Nouns are words that designate people, places, things, and abstract concepts like feelings and qualities. For example, ishkueu woman, utapan vehicle, mitshuap house, pishimu sun, shatshitun love.

Verbs are words that designate actions, occurrences, or states of being. For example, pimuteu s/he walks, tshimuan it’s raining, minuashu it’s beautiful, nice.

Nouns and verbs sometimes take similar inflections, but they are usually different. For example, the noun ishkueu becomes nitishkuem to mean my wife. The verb atusseu s/he works becomes nitatussen I work or apu atusseian I don’t work.