As can be seen from the examples above, Khmer is an SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) language.
Intransitive Sentences
kʰɲɔm
I
rʊt̚
run
I run
kʰɲɔm
I
dɛɪːc̚
sleep
I sleep
Subjects
pamaʔ
parents
kʰɲɔm
1.sg
ɲam
eat
My parents eat
* pamaʔ is a PP dialect word consisting of paː (“father”) and maʔ (“mother”)
koʊn
children
ɲɔm
1.sg
ɲam
eat
My children eat
cʰkaɛɲɔm
dog
ɲam
1.sg
My dog eats
n(ə)ʔ
you
hət
tired
haʊj
PERF
You are tired
There is no marking or inflection on the head (“parents”) or dependent (“my”) of a possessive noun phrase. Possession is indicated by the juxtaposition of the noun and the pronoun- the possessor follows the possessed noun.
Word order displays the meaning! In the first example, we have “parents, I/me/my, eat”- because of the SVO word order, we know that we are talking about “parents”, not “me”, something like “I eat parents”!!
In these examples, there are no plural markers or inflections. Pamaʔ (“parents”) is lexically plural (the two parts of the word indicate father AND mother), and koʊn means “child” or “children”. Haʊj in this exampleroughly means “already”. As a perfective aspect marker, it means “you did something, and now you are tired”.
Adjectives
koat̚
he
kʰpŭɜh
(being).tall
nah
INT
He is (very) tall
niɜŋ
woman
nih
this.DET
sʔat̚
(being).beautiful
(This woman), she is beautiful
Khmer has stative verbs. Words like kʰpŭɜh (“[being] tall”) and sʔat̚ (“[being] beautiful”) work like intransitive verbs- they don’t take an object. Also, they aren’t used with a copula (“is”) like in English.
Locative
jɘːŋ
we
riɛn
study
nɨw
at.LOC
salaː
school
We study at school
Nɨw is a verb of location- “to be located at”. It precedes the location. The noun phrase (nɨw salaː, “at school”) follows the verb.
Instrumental
jɘːŋ
we
sɘseː
write
ciɛmɜj.nəŋ
with.with
tɘk̚.kʰmaʊ
water.black
We write with a pen
Tense
mᵊsɜləmɨɲ
yesterday
kʰɲɔm
I
tɛʊ
go
ɾiɛn
study
Yesterday I went to school
sʔaɛʔ
tomorrow
kʰɲɔm
I
tɛʊ
go
ɾiɛn
study
Tomorrow I will go to school
Tense is not inflected in these examples. Past and future are shown lexically by the words mᵊsɜləmɨɲ (“yesterday”) and sʔaɛʔ (“tomorrow”).
Passive
poah
snake
sʰi
eat
kəndao
mouse
The snake eats the mouse
kəndao
mouse
trɜɨ
was.subject.to
baːn
was.subject.to
poah
snake
sʰiː
eat
The mouse is eaten by the snake
Trɜɨ baːn is a “compound auxiliary” construction. The verb trɜɨ has a meaning of “unfortunately to be subject to”, while the verb baːn has a meaning of “fortunately”. Combined, they have a meaning of “unfortunately-fortunately”, a neutralizing reading of “O was unfortunately/fortunately subject to S”.
Historically, there was no passive construction in Khmer (Khmer language).
