During the Verb Extravaganza we mentioned a few verbs that took the rehe form, without really explaining what the rehe form is. And I thought, "If I were listening to this podcast, I might have said, 'Well thanks a lot jerk face.'" So, in an effort to not be a jerk face, I’m going to go ahead and explain what rehe is. We’re also going to talk about how it changes when it’s mixed with pronouns.
The tough thing about rehe is that it doesn’t have a very clean-cut definition. Rehe is like the Spanish word por, which still gives me trouble, because it can be translated to so many different little words.
When used with verbs, rehe latches on to the back of the person or thing receiving the verb, a lot like -pe. It can translate to mean you’re doing that verb to a person, about a person, on a person, or because of a person. The best thing to do is just memorize which verbs use it.
Another thing about rehe is that it can be shortened to just re. But for our purposes right now, we’re just going to use rehe.
REHE with Pronouns
One of the uses of rehe is to mean at, as in, to look at. Maña is one of the verbs we went over in the last episode that uses rehe, and it means to look at something, like if you said "I’m looking at Sasha", you would say, Amaña Sasha rehe. Rehe is just kind of like a replacement for pe that you use with a short list of verbs.
Rehe gets a little special when mixed with the pronouns, such as che, nde, and ha’e. This is a pattern we will begin to see with a lot of things. With many cabooses, including -pe, when we mix them with the pronouns, they have a slightly different pattern. And usually, the pattern goes all out of whack when it comes to mixing it with ha’e and ha’ekuéra. Let’s check out how it works with rehe.
Ok, so how about if someone’s looking at me? In this case “at me” would be cherehe. “At you” would be nderehe. So far this list isn’t so crazy, but then we get to looking “at him” or “at her”. This takes a wild turn and is hese, almost nothing like the others in the pattern. So “I look at him” is Che amaña hese. We start with che because I’m doing the verb, then amaña, conjugated to go with the che, and then hese is the “at him.” He is receiving the stare, maybe because he’s hot.
Then we go back to normal. “At just us” is orerehe. “At all of us” is ñanderehe. The you all form, which you’ll remember is peẽ, is a little weird when combined with rehe. It’s penderehe. That pende will replace peẽ in a lot of these patterns where the pronouns are mixed with cabooses. Lastly we have the them form, which is always going to be buddies with the he or she form. When they are weirdos, they are weirdos together. So to say at them is hesekuéra.
Here’s that list again.
Cherehe
Nderehe
Hese
Orerehe
Ñanderehe
Penderehe
Hesekuéra
Let’s practice that list, and then we’ll move on to more verbs that use rehe.
Katie looks at me.
Katie omaña cherehe.
You look at me.
Nde remaña cherehe.
He looks at me.
Ha’e omaña cherehe.
Katie looks at Luis.
Katie omaña Luis rehe.
Katie looks at him.
Katie omaña hese.
I look at them.
Che amaña hesekuéra.
We look at them.
Ore romaña hesekuéra.
They look at us.
Ha’ekuéra omaña orerehe.
They looked at him.
Ha’ekuéra kuri omaña hese.
He looked at them.
Ha’e omaña kuri hesekuéra.
Ok, got it?
More Verbs That Use Rehe
Now we’re going to look at other verbs that use rehe, and how rehe translates in those cases.
When we use rehe with maña, we’re saying that we’re looking at someone. There’s another case where rehe means "at", and that is with the verb "to laugh", as in to laugh at someone. The verb “to laugh” is puka. I might want to say, “Paraguayans laugh at me,” because it happens so often. That would be, Paraguayos opuka cherehe. Or the Paraguayans might want to say, “We laugh at Paulita.” That would be, Japuka Paulita rehe. How would you say, “I laughed at Rosa.” Che apuka Rosa rehe. What does this mean? Ñande japuka hese. “We laughed at him.”
With some verbs, you might use rehe or pe depending on the situation. Let’s look at these examples where rehe can be translated to mean “about.” The first verb we’ll cover is “to talk.”
