[Nouns used in the following sections]{}

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Nouns make up the majority of most peoples’ vocabulary. They are the ‘names of things’. Proper nouns are a type of noun that identify a unique entity such as ‘Jehovah’. These are generally capitalised in Lahu as they are in English.

Number

To express the idea of more than one noun in Lahu extra words need to be used such as teˇ hpaˍ, teˇ g’ui and hui.

Nuˇ [teˇ hpaˍ]{} cow plural cows

Chaw hui man plural men

Yaˇ [teˇ g’uiˬ]{} child plural children

Gender {#sec:gender}

Gender in Lahu is generally expressed using suffixes, paˍ for male and ma for female. This is the case for humans and many animals. Some words do not need the suffix to indicate the gender as it is already implied, for example hawˉ hkaˆ for man and yaˇ miˇ for woman.

Nuˇ paˍ cow male bull

nuˇ ma cow female cow

va paˍ pig male boar

va ma pig female sow

Possession {#sec:possession}

When something belongs to someone then the possessive particle ‘ve’ is used after the pronoun (or proper noun) and before the thing that is possessed. Do not confuse this particle with the particle used with verbs (see section [sec:verbs]). The possesive particle is more often used with pronouns (see section [sec:pronouns]) and these are used in the following examples.

ve hpu. they (par) money ‘Their money.’

Nawˇ ve li you (par) book ‘your book’

It is often omitted in such expressions as these:

nuˇ hkehˇ cow manure cow’s manure

g’aˆ [awˬ mvuh]{} chicken feather chicken’s feather