of the digraphs yg (for Ŷ), gu (for ), ss (to make intervocalic S unvoiced), and of j to represent the semivowel . Hyphens are not used to separate the components of compounds except in the dictionary or for didactical purposes. Verbs In Old Tupi, verb conjugation is done at the beginning of the word. In addition, verbs can represent a present, past, or future action because, unlike Portuguese, they do not express time. (The future, in particular, is done by adding the particle -ne to the end of the sentence, but this does not change the fact that the verb itself does not express time.) * a'e means this/these or that/those, but it can also be used as a third-person personal pronoun, both singular and plural. Nouns All nouns in old Tupi end in a vowel. In the case of a verb or adjective substantivized, the suffix -a is added, if it does not already end in a vowel. Sem: to exit. Sema: the going out, the exit Pererek: to jump. Perereka: the jump, the leap. Só (verb): to go. Só (noun): the going, the going away. Porang: beautiful. Poranga: the beauty The same occurs when a noun and an adjective are in composition. In this way: Kunhãporanga: beautiful woman (kunhã, woman; porang, beautiful; a, suffix) Noun tenses Unlike the Portuguese language, the tense of an action, in old Tupi, is expressed by the noun, not the verb. Such tenses are future, past and a time called "unreal", which is similar to the future perfect, of Portuguese. They are indicated, respectively, by the adjectives -ram, -pûer and -rambûer. These, when in composition with the noun, receive the suffix -a, as explained above. Future: ka'a-ram-a = forest that will be (that has not yet been born; ka'a means forest) Past: ka'a-pûer-a = forest that was (place where there is no more forest; hence the word capoeira) Unreal: ybyrá-rambûer-a = tree that would be (if it had not been cut down) Augmentative and diminutive The degrees of the noun (augmentative and diminutive) are made by the suffixes "-'ĩ' or '-'i'", for the diminutive, and "-ûasu' or '-usu'" for the augmentative (these suffixes may suffer several phonetic transformations. Here are some examples with their explanations: {| class="wikitable" |+ ! colspan="2" |Diminutive ! colspan="2" |Augmentative |- ! colspan="2" |-'ĩ ou -'i ! colspan="2" |-ûasu ou -usu |- |Gûyra'ĩ |Little bird |Ygûasu|Big river ('''y