Learn Assyrian › Grammar

9 · Syntax — putting words in order

9 · Syntax — putting words in order · a plain-language guide to Assyrian (Sureth) grammar

Drawn from Khan's syntax volume (Chapters 9–14; the verb half of it is Chapter 4B). Most of what's in there you've already met piece by piece — how the tenses behave in Chapter 4, what each preposition means in Chapter 8, how demonstratives and possessives work in Chapter 2. This chapter pulls together what is genuinely about sentence-building: how words line up in a clause, how to ask a question, the one little linker word that lets you say "the man who…," "I know that…," and "so that…," how to say "if" — and then, from Khan's Chapter 12, the three clause shapes English speakers get wrong: how to say what you feel, how to name your topic first, and when the "is" simply goes missing. Speaking value: HIGH — this is the glue that turns vocabulary into sentences.

Grammar terms (clause, subject, object, predicate, relative clause, antecedent, complement, protasis…) are explained inline the first time they appear and collected in "Grammar words in plain English."

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