Pronouns

Subject/Object Pronouns

Globasa's subject/object pronouns are as follows:

singular plural
1st person mi - I, me imi - we, us
2nd person yu - you uyu - you
3rd person
(animate)
te - he, him, she, her, it ete - they, them
3rd person
(inanimate)
to - it oto - they, them
ren - one
se - ‘reflexive pronoun’ (myself, yourself, herself, himself, ourselves, themselves)
da - 'relative pronoun' (he, she, it, they)

The gender-neutral te and ete are used for all living forms and personified objects. If it is necessary to emphasize gender, the adjectives fem and man, also used for nouns, may be used as prefixes.

  • femte - she
  • mante - he
  • femete/manete - they

seli

The adjective seli is used with subject pronouns to express emphasis of self.

seli mi - I myself
seli yu - you yourself
etc.

Possessive Adjectives

The possessive adjectives are derived from the pronouns by adding the suffix -su:

singular plural
1st person misu - my imisu - our
2nd person yusu - your uyusu - your
3rd person
animate
tesu - her, his, its etesu - their
3rd person
inanimate
tosu - its otosu - their
rensu - one's
sesu - my own, your own, her own, his own, our own, their own
dasu - (relative clauses) her, his, its, their

As with the pronouns, the gender-neutral possessive adjectives tesu and etesu are typically used for all third-person animate beings. If it is necessary to emphasize gender, the prefixes fem and man may be used.

  • femtesu - her
  • mantesu - his
  • femetesu/manetesu - their

Possessive Pronouns

The possessive pronouns are derived from the possessive adjectives by adding the pronoun (e)te or (o)to:

singular plural
1st person misu te/to - mine imisu te/to - ours
2nd person yusu te/to - yours uyusu te/to - yours
3rd person
animate
tesu te/to - hers, his, its etesu te/to - theirs
3rd person
inanimate
tosu te/to - its otosu te/to - theirs
rensu te/to - one's own
sesu te/to - my own, your own, her own, his own, our own, their own

Third-Person Pronouns at End of Noun Phrases

As seen under Correlatives, third-person pronouns (te/to and ete/oto) are used for correlative pronouns since determiners (ke, hin, den, etc.) must always be followed by a (pro)noun. See Noun Phrases.

Similarly, (e)te/(o)to are used at the end of noun phrases when the noun is understood.

One reason for this rule, as illustrated below, is that since nouns and verbs have the same form in Globasa, leaving a determiner or an adjective without a (pro)noun can potentially be mistaken as modifying the noun/verb immediately following.

Multi te pala sol in Englisa.
Many (people) speak only (in) English.

Another reason, as illustrated below, is that Globasa does not use articles. So whereas English is able to use adjectives as nouns, Globasa cannot.

bon te, bur te ji colo te
the good (one), the bad (one) and the ugly (one)

Notice as well that although te and to are singular pronouns they may be optionally used with words denoting plurality, such as max, min, multi, xosu.