This series will explore the ins and outs to the grammar I’ve created for Laénara, the dominant language in the world of Alcrést. This article focuses on the workhorses of sentences and speech, verbs. Be sure to read the full grammar reference.

Background

In Laénara, verbs do heavy lifting in sentences, carrying more meaning than verbs in English would. Through a process called verb conjugation, verbs can convey different grammatical aspects. This is common in both English and Laénara, though Laénara has more complex conjugation rules.

Laénaran verbs can be created from adjectives and nouns, similar to how verbs are created in modern English via a noun:

Laénara: ‘míraéwa’ (noun) → ‘míraésé’ (verb)
English: ‘beauty’ (noun) → ‘beautify’ (verb)

This process is called verb derivation. There are two types of verbs that can be created this way. Furthermore, there is a third way to create verbs through denominalization with the addition of another verb, íkaré, ‘to do’. 

Verbs also have forms to make them function as adjectives. These are called participles. 

Laénara also has two irregular verbs, tané and aíré. Tané is the verb meaning ‘to be’, and aíré is the verb of existence. We’ll explore how these verbs differ from others, and how aíré is particularly special. 

Verb Conjugation: The 6 Group Hierarchy

You may be familiar with tenses of verbs in English, with verbs like ‘jumped’, ‘walked’, ‘played’. These are still verbs, but the addition of the ‘-ed’ suffix to the base verb has changed their grammatical tense. These are now verbs that have occurred in the past, as opposed to the present. In linguistic terms, these verbs are said to be past tense. The present forms: ‘play’, ‘walk’, etc. have an imperfective aspect, meaning that the action is incomplete. 

In Laénara, conjugation happens in six ranked groups. The steps are in order of importance: tense/aspect, modality, negation, conjunctions, progressive continuous and evidential. A verb is built like building blocks, step by step.

Verb Forms

Before we begin conjugation, there are two verb forms that must be discussed, the base form and the stem form. Earlier, we had an example where English base forms had been conjugated with the ‘-ed’ suffix. Laénara works similarly. 

panéké (to trade), kulíré (to eat), sarébé (to depart)

Base Form: aka ‘lexicon form’. This is the form of the verb as it appears in the lexicon. It ends in a consonant + é. It is used in the present tense / habitual aspect.

kulíré (base) → kulí (stem)

Stem Form: most conjugations are only possible with the stem of the verb. The stem is generally formed by removing the final syllable. 

Group 1: Tense / Aspect

To begin, all verbs require a tense. The tenses indicate time, as to when the action occurred, generally. You can only select one tense. For example, you can’t select a present and pluperfect tense… at least in Laénara. Maybe if there were some beings out there that didn’t experience time linearly, they could describe an action that is occurring in the present and completed some time in the past simultaneously. 

Yomé té nodotté asaka garíké.
As for me, I write every day.

Íshara la okuraré.
The sun rises.

Present Habitual (base form): the present habitual is the lexical form of the verb and indicates the actions that happen regularly in the present, or actions and states that are happening now. Laénara’s base form covers what is considered the ‘simple present tense‘, with a ‘habitual aspect‘. Generally, it indicates actions that have not been completed.

Aínétoséa, to wía níara ké.
I used to agree, but now I don’t. / I was agreeing, but now I don’t.

Kaku ka ajíwaséa.
He used to work. / He was working.

Past Imperfective (stem form + -séa): the past imperfective is the form of the verb that indicates an action was repeated or habitual in the past, or the action was in progress until something else occurred. It implies an action that ‘used to happen’, or things that the actor ‘was doing’. It is the ‘past tense‘ with an ‘imperfective aspect‘. The distinction is contextual.

Ríné té kato la pokarurun.
The woman broke the cup.

Kurísé té nara né narí la níorun.
She smelled the coming rain in the meadow.

