Hi John and group,

>
>
>One suggestion:
>> 3.I went into a house to bring an umbrella and a cloth.
>> aha.m / gacchi.m / geha.m / aaharitu.m / chatta.m / ca / vattha.m
>> Aha.m chatta.m vattha.m ca aaharitu.m geha.m gacchi.m.
>
>'geha.m gacchi.m' would be 'I went TO the house', whereas I think it
>would be better to use the verb 'pavisati = enter, go in' in this
>sentence. Thus 'geha.m pavisi.m', I think, if I've got that aorist
>form correct.
>

That sounds right to me too, nice catch. About the aorist, I believe that both pavisi.m and paavisi.m are correct alternatives. As you know, there's an optional 'augment' short /a/ that can be prefixed to aorists. If there's another prefix the augment goes between it and the root. pa+/a/+vis+i.m. (Ven Pandita: _Verbal Endings and Conjugated Verbs_ p. 5.)

The example provided by Ven Pandita there displays a common sandhi that can disquise the augment and make the basic form of the verb difficult to guess. After the prefix /pati/ the augment /a/ leads to pacca. pati+a > patya > pacca. The common form paccassosu.m (they assented) is a case of this. pa.tissu.naati is the present tense form which you can look up in the PED. In the aorist this goes to pa.ti + a + (s)so + su.m > pacca+sso+su.m. (note: su > so, as per Pandita page 32). Luckily this aorist is so common that the PED has special entry for it that refers back to the main entry.

So a good rule of thumb for beginners is: when you see /pacca/, consider the possibility of pati+a (or pa.ti + a).

Of course this combination can arise in other ways, such as paccate/paccati, the passive of pacati 'cooks'. Here it's the passive marker /ya/ that causes the sandhi. pac + ya + ti/te > paccati, paccate.

best regards,

/Rett