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.