_’Ellough why cowsa Kernûak_? Can you speak Cornish?
_Gellam_ or _mî ellam_. I can (yes). _Ni ellam_, or (less correctly) _nag ellam_, I cannot (no).
_A vednough why dôs genev vî_? Will you come with me?
_Mednav_. I will (yes). _Ni vednav_. I will not (no).
_A wrîg ev môs dhô Benzans_? Did he go to Penzance?
_Thoma_. I am. _Nynsov_, or _nynsoma_, or (less correctly), _nag ov_. I am not.
In the case of a negative interrogative sentence the verb is immediately preceded by _na_=_nî_ + _a_, whether it begins the sentence or is itself preceded by an interrogative conjunction. Thus:—
_Fraga na wrîsta crejy_? Why didst thou not believe?
§ 3. Dependent Sentences or Subordinate Clauses.
1. Those introduced by conjunctions, such as _if_, _that_, _as_, etc., or by a relative pronoun.
2. Those analogous to the “accusative with the infinitive” of Latin.
1. The ordinary dependent clause introduced by a conjunction has its verb in the indicative, unless the so-called subjunctive is required to express uncertainty or contingency, without reference to any preceding conjunction. The verb is always in the simple inflected or inflected auxiliary form. The verb which follows the conjunction _mar_ or _mara_, if, has its initial in the fourth state, and _tre_, _tro_, or _dro_, that, governs the second state.
A dependent sentence may sometimes precede its principal sentence, as in English. A very good instance of two sorts of dependent clauses may be seen in the following sentence from Boson’s _Nebbaz Gerriau_. The English is:—
“If that learned wise man [John Keigwin] should see this [i.e. this essay], he would find reason to correct it in orthography, etc.”
Boson’s Cornish, the spelling and division of words assimilated to that of the present grammar, is:—
_Mar qwressa an dên deskes fîr-na gwelas hemma_, If should [do] that man learned wise see this, _ev a venja cavos fraga e ewna en scrîfa-composter_. he would find why it to amend in writing-correctness.
In this sentence _qwressa_ is for _gwressa_ (third person singular of the conditional or pluperfect of the auxiliary _gwîl_, to do), with the initial in its fourth state after _mar_. Boson writes it _markressa_, all in one word. _Fraga e ewna_ is an example of a variant of the second form of dependent sentence. The principal verb _ev a venja cavos_ is in the impersonal auxiliary form, and of the two dependent clause verbs, one, _qwressa an dên deskes fîr-na gwelas_, is in the inflected auxiliary form, and the other, _ewna_, is infinitive.