21.3. Asking about time of day
Models
| 1) | QIN OĆE I¸ YÁ¸ SW̱? | ‘What time do you go?’ |
| 2) | QIN SE¸ OĆE I¸ YÁ¸ SW̱? | ‘What time will you go?’ |
| 3) | QIN OĆE I¸ YÁ¸ SE¸ SW̱? | ‘What time will you go?’ |
| 4) | QIN LE¸ OĆE I¸ YÁ¸ SW̱? | ‘What time did you go?’ |
| 5) | QIN OĆE I¸ YÁ¸ LE¸ SW̱? | ‘What time did you go?’ |
| 6) | ȽQIN OĆE? | ‘What time is it?’ |
| 7) | QIN OĆE TŦE EN¸ WÁĆ? | ‘What time is it?’ |
‣ 1 All but the first model here could also be translated with ‘when,’ as in ‘When do you go?’ Whereas ĆEN¸TÁṈ (§21.1, §21.2) is used to ask ‘when?’ about seasons, months, and days in the past or future, a different word, QIN, is used to ask about the time of day.
‣ 2 The grammar for questions about time is basically the same as the Conjoined Event method (§21.2) of forming ĆEN¸TÁṈ questions: use I¸ to join the QIN phrase and the event phrase.
‣ 3 The only small difference is that OĆE is used after QIN in questions about time of day.
‣ 4 The word QIN by itself means ‘How much?’ or ‘How many?’ But in this construction, with the conjoined event, it always means ‘What time?’ More detail on QIN can be found in §28.2.
‣ 5 Since the word QIN means ‘How much?’ or ‘How many?,’ if you asked QIN OĆE?, that would mean ‘How much is it?’ or ‘How many are there?’ There are two ways to make clear you mean ‘What time is it?’ The first way is shown in model 6: add the Ƚ‑ prefix to QIN to get ȽQIN ‘what time.’ The Ƚ‑ prefix generally means ‘part of something.’ With ȽQIN it means literally ‘how much of part (of the day).’
‣ 6 The second way to make clear that you mean ‘What time is it?’ is shown in model 7. This one means literally ‘Your watch is how many?’ The word WÁĆ, which comes from English ‘watch,’ means ‘clock’ or ‘watch’ or ‘time’ in SENĆOŦEN.
 | QIN¸ OĆE I¸ YÁ¸ SW̱ ĆȺ? | ‘What time do you go to work?’ |
 | EWENE NE SXĆIT. | ‘I don’t know.’ |
| QIN¸ SE¸ OĆE I¸ YÁ¸ SW̱ JÁṈ¸? | ‘What time will you get home?’ |
| EWENE NE SXĆIT. | ‘I don’t know.’ |
| 21.3A. Translate each of the following into English. 1. QIN LE¸ OĆE I¸ ȽÁU¸ TŦE SḴAXE¸? 2. QIN OĆE I¸ IȾEṈ SW̱ HÁLE? 3. QIN OĆE I¸ IȽEN SEN? 4. QIN I¸ NEḴEṈ SW̱? 5. QIN LE¸ OĆE I¸ ȻONEṈET? | 21.3B. Translate each of the following into SENĆOŦEN 1. What time did you see it? 2. What time will he jump? 3. What time do you folks sleep? 4. What time will we walk? 5. What time did they fly? |
| 21.3C. Make up four new questions in SENĆOŦEN asking about time of day. | |