prefix listed second is the one used before a root starting with a consonant. For example, k+ok kok "my foot", j+ba jba "my face" The absolute suffix is usually il but can also have the form el, al, or ol: kʼob-ol "hand (of some unspecified person)" Verbs Verbs receive affixes of aspect, tense, pronominal subject and object and formatives of state, voice, mood and number. They can also form compounds in three ways: verb+noun tzob-takʼin "to raise money" verb+verb mukul-milvan "to murder" attributive+verb chʼul-totin "to become a godfather" Attributives Attributives are words that can function as predicates, but are neither verbs nor nouns. Often they can be translated into English as adjectives. Unlike verbs, they do not inflect for aspect, and unlike nouns, they cannot head a noun phrase or combine with possessive affixes. The composition of attributives occurs in three ways: verbal root+noun maʼ-sat "blind" (negative-eye) For colors: attributive of color+verbal root+formative -an "shadow, shade (of color)" kʼan-setʼ-an "shade of yellow" attributive of color reduplicated+t-ik "type of plural" tzoj-tzoj-t-ik < tzoj "red" This construction implies intensity in the color. Syntax The basic word order of Tzotzil is VOS (verb-object-subject). Subjects and direct objects are not marked for case. The predicate agrees in person, and sometimes in number, with its subject and direct object. Non-emphatic personal pronouns are always left out. Verb agreement Since the agreement system in Tzotzil is ergative-absolutive, the subject of an intransitive verb and the direct object of a transitive verb are marked by the same set of affixes, while the subject of a transitive is marked with a different set of affixes. For example, compare the affixes in the following sentences: l- i- tal -otik "We (inclusive) came." ʼi j- pet -tik lokʼel ti vinik -e "We (inclusive) carried away the man." In the first sentence, the intransitive verb tal ("come") is affixed by -i-...-otik to show that the subject is the 1st person plural inclusive "we," but in the second sentence, since the verb pet ("carry") is transitive, it is affixed by j-...-tik to mark the subject as the 1st person plural inclusive "we." l- i- s- pet -otik "He carried us (inclusive)" From this sentence we can see that the 1st person plural inclusive object "us" is being marked the same as the 1st person plural inclusive intransitive subject "we" using -i-...-otik. Thus, -i-...-otik is the absolutive marker for 1st person plural inclusive