Perfective (stem form + –run): the perfective is otherwise known as the ‘past tense’ with a ‘perfective aspect‘. It indicates the action has been completed, or completed some time in the recent past, and the action is whole and complete.

Kaku té komésa la jutékaína, sono, aénué fíéarun.
He had reached the summit, then went back down.

Pluperfect (stem form + –kaína / -kaí): the pluperfect has a ‘pluperfect tense‘ (past of the past), with an implied ‘perfective aspect‘. It indicates an event or action that was completed before another event. It implies the action ‘had occurred’ some time in the past before another event.

Ríasén ka laéna asaka kí umasoína.
The stars had been born in the first days.

Distant Pluperfect (Stem + -soina / –so): the distant pluperfect is otherwise known as the ‘remote past tense’. It has a ‘perfective aspect‘. It indicates the action has been completed a very long time ago. It stands to reason that there were many other events that happened after the distant pluperfect form. It implies the action ‘had occurred long ago’, and is mostly used for story telling and historical contexts.

Yomé sa manaré la kíyoraségaré.
I will clean my room.

Immediate / Simple Future (Base + –garé / -ga): the immediate simple future is the ‘future tense‘ with a ‘neutral aspect‘. It indicates the action will occur in the near future. It implies the action hasn’t occurred yet, is not currently occurring and ‘will occur’ or ‘is going to occur’ sometime soon. There is no distinction between the immediate and simple futures.

Group 2: Modality

Modality refers to the ways that Laénaran verbs express the speaker’s attitude or opinion about the verb. Group two consists of modal expressions or ‘moods’, and they are optional in building verbs. Modality is stackable and the order determines scope. Like sentences in Laénara, they are head final (left to right).

Yomé té kíbí kí hasíséaru.
I used to be able to run when I was a child.

Hasíréru, yo?
May I run?.

Abilitive Mood (+ -ru): This suffix is appended to the verb and gives it the ‘abilitive mood‘. It indicates the ability of the verb by giving it potential ability. Verbs with the abilitive form ‘can occur‘ and are ‘able to occur’. It affirms the ability to do the action. Mixed with the temporal tenses in group one, and you can specify when the verb has or had the ability to occur.

Íkarématé.
I want to do it.

Íkaséamaru.
I used to want to be able to do it.

Desiderative Mood (+ -maté / -ma): This suffix is appended to the verb and gives it a ‘desiderative mood‘. It indicates the desire of the subject to have the action occur. Verbs with the desiderative form express the speaker’s ‘want or desire‘ for the verb. Coupled with the temporal tenses in group one, and you can specify when the desire for the verb to occur actually occurred.

Yuko faíréméra.
Rain might fall. / It might rain.

Rékotaí té cho né aí la ushísoíméra.
They might have lost the war in that city long ago.

Potential Mood (+ -méra / -mé): This suffix is appended to the verb and gives it a ‘potential mood‘. It indicates that the probability of an action occurring is likely, at least to the point of view of the speaker. Verbs with the potential form express a ‘likelihood to occur’. Coupled with the temporal tenses in group one, and you can specify when the potential for the verb to occur actually occurred.

Modal Order

As stated before, the order of the modal suffixes determines the meaning of resulting verb.

Suffix Order	Literal Logic	Meaning & Nuance
-mate←ru	ABLE(to Want)	“I am able to want.” (I have the capacity to desire this.)
-ru←mate	WANT(to be Able)	“I want to be able to.” (I cannot do it yet, but I desire the ability to.)
-mate←méra	MIGHT(Want)	“I might want to.” (I am unsure of my desire.)
-méra←mate	WANT(Possibility)	“I want it to be possible.” (I desire the chance/possibility of the action, even if it doesn’t happen.)
-ru←méra	MIGHT(be Able)	“I might be able to.” (Unsure of capability.)
-méra←ru	ABLE(to be Possible)	“It can be possible.” (The situation has the potential to exist.)

