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A Concise Malagasy Grammar.
are used in asking alternative questions only; as, handèha và ìzy, sà (or, fà) tsìa? 'will they go, or not'?
- 3. Adversative: fà, but; nèfa, kandrèfa, anèfa, kanèfa, yet; kànjo, however, but, nevertheless; saìngy (or, sàngy), but (only sometimes); kànjo implies the reverse of one's expectation; saìngy sometimes means but; as, saiky nàhavìta izàny ìzy, saìngy tsỳ mbòla vìta, 'he was merely able to finish that, but it is not yet done'.
- 4. Conditional: ràha, nòny (with present or future), if; nòny tsỳ, had it not been for, but for, (literally, 'if not', like the Latin nisi.)
- 5. Causal: fà, for, because (reason); nà dìa—àza, although (concession); satrìa, because (cause); saìngy, since, seeing that.
- 6. Declarative: fà, nò, that.
- Fà is used after verbs of telling, believing, hoping, &c., to introduce the noun-sentence or statement, like our English conjunction that.
- Nò is used to express the reason, in the following way: gàga àho nò tsỳ tònga ìzy, 'I am surprised that he has not come'.
- 7. Inferential: dìa, àry, then, therefore. In this sense àry is never placed at the beginning of a sentence. Thus, andèha àry isìka, 'let us therefore go'; but àry andèha isìka, 'and we go'.
