| nuapamau auen | I see someone |
| nuapaten tshekuan | I see something |
Auen and tshekuan, in the examples above, are indefinite pronouns. Note that they are written the same way as the interrogative pronouns auen who? and tshekuan what?.
Indefinite pronouns indicate that who or what is being talked about is either not specified or unknown. Compare the following two sentences:
| nitaimikuti Mańi utakushit | Mani called me yesterday | |
| nitaimikuti auen utakushit | Someone called me yesterday |
While the pronoun auen applies to animate entities (mainly humans and animals), the pronoun tshekuan applies to inanimate entities (mainly objects). The pronoun auen takes the form auenitshenat in the plural and auenńua in the obviative.
| nuapamau auen | I see someone | |
| nuapamauat auenitshenat | I see people | |
| uapameu auenńua | s/he sees someone’ or ‘s/he sees people |
The pronoun tshekuan becomes tshekuani or tshekuana in the proximate plural. In the obviative, it takes the form tshekuanńu in the singular and tshekuanńua in the plural.
| nuapaten tshekuan | I see something | |
| nuapaten tshekuani/tshekuana | I see things | |
| uapatamᵘ tshekuanńu | s/he sees something | |
| uapatamᵘ tshekuanńua | s/he sees things |
The following table summarizes the forms the indefinite pronouns auen and tshekuan can take:
| Proximate | Obviative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| ANIMATE | auen | auenitshenat | auenńua | |
| INANIMATE | tshekuan | tshekuani tshekuana |
tshekuanńu | tshekuanńua |
The indefinite pronouns auen and tshekuan can also be used as nouns. As in the word matshi-auen devil (literally ‘bad person’) or in nitshekuanim my object, thingamajig. Furthermore, since tshekuan can also be used as a noun, it can take either the plural ending -i of inanimate pronouns, or the plural ending -a of inanimate nouns.
Other Uses
The pronouns auen and tshekuan are used in negative sentences where the meaning can be translated by no one or nothing.
| apu auen tat | there’s no one, nobody | |
| apu tshekuan uapataman | I don’t see anything, I see nothing |
They can also be used with kassinu/mishue and natamikᵘ. As such, they form locutions that can be translated by everyone or everything, and anyone or anything respectively.
| kassinu aueńnua nishtuapamiku | everyone knows him | |
| mishue aueńnua nishtuapamiku | everyone knows him | |
| kassinu tshekuan pikupańu | everything is broken | |
| mishue tshekuan pikupańu | everything is broken | |
| natamikᵘ auenńua aimieu | she speaks to anyone | |
| natamikᵘ tshekuanńu metuatsheu | he plays with anything |