If I say, “I’m talking to Pamela,” I would say, Che añe’ẽ Pamelápe. But if I want to say “I’m talking about Pamela,” then I would say, Che añe’ẽ Pamela rehe.
You’re going to use this in two instances. You might want to say people are talking nicely about someone or talking badly about someone. So here you would use oñe’ẽ porã to say, to talk well about someone, to compliment them, or maybe to say good things about them. To say talk badly, we’re going to use the opposite of porã, which is vai. Vai means "ugly" or "bad", or, when used after a verb, "badly". So to say "They speak badly of Rossana", it’s Oñe’ẽ vai Rossana rehe.
Another example of when you could use pe or rehe, depending on the situation, is when using “to ask”, porandu. If I ask someone something directly, I would use pe, because I’m asking them, they are directly receiving my question. “I’ll ask Sandra” is Aporanduta Sandrape. But if I ask about Sandra, then the rehe comes in. “I’ll ask about Sandra” is Aporanduta Sandra rehe. This is also used in to ask for someone. If you go to a house and ask for Sandra, they’ll yell to Sandra: Oporandu nderehe! And in some sentences both the -pe and the rehe might be used. “I will ask Vanessa about Oscar” is Aporanduta Vannessape Oscar rehe.
And just a little side note here.
When you want to add on cabooses to ñe’ẽ pora or ñe’ẽ vai, you would add the caboose after the porã or the vai. This goes for all adverbs. Adverbs you’ll remember from middle school, are words that describe verbs. They’re usually marked with an -ly on the end in English. So, for example, if I wanted to say, "They are going to speak well of him," It would be, Oñe’ẽ porãta hese. Or, they spoke well of him, Oñe’ẽ porã kuri hese. Same thing with any other verb with porã or vai. "She is going to clean well" would be Ha’e omopotĩ porãta. Ok, end of side note.
Rehe as "about"
The next verb that uses rehe as “about” is the word for “to think,” when referring to thinking about something. This word is joparaed from the Spanish pensar to become pensa. So to say, “I think about Oscar” is Apensa Oscar rehe. “Who are you thinking about” would be, Mávarehe repensa hína. It sounds weird to put the rehe on the máva until you think about it in correct grammatical form, which would be, “About whom are you thinking?” There the who and the about are together, just like in Guaraní. How would you say, “Are you thinking about Luis?” Nde repensa hína Luis rehe.
Rehe as _
Sometimes rehe doesn’t really have a good translation in English. It just means that this thing is receiving this special verb that needs rehe.
One example is when you want to say that you need someone for a minute. Mateo talked about this in the last episode. Aikotevẽ nderehe is “I need you for a minute.” How would you say, “Rebecca, Susan needs you for a minute.” Rebecca, Susan oikotevẽ nderehe.
Another one is the word for to touch, which is a new vocab word. This word is poko. I remembered this because it sounds like to poke, which is a kind of touching. “Don’t touch my pizza” is Ani repoko che pizza rehe. Can you tell what this means? Máva piko opoko hína cherehe. “Who’s touching me?” That’s a good one for a crowded Paraguayan bus.
One last one that’s like this is another new vocab word which means “to attend to something” or “to mind something”. This is ñatende. If your cell phone is ringing, you might ask someone to answer it, or attend to it, using this word and rehe after the word celular, which is cell phone in Spanish. Eñatendemi che celular rehe. Or if your little sister Suzy is crying, you might tell your mom, Añatendeta Suzy rehe. "I’m going to attend to Suzy." Or if your water is boiling over and someone sees it, they might yell at you, Eñatendeke la y rehe. Watch that water! *Ñatende can also mean to attend to a customer at a store, to pay attention to someone. When I lost something, my host mom told me Eñatendena (my stuff).*
Rehe as "on your person"
Now let’s look at how you can use rehe to mean “on your person” when talking about wearing something or having something on you.
