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

1.4. No, it isn't.

1. lesson

  Sentences     

S1  Caiq-teh-naw?  ကြိုက်တယ်နော်။  You like it, don’t you? 

S2  Mă caiq-pa-bù.  မကြိုက်ပါဘူး။  No, I don’t. 

S1  Yá-deh-naw?  ရတယ်နော်။  It’s all right, isn’t it? 

S2  Măyá-ba-bù.  မရပါဘူး။  No, I don’t. 

Notes 

Mă[…]-ba-bù . “It isn’t […]” or “I don’t […]” etc.  

Mă - is the “negative prefix”: it is attached to the beginning of a word, and conveys the meaning “not”; and when you’re making a negative statement, instead of using the suffix -teh/-deh , you use the suffix -p’ù/-bù. 

-ba (in Măpu-ba-bù etc) is the same polite suffix as the -pa/-ba in Pu-ba-deh etc. It is a signal that you are being polite. So you will hear people saying both Măpu-ba-bù and Măpu-bù. Both mean the same thing, but the first is more polite than the second. 

“No”. Burmese doesn’t use a word that corresponds directly to “No”. When you’re asked if you like something and you want to answer “No”, you just say “Not like”. 

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