doh … dah

This is an introduction to negation in the Navajo language. So far, we have described words that tell you how something is, as opposed to how something isn’t.

Take, for example, “shił yá’át’ééh” (from an earlier word of the day). This means roughly “it is good with me” or “I like it.”

Suppose you didn’t like it, though, in which case you negate that statement with doo .. da. Here’s how it works: “Doo shił yá’át’ééh da” which means “it is not good with me” or “I do not like it.”

This is a very common example. Browse through the archives and see if you can find words and phrases to negate!