal pronouns stand in place for people or nouns and indicate the various roles taken in speech: > niin - I, the one speaking. **What are demonstrative pronouns?** Demonstrative pronouns can be used with nouns or stand in place of nouns to point out or specify people or things: > iwe - that (thing). > > **Do demonstrative pronouns change to agree with the nouns they refer to?** > *Yes*, demonstrative pronouns change to agree with the nouns they refer to. **What are verbs?** Verbs refer to states of being, like condition or quantity, or actions: > michaa - it is big. > nindaabajitoon - I use it. > > **How are verbs inflected?** > Verbs are inflected by taking on prefixes and / or suffixes which give grammatical information about them. > > **What are some things affixes attached to verbs can indicate?** > Some things that affixes attached to verbs can indicate include: > * Number. > * Tense. > * The relationship to other parts of a phrase or sentence. **What are particles?** Particles are uninflected words. > **What are quantifiers?** > Quantifiers describe number or quantity: > > aaninda - some, a few. > > niizhin - two. > > **What are adverbs?** > Adverbs specify things like time, place, manner, or degree: > > gizheb - in the morning. > > agwajiing - outside. > > aapiji - very, really. > > **What are conjunctions?** > Conjunctions are connective words used to join together sentences, clauses, phrases, or words: > > giishpin - if. > > **What is the question particle and how is it used in a sentence?** > The question particle is "na," which is used for yes / no questions, and appears after the first word in a sentence. **What is the word stem?** The word stem is the core part of a word that carries the basic meaning of it. > **What may be added to the word stem?** > To the word stem may be added *affixes*, known as *inflections*: > > anokii - he / she works. > > nindanokii - I work. > > anokiikan - do some work later. > > ji-anokiiwaad - ... so they will work. > > **What is the overall pattern of an inflected noun or verb?** > The overall pattern of an inflected noun or verb is: Inflectional prefixes + word stem + inflectional suffixes (word ending). > > gi + jiimaan + iwaa + n - you + boat + more than one of you + more than one thing = your boats > > **Can the word stem be used as an independent word?** > *Sometimes* the word stem can be used as an independent word. > > **What is an example of a word stem that can be used as an independent word?** > > An example of a word stem that can be used as an independent word is: > > > jiimaan from the inflected noun gijiimaaniwaan - boat > > > > **What is an example of a word stem that cannot be used as an independent word?** > > An example of a word stem that cannot be used as an independent word is: > > > waaband from the inflected noun niwaabandaan - I see it. **What is derivation?** Derivation is putting together parts to make word stems: > baashkiz-, as in the word obaashkizaan - he / she shoots it.