See also “Able to… ” and “Able to if”.

For negative conditional ability, take the Immediate Tense stem and add “Ꮭ” and use prefix “ᏴᎦ-”

Note: ᏴᎦ combines with an ᎢᏥ to become ᏴᎨᏥ, combines other Ꭲ’s to become ᏴᎦ-, combines with an Ꭰ sound to become ᏴᎬ-, and combines with an Ꭴ sound to become ᏴᎫ-.

Examples:

• Ꮭ ᏴᎦᏥᏁᎩ “I cannot speak.” “I cannot speak if… ”

• Ꮭ ᏴᎦᎯᏁᎩ “You cannot speak.” “You cannot speak if… ”

• Ꮭ ᏴᎬᏂᏁᎩ “They cannot speak.” “They cannot speak if… ”

While “Ꮭ” is commonly used with this prefix combination, its use is not required.

Cherokee Messenger (CM), pg 111