Language/Burmese/Grammar/Nouns
Hi Burmese learners! 😊
In this lesson, we will dig deep into the basics of Burmese nouns. Nouns are a fundamental part of any language used to name a person, place, thing or idea.
Introduction
Nouns are essential to expressing yourself in any language. In Burmese, like other languages, nouns can come in various forms, each of which serves a particular purpose. In this lesson, we will explore Burmese nouns in detail and help you understand how to use them correctly.
Once you've mastered this lesson, take a look at these related pages: Plurals, Adjectives, Irregular Verbs & Negation.
Gender in Burmese Nouns
Unlike some languages like French, Burmese nouns do not have a gender. As a result, Burmese nouns do not have an assigned gender. For example, "teacher" and "doctor" are gender-neutral in Burmese. Let's take a look at the following examples:
| Burmese | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| သူ | /θù/ | person |
| ကျား | /tɕa̰/ | girl |
| ကြယ် | /tɕaɪʔ/ | boy |
We can see that there are no gender-specific differences in Burmese.
Number in Burmese Nouns
Burmese has two numbers: singular and plural. To indicate that a noun is in the plural form, တစ်ကြိမ်မှာ (tac-krin-ma-hmar) is added after the noun.
Here's an example dialogue to illustrate this:
- Person 1: နောက်တစ်ခုလုံးခံက် (nauk-ta.kr-lom-khin) (I need one chair)
- Person 2: ဒေါက်တစ်ခုခံက်ပါ (dauk-ta.kr-khin-pa) (Here's one chair)
- Person 1: သူတစ်ဦးများကြားပါ (θù-ta.kù-mya-kra:pa) (There are two people)
As we can see in the last sentence, the word တစ် (ta.kr) meaning one, changes to တစ်ဦး (ta.kr-u:) meaning two.
Possessive Nouns
In Burmese, to indicate possession, the word ရှိ (hrè) follows the possessor and is attached to the object. Let's take a look at the following examples:
| Burmese | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ကျွန်တော်အိမ်သုံး | /tɕən.tà.aɪɴ.sóʊɴ/ | my mother |
| ငါ့ကို | /ŋa̰ kò/ | my |
In the first line, ကျွန်တော် (chun-tau) means "mother" and အိမ်သုံ (a-in-son) means "I" or "me". When combined, the word ကျွန်တော်အိမ်သုံ (chun-tau-a-in-son) means "my mother." In the second line, ငါ့ (nga ko) means "my".
Classifiers
Burmese also has classifiers, which are used to count nouns. Similar to the Chinese language, Burmese classifiers are used to differentiate between objects. For example, to count books, the word စာ (sa) is used as a classifier. The correct structure is as follows:
number + classifier + noun.
Here's an example:
| Burmese | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ငါ၏ ဘာသာရပ်နှစ်လုံး စာကို | /ŋa̰ ʔè bà ðà jè pʰá n̥ɪ̀ɴ ɫóʊɴ sṵ kaiɴó/ | My two books. |
The word "စာ" (sa) acts as a classifier to differentiate the type of books that are being counted. In this sentence, we can see that two Myanmar books are being counted.
Conclusion
In conclusion, you now have a basic understanding of Burmese nouns. If you have any questions or need more help, you can use the Polyglot Club website to find native speakers and ask them any questions. You can also consult our Grammar page for more information on the Burmese language.
➡ If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments section below.
➡ Feel free to edit this wiki page if you think it can be improved. 😎
Sources
Great work on completing this lesson! Take a moment to investigate these connected pages: Pronouns, Burmese Grammar → Sentence Structure → Simple Sentences & Expressing Manner and Frequency.
Videos
Learn Burmese Language - Grammar: Nouns in Burmese - YouTube
Other Lessons
- How to Use Be
- Questions
- Gender
- Give your Opinion
- Adjectives
- Future Tense
- Conditional Mood
- Negation
- Pronouns