01.01 Romansh personal pronouns
 

The personal pronouns in Romansh are:
 

There are four important points to note:
 

• There are two words for “you”; “ti” and “vus”.

Ti is equivalent to the word “thou” that used to be used in English, but has died out in the modern language.
It is used when talking to a single close friend or relative, a single small child, an animal (or oneself - if one is so inclined!).
Vus is used when talking to more than one person or to a single adult whom you do not know well.
The use of ti/vus is almost identical to the French “tu”/”vous”.
Ti is perhaps used somewhat more frequently amongst adults in Romansh than “tu” in French, since Romansh speakers tend to regard anyone else who can speak their language more or less as a close friend!

• In Romansh, there is no separate word for “it”.

All things, whether animate or inanimate, are either masculine or feminine.
For impersonal concepts, such as the time or the weather, the masculine is used.

• There are two words for “they”.

Ellas is used when only females or feminine words are involved.
Els is used when only males or masculine words are involved or when there is a mixture or males and females or masculine and feminine terms.
As we shall see later in the course, there is a modern trend to use both (ellas ed els) when both women and men are meant.

• Ins is a very frequently used impersonal pronoun.

Its use corresponds roughly to “on” in French
It is used much more frequently than “one” in English.
It is described in detail later on in the course.

01.02 Present tense of avair, esser and star

These are three of the most important verbs in Romansh.
Let’s take a look at their present tenses:
 
 

AVAIR	TO HAVE
jau  *hai	I have
ti  *has	you have
ella *ha	she/it has
el *ha	he/it has
ins *ha	“one has”
nus avain	we have
vus avais	you have
ellas/els *han	they have

* Note that the ‘h’ is silent.
 

In the reading passage, you have already encountered one of numerous idiomatic expressions involving avair:
avair num (“to be called”, literally “to have name”)
 
 

ESSER	TO BE
jau  sun	I am
ti  es	you are
ella è	she/it is
el è	he/it is
ins è	“one is”
nus essan	we are
vus essas	you are
ellas/els èn	they are

Esser is the usual verb for “to be”. In certain conditions, other verbs are used.
You will learn these gradually as you go along.
 
 

STAR	TO BE, etc.
jau  stun	I live, I am, ...
ti  stas	you live, you are, ...
ella stat	she/it lives, she/it is, ...
el stat	he/it lives, he/it is, ...
ins stat	“one lives, one is, ...”
nus stain	we live, we are, ...
vus stais	you live, you are, ...
ellas/els stattan	they live, they are, ...

Star has many different meanings.
It is sometimes the equivalent of “to be”, when we are talking about being or living in a place or being in a predicament.
One predicament we may find ourselves in is having to apologise:
Jau stun mal.  (I’m sorry.)
 
 
 
 

01.03 Simple questions

Simple questions are formed by inverting the subject and pronoun:
 

Example 1 (with avair):

Jau hai num …  (My name is…)
Hai jau num …? (Is my name …?)
Has ti num?
Ha ella/el num?
Han ins num?
Avain nus num?
Avais vus num?
Han ellas/els num?

Note: in questions an ‘n’ is added before ins.
This is simply because it sounds better than the two vowels adjacent to each other.
 

Example 2 (with esser):

Jau sun ad uras…  (I am on time)
Sun jau ad uras?  (Am I on time?)
Es ti ad uras?
È ella/el ad uras?
Èn ins ad uras?
Essan nus ad uras?
Essas vus ad uras?
Èn ellas/els ad uras?

Note: once again the ‘n’ added before ins.
 
 
 

01.04 Feminine forms
 

It is possible to form many feminine words simply by adding an ‘a’ to the end of the masculine:
 

turist (male tourist)	turista (female tourist)
ami (male friend)	amia (female friend)

In some cases, other changes have to be made, such as the doubling of a final consonant or the omission of an ‘e’:
 

giuven (boy, young man)	giuvna (girl, young woman)
giat (tom cat)	giatta (she cat)

For the many nouns derived from past participles, the masculine ends in ‘-à’ (which is stressed) and the feminine equivalent in ‘-ada’
 

emploià (male employee)	emploiada (female employee)
divorzià (divorce, male)	divorziada (divorce, female)

 
 
 

01.05 Plurals
 

As in English, most Romansh nouns form their plural simply by adding an ‘s’.

Note carefully:
This final ‘s’ is usually pronounced like ‘ss’ in English and not like an English ‘z’!
 

giuven (boy)	giuvens (boys)
giuvna (girl)	giuvnas (girls)

 

In English, some words add a syllable in the plural (“house”/”houses”; “match”/”matches”).
Romansh does not do this.
This results in certain sound clusters that are rather unusual for the English ear:
 

laresch (larch)	lareschs (larches)
artg (bow)	artgs (bows)
chamutsch (chamois SINGULAR)	chamutschs (chamois PLURAL)

Nouns that end in ‘s’ are unchanged in the plural
 

curs (course)	curs (courses)
spus (bridegroom)	spus (bridegrooms)

For nouns derived from past participles, the masculine singular ending ‘à’ becomes ‘ads’ in the plural (pronounced ‘ats’!):
 

emploià (male employee)	emploiads (male employees)
emploiada (female employee)	emploiadas (female employees)

In the course of time, we shall encounter a few irregular plurals.
The most common one is:
 

um (man)

umens (men)

 
 

01.06 Definite article

As we have already seen, everything in Romansh is either feminine or masculine.
English has only one form of the definite article ‘the’; Romansh has five:

Masculine singular: il  (l’ before a vowel)
Feminine singular:  la  (l’ before a vowel)
Masculine plural: ils
Feminine plural:  las

Example of the use of the definite article:

il turist          ils turists
la turista       las turistas
il giuven       ils giuvens
la guivna      las giuvnas
l’ami             ils amis
l’amia           las amias
l’emploià      ils emploiads
l’emploiada  las emploiadas

Note: Romansh speakers frequently add the singular definite article before people’s first names.
This is usually a sign of endearment, but can be a mark of contempt:
(La) Barla stat a Cuira.  (Barla is living in Chur.)
(Il) Gieri stat a San Murezzan.  (Gieri is living in St. Moritz).
This is purely optional and a matter of personal preference.
You do not have to copy it if you do not want to.

Note also: Romansh refers to all the members of a family by using a definite article and the surnames in the plural (just as English):
Ils Bezzolas  (the Bezzolas)
Ils Schmids  (the Schmids)
 
 
 
 

01.07 Forms of address / titles
 

signur = Mr
dunna = Mrs
giuvna = Miss
Note that these forms of address are written with small letters, unlike English.
Romansh does not have any equivalent of the modern English “Ms.”
Older women are now usually referred to as “dunna” regardless of whether they are married or not.
 
 
 
 

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