Triplets

Suffix Order	Literal Logic	Meaning
-ru←mate←méra	MIGHT(Want(Able))	“I might want to be able to.” (I’m thinking about learning how to do it.)
-mate←ru←méra	MIGHT(Able(Want))	“I might be able to want.” (It is possible my desire for the ability to do this will return.)
-mate←méra←ru	ABLE(Might(Want))	“I am able to possibly want.” (I have the capacity to entertain the desire, even if I don’t feel it yet.)
-ru←méra←mate	WANT(Might(Able))	“I want it to be possible that I can.” (I wish the potential for my ability existed.)
-méra←ru←mate	WANT(Able(Possible))	“I want to be able to make it possible.”(I desire the power to create the chance.)
-méra←mate←ru	ABLE(Want(Possible))	“I am able to want it to be possible.” (I have the capacity to hope for a chance.)

Group 3: Negation

Negation (+ -nanaí): This suffix changes the meaning of the verb or of the moods and expresses a denial or of the opposite. This is similar to ‘do not [verb]’ or ‘did not [verb]’ or ‘was not [state]’. There is a leftward scope rule when negating. The negation is only applied to the leftward modifier. If the verb does not have any of the modalities from group two, then the negation is applied to the verb itself. This gives very different meanings depending on what is being negated.

Negation is fluid in conjugated verbs. The verb itself can be negated with moods conjugated afterwards, or any mood itself can be negated in between other moods.

Past Negation Chart

State	Construction	Resulting Word	Meaning
Simple Positive	Saí-run	Saírun	“I slept.”
Simple Negated	Saí-run + nanaí	Saírunnanai	“I did not sleep.”
Abilitive Positive	Saí-run-ru	Saírunru	“I was able to sleep.”
Abilitive Ext. Neg	Saí-run-ru-nanaí	Saírunruné	“I was not able to sleep.”
Abilitive Int. Neg	Saí-run + né + ru	Saírunnéru	“I could have not slept.”
Desire Positive	Saí-run-mate	Saírunmate	“I wanted to sleep.”
Desire Ext. Neg	Saí-run-maté-nanai	Saírunmananai	“I did not want to sleep.”
Desire Int. Neg	Saí-run + né + maté	Saírunnématé	“I wanted to not sleep.”
Potential Positive	Saí-run-méra	Saírunméra	“I might have slept.”
Potential Ext. Neg	Saí-run-méra-nanai	Saírunménanai	“It is impossible that I slept.”
Potential Int. Neg	Saí-run + né + mera	Saírunnéméra	“It is possible I didn’t sleep.”

Future Negation Chart

State	Construction	Resulting Word	Meaning
Simple Positive	Saíté-garé	Saítégaré	“I will sleep.”
Simple Negated	Saíté-garé-nanaí	Saítégananaí	“I will not sleep.”
Abilitive Positive	Saíté-garé-ru	Saítégaru	“I will be able to sleep.”
Abilitive Ext. Neg	Saíté-garé-ru-nanaí	Saítégaruné	“I will not be able to sleep.”
Abilitive Int. Neg	Saíté-garé + né + ru	Saítéganéru	“I will be able to not sleep.”
Desire Positive	Saíté-garé-maté	Saítégamaté	“I will want to sleep.”
Desire Ext. Neg	Saíté-garé-maté-nanai	Saítégamananai	“I will not want to sleep.”
Desire Int. Neg	Saíté-garé + né + maté	Saítéganématé	“I will want to not sleep.”
Potential Positive	Saíté-garé-méra	Saítégaméra	“I might sleep.”
Potential Ext. Neg	Saíté-garé-méra-nanaí	Saítégaménanaí	“It will be impossible to sleep.”
Potential Int. Neg	Saíté-garé + né + méra	Saítéganéméra	“It is possible I won’t sleep.”

