Burmese By Ear/Essential Myanmar Introduction to the Burmese Language John Okell

1.11. Which one?

1. lesson

  Sentences     

  Beh-ha ăthà*pa-dhălèh?  ဘယ်ဟာ အသား*ပါသလဲ။  Which one has meat in it? 

  Beh-ha saq-thălèh?  ဘယ်ဟာ စပ်သလဲ။  Which one is hot to taste? 

  Beh-ha è-dhălèh?  ဘယ်ဟာ အေးသလဲ။  Which one(s) is (are) cool (cooler/coolest)? 

Notes 

Beh-ha: literally “which thing?” “which one?”. Also used where English speakers would say “which things?” “which ones?”: Burmese does have ways of distinguishing singular and plural, but you don’t always have to use them. 

Questions that ask Which? What? Why? etc (in this case beh-ha) end in -thălèh (or its voiced version -dhăle´h). Questions that can be answered with a Yes or a No end in -thălà/-dhălà. Compare these two: 

    Beh-ha pu-dhălèh?   ဘယ်ဟာ ပူသလဲ။   Which one is the hot one? 

    Èh-da pu-dhălèh?   အဲဒါ ပူသလား။   Is that the hot one? 

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