For example, we can use this with the verb, reko, which means "to have". Let’s ask someone if they have some money on them. Let’s say cinco mil, which is the common way of referring to five thousand Guaranies, about enough to get a hamburger and a coke. So, to say, “Do you have five mil on you?”, you would say, Nde rereko 5 mil nderehe. That nderehe means “on you.” “Do you have your cell on you?” would be, Rereko nde celular nderehe. To say, “I’ve got my cell on me,” would be, Areko che celular cherehe.
Or you could say you’re going to wear something, such as a necklace or jewelry, on you. For this you would use the verb gueraha or raha, that verb that means to take or to wear. And let’s use this with the words for clothes, ao. You know how I remember this word? It sounds like "Ow," and when you’re a girl a lot of times your clothes hurt, so you say “Ow!” If I want to say, I’m going to wear these clothes, I would say, Aguerahata ko ao cherehe. To say, “Fred wore this shirt this morning” is Fred ogueraha hese ko ao ko pyhareve. Can you tell what this means: Reguerahata ko ao nderehe ko pyhare. “Are you going to wear these clothes tonight?”
Rehe as "for"
We use this with the word for “to pray”, which is ñembo’e. If you want to say, “I pray for you,” it’s Añembo’e nderehe. “She prays for Miguel” is Oñembo’e Miguel rehe. “She prays for him” is Oñembo’e hese.
And now let’s talk about rehe as it’s used like any ol’ caboose. In these cases, it’s more likely just going to be re, so to get you used to that, we’ll use re in the examples. In many cases, -re like this translates to “for.”
You already use this caboose. It’s tucked in there in the word for why, mba’ére. So what does mba’ére break down to? Mba’e is what, and re is for, so mba’ére breaks down to “for what”, which is another way to say, why?
You might use re to say, I bought this pizza for cinco mil. Let’s break down the sentence. For I bought, we’re going to use the verb jogua, "to buy". Che ajogua. This pizza. ko pizza. For cinco mil. Cinco milre. The “for” gets put on the back, which is weird for us English speakers. Che ajogua ko pizza cinco milre.
To say, “How much did you buy this pizza for?”, It again might make more sense to rearrange it in the grammatically correct way: “For how much did you buy this pizza?” Because here, like in Guaraní, the for is together with the “how much.” In Guarani, you’re going to latch the re onto the word mbóy. You’ll remember that mbóy means “how much” or “how many”. So then “ For how much did you buy this pizza?” is Mbóyre rejogua ra’e ko pizza.
This kind of “for” mean “in exchange for something.” Along these lines you might say, "I paid for this month," for which we’re going to use the Spanish word mes for month. Apaga ko mesre. "He’s going to pay for this month." Opagáta ko mesre. Or, "I already paid for you." You might use this example on a bus. Apagáma nderehe. How would you ask someone, “Could you pay for me?” Ikatu repaga cherehe.
Or you might use “for” as in a length of time. For example, “I’m going to Brazil for two months”. For the two months, you would use the Spanish dos meses. Ahata Brazilpe dos mesre.
This leads us to another thing they say, which is when you want someone else to decide. This translates to “por vos” in Spanish, or “depende de vos.” Like, it depends on you. If someone asks what you want for lunch, you might say, depending on you, which would be nderehe and then they add on a little n-t-e which we’ll cover more later. So it comes out, nderehente. It unfortunately doesn’t have a very clean translation, but what you need to know is that if you want someone else to decide, you would just say to them, nderehente. For example, if someone asks what movie you want to watch, and you want to say, "I don’t know, whatever you want," you could say, Ndaikuaái. Nderehente.
Other uses for Re(he) as a caboose
Re can also means “in”. You would use this to say you saw someone in the street. The word for street is tape. I remembered this because it’s spelled like tape, and from up high a road just looks like a long piece of tape. So to say, "I saw Julia in the street" would be Ahecha Juliape tapére.
Re can also mean "through" or "by way of", as in, “I’ll go by way of this road.” Ahata ko tapére.
