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A Concise Malagasy Grammar.
ADVERBS.
In the Malagasy language adverbs, especially those of place and time, are numerous.
- A. But adverbs of quality or manner are few, their place being supplied—
- 1. by adjectives; as, mihìra tsàra, 'to sing well'. A more common and very useful idiom, is the reversal of this phrase, the adjective still keeping its adjectival force, while the verb is exchanged for a relative noun in the 'limiting accusative' case; as, tsàra-fihìra, 'good as regards the manner of singing'.
- 2. by prepositional phrases or compound prepositions. These are formed by joining an- as a prefix to root-nouns, as an-dràriny, 'justly'; to abstract nouns, as an-kafetsèna (from fètsy) , 'cunningly'; to relative nouns, as àm-pifehèzana (from fèhy), 'with authority, authoritatively'; to verbal nouns in -ana, as àn-tsivalànana (from vàlana), 'crossways'; to active verbs in the future tense, as àn-kamàndrika (from fàndrika), 'with a view to entrap', 'deceitfully'.
- 3. by verbs; as, apètraka mìtsivàlana, 'placed crossways'.
