New Words       

da  ဒါ  this (near me)   

èh-da  အဲဒါ  that (near you)   

  Sentences     

  Da saq-thălà?  ဒါ စပ်သလား။  Is this hot to taste? 

  Da è-dhălà?  ဒါ အေးသလား။  Is this cold? 

  Èh-da zè cì-dhălà?  အဲဒါ ဈေး*ကြီးသလား။  Is that expensive? 

  Èh-da caiq-pa-deh?  အဲဒါ ကြိုက်ပါတယ်။  I like that one. 

Notes 

Word order. Notice that in sentences like Èh-da caiq-pa-deh Burmese word order is the opposite of English. In English you say “I like that one”, but in Burmese you say “That one I like”. The rule is that in Burmese all verbs come at the end of the sentence. We noticed the same rule with theiq in Lesson 1.6. 

This and that. There is no clear-cut boundary between da and èh-da: don’t be surprised if we sometimes translate da as “that” and èh-da as “this”. The boundary is equally vague in English: compare (a) “The date: this is what I want to discuss” with (b) “The date: that is what I want to discuss”. 

This and that. There is no clear-cut boundary between da and èh-da: don’t be surprised if we sometimes translate da as “that” and èh-da as “this”. The boundary is equally vague in English: compare (a) “The date: this is what I want to discuss” with (b) “The date: that is what I want to discuss”. 

Other words for “this” and “that”: see the Topical Vocabulary for “this, that and what”.