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

2.3. Where, here and there.

1. lesson

New Words       

beh-hma  ဘယ်မှာ  where?   

di-hma  ဒီမှာ  here   

èh-di-hma  အဲဒီမှာ  there   

Example sentences 

   Di-hma pu-deh-naw?   ဒီမှာ ပူတယ်နော်။   It’s hot here, isn’t it? 

   Beh-hma è-dhălèh?   ဘယ်မှာ အေးသလဲ။   Where is it cool? 

   Èh-di-hma è-ba-deh.   အဲဒီမှာ အေးပါတယ်။   It’s cool over there. 

Notes 

1. The suffix -hma means “in” or “on” or “at”. Notice that dihma and èh-di-hma come before the verb in Burmese – the opposite way round from English. 

2. Notice that the beh in beh-hma “where? (in which place?)” is the same word as the beh in beh-ha “which one?” (Lesson 1.11). 

3. Notice also that di-hma “here” and èh-di-hma “there” correspond to da “this” and èh-da “that” (Lesson 1.9). 

4. Questions containing beh-hma, like questions containing ba and beh-ha, take the suffix -thălèh/-dhălèh (see the note in Lesson 1.11). 

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