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

1.6. Very, a little, not very.

1. lesson

New Words       

theiq  သိပ်  very   

nèh-nèh  နဲနဲ or နည်းနည်း  a little   

  Sentences     

  Theiq è-ba-deh  သိပ် အေးပါတယ်။  It's very cold. 

  Theiq caiq-pa-deh  သိပ် ကြိုက်ပါတယ်။  I like it very much. 

  Nèh-nèh saq-pa-deh.  နဲနဲ စပ်ပါတယ်။  It's a bit hot to taste. 

  Nèh-nèh zè*cì-ba-deh.  နဲနဲ ဈေးကြီးပါတယ်။  It's a bit expensive. 

  Theiq măpu-ba-bù.  သိပ် မပူပါဘူး။  It's not very hot. 

  Theiq nà măleh-ba-bù.  သိပ် နားမလည်ပါဘူး။  I don't understand very much. 

Notes 

Theiq used with a negated verb means “It is so, but not extremely”; example: 

    Theiq măpu-ba-bù = “It’s not very hot”, 

    in the sense of: “It is hot, but not extremely hot”. 

Word order. Notice that theiq and caiq-pa-deh come in that order: “very much I like” — the opposite order from English. The rule is that in Burmese all verbs come at the end of the sentence. 

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