Present Negation Chart

Mood State	Construction	Resulting Word	Meaning
Simple Positive	Saíté	Saíté	“I sleep.”
Simple Negated	Saíté-nanaí	Saíténanaí	“I do not sleep.”
Abilitive Positive	Saíté-ru	Saítéru	“I am able to sleep.”
Abilitive Ext. Neg	Saíté-ru-nanaí	Saítéruné	“I am not able to sleep.”
Abilitive Int. Neg	Saíté + né + ru	Saíténéru	“I am able to not sleep.”
Desire Positive	Saíté-maté	Saítématé	“I want to sleep.”
Desire Ext. Neg	Saíté-mate-nanaí	Saítémananaí	“I do not want to sleep.”
Desire Int. Neg	Saíté + né + maté	Saíténématé	“I want to not sleep.”
Potential Positive	Saíté-méra	Saítéméra	“I might sleep.”
Potential Ext. Neg	Saíté-méra-nanaí	Saítéménanaí	“It is impossible that I sleep.”
Potential Int. Neg	Saíté + né + méra	Saíténéméra	“It is possible I don’t sleep.”

Group 4: Conjunctions

Conjunctions connect clauses or sentences to each other. They generally have the meaning ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘if’. Laénara has all of these separately as particles that attach to nouns, but what about a verb? To express that someone ‘sat and wrote’ or ‘ran and jumped’, we cannot use a particle. Laénara has the conjunction ‘and’ that can be built into the verb. These conjunctions are only for verb chaining. They are optional.

Kurísé té osharunréa, gaírun.
She greeted me and smiled.

Perfective Conjunction (+ -réa): This suffix is appended to the end of the verb we are building, and adds the conjunction ‘and’ to it. It is only applied to verbs that have a ‘perfective aspect‘ from group 1 (perfective, pluperfect, distant pluperfect). It takes the form: [verb 1 happened] and then [verb 2 happened].

Moshí íshara ka aétérégarí, tanorégaré.
If the sun shines, I will be happy.

Default Conjunction (+ -rí): This suffix is appended to the end of the verb we are building and also adds the conjunction ‘and’ to it. It is applied to verbs that do not have a ‘perfective aspect‘ from group 1 (present habitual, future). It takes the form: [verb 1 happens] and [verb 2 happens], or [verb 1 will happen] and [verb 2 will happen], or [verb 1 happens] and [verb 2 will happen]. The third example demonstrates cause and effect.

Group 5: Progressive / Continuous

The progressive and continuous aspects refer to two separate but similar concepts. They express incomplete actions or states that are in-progress. They are non-habitual and imperfective by nature. However, paired with a ‘perfective aspect‘ it becomes a past continuous tense, an action that was in progress some time in the past.

Progressive aspect refers to a current action (doing), and the continuous aspect refers to a current state (being). In English, as in Laénara, these are one and the same.

Tínaílíré la kaoséa’airé.
I was reading that spellbook.

Kurísé té daíwa né gíré la tékaréaíré.
She is buying food in the market.

Progressive / Continuous (+ aíré): this suffix may be appended to the end of the verb, and indicates the verb is in progress. The affix is the irregular verb aíré which is the verb of existence, meaning ‘to be’. This step follows the standard grammatical rule for adjacent vowels, utilizing a glottal stop for doubled vowels.

Group 6: Evidentiality

Evidentiality adds context about how a speaker knows something. They are used in direct quotations and when someone is speaking. Written word is generally held as a primary source and so evidential grammatical suffixes are not used. While speaking, they are required. Only one can be used at a time.

“Kaku té rubía la toraruntté!”
“I saw him as he caught the fox.”

Direct Sensory (+ -tté): this suffix is appended to the end of the verb and indicates that the speaker has firsthand knowledge of the event, having seen/felt/heard it happen. From the speaker’s point of view, this is an undeniable fact.

“Aéno ka yasu tanétté, karaní, yuko faíkaímíra.”
“I observed that the ground is wet, so I determined it has rained.”

