or by a proximate third person on an obviative): An inverse suffix indicates that the action is performed by someone lower on the person hierarchy on someone higher on the person hierarchy (e.g., by the speaker on the addressee, or by an obviative third person on a proximate): As can be seen, the only difference between these two verbs is the direct–inverse opposition, rather than case markers (or word order, when distinct nominals are used). An inverse verb is not equivalent to a passive verb. There is a separate passivity marker, denoted in literature as "indefinite person (X)", ranked in topicality hierarchy below first and second persons, but higher than animate and inanimate third persons: To illustrate this, a generic VTA and VTI paradigm table, arranged by person hierarchy, is shown below. Note that the reflexive forms shown in a darker background with the reflexive theme /-idizo/ happen to be VAI. The table depicts only the paradigm for Independent Order, Positive Voice, Neutral Mode. Letters omitted in a particular form are indicated with that letter struck-through. Preverbs Ojibwe language is rich in its use of preverbs, which is a prefix that comes before verbs, nouns, and particles, to provide an additional layer of meaning. In Ojibwe, there are four classes of preverbs ranked in importance by six degrees: class 1—tense, aspect, mode, or syntactic prefix appearing on verbs mode-subordinator: subordinator: e-, gaa-, waa- modal: ga[d]-, da-, daa-, ji-, ge[d]-. tense-negativity tense: a'- [e'-], gii'- [gaa'-], wii'- [waa'-]. negativity: aano-, bwaa-. class 2—directional prefix occurring on verbs class 3—relational prefix occurring on verbs (and on some nouns and particles): ako- [eko-], onji- [wenji-], izhi- [ezhi-], apiichi- [epiichi-], dazhi- [endazhi-], daso- [endaso-]. class 4—lexical prefix occurring on verbs, nouns, or particles. aspectual manner, degree, quality/evaluative, quantitative/numeric Preverbs, when they occur before a noun, are called a prenoun. Preverb class units when written are separated with a hyphen, with the exception of the class 4 preverb indicating manner, degree, quality/evaluative, or quantitative/numeric, which can also serve as functional part of a word stem as an initial. If several preverbs of the same class occur, they are written as a single block in order of rank of importance, with the most important preverb located closest to the word. Pronominal prefixes are written directly onto the head of the word group, so it may be found attached directly to the preverb if a preverb is