Observation

tshitimu	s/he is lazy	nitshitimin	I am lazy
shikatshu	s/he is cold	apu shikatshit	s/he is not cold

The verbs above have short i stems that disappear when the -u of the 3rd person Independent Indicative Present (the dictionary form) is added. But other forms reveal the i, for example the first person form nitshitimin or the conjunct shikatshit used after the negative particle apu.

EXAMPLES OF AI VERBS WITH SHORT i STEMS

pushu	s/he gets on board	pushi!	get on board!
maushu	s/he picks berries	tshimaushin	you pick berries
innishu	s/he is intelligent	tshitinnishinau	you (pl) are intelligent
mitshu	s/he eats it	tshimitshinan	we eat it
kushtatshu	s/he is afraid	nikushtatshinan	we are afraid
tshimutu	s/he cheats	eka tshimuti!	don’t cheat!
kuashkutu	s/he jumps	kuashkutitau!	let’s jump!
apu	s/he sits	apipan	s/he was sitting
kushpu	s/he goes to the country	nikushpinan	we go to the country
aimu	s/he speaks	aimi!	speak!
tshitimu	s/he is lazy	nitshitimiti	I was lazy

Short i stem verbs can easily be confused with short u stems, because the short vowels are not pronounced [i] or [u], but often as [ǝ]The sound [ǝ] is pronounced like the e in English problem.. The spelling of the verb forms for these stems requires some learning where short u is not pronounced. For example, pushu s/he gets on board gives nipushin I get on board, pronounced [nǝpu∫ǝn], which means it’s a short i stem.

All verb stems are indicated in the dictionary.