Inferential (+ -míra): this suffix is appended to the end of the verb and indicates that the speaker has made a logical deduction based on evidence they have observed. This is used for occurrences that were not observed by the speaker, but were logically deduced to have happened.

“Yadíra ga suono té éíraírunno.”
“I heard that Yadira and her husband separated.”

Indirect / Reported (+ -no): this suffix is appended to the end of the verb and indicates that the speaker has secondhand knowledge of the event, having heard about it from someone else. This is used for gossip/hearsay.

“Réko té rémémínaé tanéru, to rékotaí té loka tanéwaí.”
“It is known that a person can be logical, but people are stupid.

Common Knowledge (+ -waí): this suffix is appended to the end of the verb and indicates that the speaker is assuming the statement is true based on perceived common or shared knowledge. It is assumed to be true without solid proof. This is used for educated guesses.

Irregular Verb Conjugation

Some verbs have conjugated forms that differ from the normal six group above. Laénara has a handful, but some languages (like English) have hundreds of them. The reasons for this are many, from relics of past words to merged languages and loanwords.

For example, the English past tense adds ‘-ed‘ to a verb. The past tense of ‘walk’ is ‘walked’. But the irregular verbs have different forms. The past tense of ‘break’ is not ‘breaked’ but is ‘broke‘. The past tense of ‘run’ is not ‘runed’, but ‘ran’.

Laénara is similar in this way, but most of the irregular conjugations are due to frequent usage in processes called velar elision and vowel collapse. These happen organically over time. Velar elision in particular is common in the southern Alcrést dialect.

Conjugation	tane (to be)	aire (to exist)	Fíaré (to go)	Sutéré (to come)
Present Habitual	tane	aire	fíaré	sutéré
Past Imperfective	taséa	aíséa	fíaséa	sutéséa
Perfective	tarun	airun	furan	suran
Pluperfect	tarina	airina	fíakína	surakína
Distant Pluperfect	tasína	aísína	fíasoína	surasoína
Future	taruga	airuga	fíga	suga

Haplology and Contraction Rules

Negation follows a haplology rule in the past tense. The affixes ru + nanaí (abilitive + negation) do not conjugate plainly in sequence. They are instead contracted to (-runé). 

• sétoré + ru + nanaí → sétoréruné (was not able to meet)

When there is an internal negation as in the below example where the verb in the future tense is being negated, -nanai is contracted to né. In the below example, the negation is occurring to the tense itself, turning ‘will sleep’ into ‘will not sleep’. The potential mood is added to the whole, and the meaning of the resulting verb is ‘It is possible that I will not sleep‘. In internal negations, both the haplology rule and the leftward scope rule apply.

• saíté-garé-nanai-mera → saíté-ga-né-méra → saítéganéméra
• [Verb]-[Future Tense]←[Internal Negation]-[Potential]

In the example below, the internal negation is contracted to -né. This now introduces another haplology rule with the -né verb, where duplicated syllables are contracted, and so the double syllables are contracted into -nné. This turns the unwieldy séíganénanaíméra into seígannéméra, which changes the word from 7 syllables to 5. This middle -ganné- flows better than -ganenanai-.

• séígané-nanaí-méra → séígané–né-méra → séíga-nné-méra → séígannéméra
• I might not promise. (I can’t make any promises.)

Affix Contractions 

• Internal Affixes (affixes that are between other affixes) are contracted and use the contracted form.
• Affixes on the end of the verb are never contracted.
• Tenses are contracted when there is an affix attached.
• Not all tenses and affixes have a contracted form.

Verb Derivation

Verb derivation in Laénara is the process of creating new verbs from existing adjectives and nouns. This is accomplished by adding certain suffixes to the word to change its meaning. There are three different suffixes to derive verbs from nouns and adjectives.

• -ré : this suffix creates intransitive verbs from adjectives that mean ‘to become x‘.
• -sé : this suffix creates transitive verbs from adjectives that mean ‘to make x‘.
• -íké: this suffix comes from the verb íkaré and it creates transitive verbs from nouns that mean ‘to do x‘.

