Serial Verb Constructions
1 min read · 201 words
Tunisian doesn't follow the "two successive verbs; the second is put in the infinitive". Instead, you may put as many successively conjugated verbs as you want (the limit being generally 4 verbs), completely without needing to resort to gerunds, nouns or infinitives.
Examples:
‘I wanted to come’
‘You'd be wishing to go by then’
‘I'm starting to become able to speak English’
Normally, every verb in the chain acts on the same person. If a change in the pronoun of the next verb is required, the previous verb is suffixed with the corresponding object clitic. View
Example:
‘I want you to make him fear you’
A quick note on succesive verbs with respect to their tenses:
Verb 1 (past) + Verb 2 (past) = usually found in conditional constructions (regret)
Verb 1 (past) + Verb 2 (present) = expressing a past idea (Verb 1) about an action (Verb 2) happening now
Verb 1 (past) + Verb 2 (future) = expressing a past idea (Verb 1) about an action that had just happened
Verb 1 (present) + Verb 2 (present) = expression an idea about an accessable event in the making
Verb 1 (future) + Verb 2 (present) = expressing a idea, that would be taken place in the forenamed point in the future, about an event
Examples: Verb 1 = ħabb; Verb 2 = mşee
Translaltion is roughly: