To indicate that something is being done to someone else or being done for someone else, you take the past tense form and add one of the following special “doing for” endings.

You should only use pronouns that indicate animate to animate relationships when using this ending.

  • -ᎡᎭ
    [-e²ha] “is doing for… is doing to… ”

    • -ᎡᎸᎢ
      [-e²lv²³ɂi] “did for… did to… ”

    • -ᎡᎰᎢ
      [-e²ho³ɂi] “habitually does for… habitually does to… ”

    • -Ꮟ
      [-¹si] “let be doing for… let be doing to… ”

      • -ᎡᎵ
        [-e²li] “just did for… just doing to… ”
    • -ᎡᏗ
      [-eh³di] “to do for… to do to… ”

Examples:

  • ᏄᏛᏁᎸᎢ. “He did it.”

    • ᎾᏆᏛᏁᎴᎭ. “He is doing it for me.”

      • Ꮒ + ᎠᎩ + ᎤᏛᏁᎸᎢ + ᎡᎭ.
  • ᏚᏟᏆᏗᏅᏒᎢ. “He turned it over.”

    • ᏙᏓᏣᏟᏆᏗᏅᏎᎵ. “He will turn it over for you.”

      • Ꮧ + Ꮣ + Ꮳ + ᎤᏟᏆᏗᏅᏒᎢ + ᎡᎵ.
  • ᏅᏯ ᎤᎩᏒᎢ. “He got a rock.”

    • ᏅᏯ ᏥᎩᏎᎸᎢ. “I got a rock for him.”

      • Ꮵ + ᎤᎩᏒᎢ + ᎡᎸᎢ.

On some verbs one can add the prefix “Ꮻ-” to indicate “to” as in “towards someone or at someone”.

Example:

  • ᏕᎪᏪᎵᎠ. “He is writing them.”

    • ᏕᎪᏪᎳᏁᎭ. “He is writing them for him.” - ᏕᎪᏪᎳᏅᎢ + ᎡᎭ. (Writing them on his behalf.)

    • ᏫᏗᎪᏪᎳᏁᎭ. “He is writing them to him.” - Ꮻ + ᏕᎪᏪᎳᏅᎢ + ᎡᎭ. (Writing them for him to send to him.)

These endings are also used to indicate “something bad happening by an unspecified actor to people” when used with verbs that indicate or could indicate something negative happening.

Example:

  • ᏓᏆᎴᎳ ᎤᏲᏤ. “The car broke.”

    • ᏓᏆᎴᎳ ᎤᏲᏤᎴ. “The car broke down on him.” - Literally: The car broke for him.

      • ᎤᏲᏨᎢ + ᎡᎸᎢ.

“Cherokee Grammar Applicative Suffix” - Montgomery-Anderson 2008 pp352-.

“Cherokee Grammar Applicative Suffix” - Dr. Wyman Kirk.

“Cherokee Messenger” pp 143-144.