Note that not all verbs that end in the -ré, -sé and -ké syllables are verbs that have been formed by derivation. Similarly, the stems of many verbs are not adjectives. This is only true for derived verbs. For all others, there is a separate system of vowel gradation (think of English’s sing, sang, sung, song), but that will be explored in another article.

Once the appropriate suffix is added to a word it can be conjugated via the six groups above. However, there are differences in how the stem form is created for these verbs.

The ‘-ré’ Form

The -ré suffix added to an adjective is called the ré form of the adjective. The resulting word is a verb that has the meaning ‘to become [adjective]‘. It signifies the start of the action, and the subject undergoing change. The stem form follows the normal stem conjugation rules.

Noun	Meaning	Verb	Meaning	Stem Form
ítosa	free	ítosaré	to become free	ítosa
híta	certain, sure	hítaré	to become certain, to be sure	híta

The ‘-sé’ Form

The -sé suffix added to an adjective is called the sé form of the adjective. The resulting word is a verb that has the meaning ‘to make [adjective]‘. It signifies a change being forced upon the object of the verb. The stem form follows a preservation rule, where the entire verb is preserved in the stem form. The final syllable is never removed.

Noun	Meaning	Verb	Meaning	Stem Form
ítosa	free	ítosasé	to make free, to liberate	ítosasé
híta	certain, sure	hítasé	to ensure, to certify	hítasé

The Verbalizer Íkaré

The verb íkare (to do) conjugates normally by itself. However, it can be appended to a noun like a suffix and creates a verb meaning ‘to do/enact [noun]‘. The process of converting a noun into a verb is called denominalization. When used as a denominalizer, íkaré takes on a different form.

When conjugating the new verb, syllables are either merged or dropped from the final verb.

Starting with the word kaída meaning ‘victory‘, appending íkaré as the contracted ‘-iké‘ creates a verb meaning ‘to do/make/create victory’, and in English, ‘to triumph’ is the approximation of the new verb.

Present Habitual	Kaídaíké (to triumph)	No changes to the verb.	-íké
Perfective	Kaída-íké–runa → Kaída-í-na → Kaídaína (triumphed)	Syllables -ké and -ru are dropped.	-ína
Future	Kaída-íké–garé → Kaída-í-ré → Kaídaíré (will triumph)	Syllables -ké and -ga are dropped.	-íré
Past Imperfective	Kaída-íké-séa → Kaída-í-séa → Kaídaíséa (used to triumph)	Syllable -ké is dropped.	-íséa
Pluperfect	Kaída-íké-kaína → Kaída-í-ka → Kaídaíka (had triumphed)	Syllable -ké and -na are dropped, and syllable -kaí is truncated to -ka.	-íka
Distant Pluperfect	Kaída-íké-soína → Kaída-í-so → Kaídaíso (had triumphed a long time ago)	Syllable -ké and -na are dropped, and syllable -soí is truncated to -so.	-íso

The verbs that íkaré creates are transitive, and so are actions that are being enacted on the object of the verb. The action is the root noun. We can use an internal state to demonstrate what this means.

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– A Note About States of Being –

Internal states and feelings are expressed as states of being that are existential in Laénara, rather than as actions in English that are felt and expressed directly.

In English you’d probably say to your crush: “I love you.”
Here “love” is a verb and the object of the verb is “you” (you are the thing being loved), and “I” am the subject (I am the one loving you).

In contrast, in Laénara, you’d say to your crush: “Haní ka aíré.“ (The state of loving you exists).

This is saying that within you, a feeling of loving this person exists. It is less direct than English. There is no object, ‘exists’ is the verb and ‘love’ is the subject (the thing existing). And if you think about it, it’s almost the same in English.