One last way you can use re is to mean “with,” when referring to food. As in, "I want to eat Lucky Charms with milk". The word for milk is kamby. With milk, then, is kambýre. Ha’use Lucky Charms kambýre. How would you say, “They ate pizza with cheese.” Ha’ekuéra ho’u pizza kesúre.
Ok, to review, let’s go over verbs that use rehe.
Rehe as “for”
ñembo’e: to pray for someone
Rehe as “at”
maña: to stare at
puka: to laugh at
Rehe as “on”
gueraha: to wear on
reko: to have on you
Rehe as “about”
porandu: to ask about
ñe’ẽ porã/vai: to speak well/badly about
pensa: to think about
Rehe to indicate reception of verb
kotevẽ: to need someone for a moment
ñatende: to attend to something
poko: to touch something
New words
rehe/re: for, about, of, on
vai: ugly or bad
pensa: to think
ñatende: to attend to something
poko: to touch
tape: street
hese: about, to, or for him or her
hesekuéra: about, to or for them
penderehe: about, to or for you all
ao: clothes
Examples:
Oscar, mba’e óra recenase.
Ndaikuaái, nderehénte.
Hmm, apensa hína pizzarehe. Nde re’use,
Héẽ, ha’use pizza kesúre.
Nde recocinata?
Nahániri. Nde.
Bueno.
Oscar, what time do you want to eat dinner?
I don’t know, depends on you.
I’m thinking about pizza. Do you want to eat that?
Yeah, I want to eat pizza with cheese.
Are you going to cook it.
Nope. You are.
Alright.
1. They talk badly about him.
Ha’ekuéra oñe’ẽ vai hese.
2. What are you looking at?
Mba’ére remaña hína?
3. Mariela, I need you for a moment.
Mariela, aikotevẽ nderehe.
4. They laughed at me at school.
Ha’ekuéra opuka cherehe escuelápe.
5. I’m going to stay in Asunción for two months.
Apytata Paraguaýpe dos mesre.
6. Don’t touch my pizza.
Ani repoko che pizza rehe.
7. Please pray for Susan.
Eñembo’emi Susan rehe.
8. I’m thinking about sushi.
Apensa hína sushi rehe.
9. For how much did you buy your cow?
Mbóyre rejogua ra’e nde vaka?
10. Do you have your cell phone on you?
Nde rereko nde celular nderehe?
Now for the Guarani first. With some of these we’re going to practice rehe being shortened to re, so listen up for that.
1. Ani reñe’ẽ vai hese.
Don’t talk badly about him.
2. Agueraháta ko ao cherehe.
I’m going to wear these clothes.
3. Nde vaka oho tapére.
Your cow went in the street.
4. Mba’ére repensa hína?
What are you thinking about?
5. Ha’use pizza kesúre.
I want to eat pizza with cheese.
6. Eñatendemi che celulare.
Answer my cell please.
7. Ha’ekuéra opuka che aóre.
They’re laughing at my clothes.
8. Che érmana opensa hína Juliore.
My sister is thinking about Julio.
9. Aháta escuelápe. Eñatende ne érmanare.
I’m going to school. Watch your sister.
10. Daniel oñe’ẽ porã Tiffanyre.
Daniel speaks well of Tiffany.
More verbs that use rehe if you want to work ahead. My you are studious.
- pena (something/someone) rehe: to pay attention to or to worry about something/someone
- japysaka (something/someone) rehe: to pay attention, listen to or attend to something/someone
- ñangareko (something/someone) rehe: to care for something/someone
- ma'ẽ (something/someone) rehe: to watch or observe something/someone
- mandu'a (something/someone) rehe: to remember something/someone ***this is a chendale, which we'll talk about in Episode 14***
- japo porã (something/someone) rehe: to do someone good, like medicine
- japo vai (something/someone) rehe: to do you bad, like what greasy chicken wings do to your stomach
- menda (something/someone) rehe: to marry something/someone, or, hopefully, just someone
- jeko (something/someone) rehe: to lean on something/someone. This can be used literally, or figuratively, like leaning on someone as in, using all their money
