Slot 1: shaping the verb phrase

01 Tense

to places the event in the past. so places it in the future. An unmarked verb is present.

mia to nila. — I saw.

mia so nila. — I will see.

mia nila. — I see.

A main clause translated as past or future carries its tense particle. Embedded clauses carry their own tense relative to the event of the main clause.

02 Aspect

Aspect chooses a view of the event:

• ki presents it as complete at the tense's reference time: ki "have done," to ki "had done," so ki "will have done."
• si presents it in progress, in mid-flow.
• pa presents its beginning.
• te presents its ending.
• ro presents a recurring or characteristic pattern.

thia ki shonela. — You have learned.

mia to ki nila. — I had seen.

shia si thalo. — They are walking.

mia pa shonela. — I begin to learn.

mia te shonela. — I stop learning.

shia ro thalo. — They walk regularly.

An ongoing event takes si; a habit takes ro. They are different views and never share the aspect rank.

03 Voice

se promotes the patient of a transitive event to subject position:

mia nophi kealo. — I create the story.

nophi se kealo. — The story is created.

The passive leaves the actor unstated. That is useful when the actor is unknown or genuinely beside the point, but it can also hide responsibility. When agency matters, losing it is a content failure rather than a grammatical necessity.

ka adds a causer and moves the original subject into the object sequence:

lopia nulae. — The child sleeps.

mia lopia ka nulae. — I cause the child to sleep.

The particle states causation, not its manner. A request, a lullaby, a locked door, and coercion may all cause an action through very different relations; the rest of the account must say which one occurred.

The voice pair and surrounding ranks keep their fixed order:

lopia se ka nulae. — The child is made to sleep.

mia lopia ka na nulae. — I must cause the child to sleep.

mia lopia to ka ma nulae. — I did not cause the child to sleep.

Aspect in a causative clause describes the causing event. If the caused action has its own aspect, give it its own clause.

04 Evidentiality

The four evidentials name the source claimed for the clause:

• hi: the speaker directly witnessed it.
• ke: the speaker inferred it from evidence.
• ti: the speaker received it from another source.
• ho: the speaker assumes or supposes it.

mia hi nila. — I see this directly.

shia to ke wepu. — They left, as I infer from evidence.

lo miona to ti naphe. — People helped, according to a report I received.

thia shea ho nai. — I assume you are at peace.

Source is unmarked in an ordinary assertion. Evidentials do not grade truth or confidence, and hi is not a badge of honesty; each one makes a particular provenance claim that may itself be mistaken.

05 Modality

po marks possibility or ability. na marks necessity or obligation.

mia po shonela. — I can learn.

mia na naphe. — I must help.

Neither particle says who created the possibility or necessity. Capacity, permission, pressure, and practical conditions may need their own words.

06 Negation

ma comes after every other Slot 1 rank and denies the verb phrase.

mia ma nila. — I do not see.

thia to ma shua. — You did not come.

With a modal, the fixed order carries settled meanings: po ma is "cannot," and na ma is "must not." Absence of obligation uses the freedom construction instead of moving particles:

thia lila wepu ralu nai. — You need not go. Literally, you are free with regard to going.

07 Reading a stack

mia to si ke po ma nila. — I infer that I was unable to see while the event was in progress.

The fixed ranks yield past to, ongoing si, inferred ke, possibility po, negation ma, and finally nila. A long stack is legal when every distinction belongs to one event. It is not automatically clearer than two shorter clauses.