If you tell someone you love them, what are you actually saying?
Isn’t it a feeling of love that is being felt by you? In this case, when you confess your love, you are expressing a feeling and a set of emotions that exist within you. Not necessarily are you are showing love, which in English would translate to “cherish”.

Laénara makes this distinction clear. A feeling exists within oneself. It is a thing, not an action. But it can be acted on, with íkaré.

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Íkaré changes nouns and states into solid action. By appending it to the noun, we get a transitive verb.

íokí + íkaré → íokí’íké: “to court, to woo”.
[to enact the ‘liking state’]

Yomé sa rínékíbí la íokí’íkématé, yo?
Do you want to court my daughter?

To enact the verb on the subject is to do the actions that serve as proof of the state.

Participles

Participles are verb forms that act like adjectives. That is to say they act to describe a noun. Laénara has two main participles, the past and future participle. Additionally there is a subordinate clause utilizing the wa particle that acts like a present participle.

Past Participle

The past participle describes a noun that has received the action. In English, these words end in ‘-ed‘ or ‘-en‘.

Pokarurun réko té yogí la satoríré.
The broken person understands despair.

Pokarurun is the past tense of pokaruké, meaning ‘to break’. In this sentence it is describing the noun réko meaning ‘person’, who has received the action of ‘understanding’. The perfective form must be used for all past participles.

Future Participle

Future Participle: (stem + -una) The future participle describes a noun intended for the action, or about to be affected. It describes what is fated or intended to happen to a noun. There is no English equivalent participle.

Léwa té rénshéuna basto tané.
This is the fort to be repaired.

Barado né hasíuna baran té aíré.
The horse who is to run is in the stable.

In the first example, rénshéuna is the future participle of rénshéké, meaning ‘to repair’. It is modifying basto, meaning ‘fort’. Combined the phrase has the meaning ‘repair-destined fort’.

In the second example, hasíuna is the future participle of hasíré, meaning ‘to run’. It is modifying baran meaning ‘horse’. When the future participle is applied to a living subject, this implies intent or scheduling. Combined, the phrase has the meaning ‘run-intended horse’.

“Present Participle”

The present participle describes a noun that is currently doing the action. It uses the verb as an adjective. The English present participle ends in ‘-ing‘, the same as the continuous tense. In Laénara, however, the verb takes on its lexicon form and the particle wa is used to make it a relative clause. This is not a true participle, but achieves the same meaning.

Saíté wa shoto né míro edanaé saékémi ka sutéré.
Very colorful dreams come to the sleeping man.

Kurísé té daíwa né yorímmé wa kíbítaí la damaté wa la yorirun.
She enjoyed watching the children who were playing in the square.

In the first example, saíté wa is a relative clause literally meaning ‘who sleeps [right now]’. Relative clauses modify nouns, and so saíté wa shoto means ‘the man who is sleeping’. As far as meaning, the phrase is similar to a present participle, ‘the sleeping man’.

In the second example, yorímmé wa is a relative clause meaning ‘who were playing or who were enjoying’. Yorímmé is a verb that has different meanings based on context. It is modifying the noun kíbítaí meaning ‘children’. There is no other context for what the children were ‘enjoying’ and so it is implied from context that they were playing.

A Final Example

And that is all about verbs in Laénara! In the final example below, I will create a monster verb from everything that we have learned. One word can carry a ton of information, and can be a grammatically correct sentence all by itself.

hísoté: to steal
-run: past tense
-nanaí (-né): negation
-ru: the ability to
-méra (-mé contraction): the possibility of
-maté: the desire to
Construction: [Steal-Past]←[Internal Negation]←[Ability]←[Possibility]←[Desire]

hísorun-nanaí-ru-méra-maté → hísorun-né-ru-mé-maté → Hísorunnérumématé.
I want to possibly be able to have not stolen it.

This is an extreme example, but it shows the power of agglutination, stacking morphemes to create new words like blocks, with each block retaining its original meaning.