Verb stems in Iñupiaq describe actions or states of being. The verb ending tells us who is performing the action.
| Tautuktuŋa | I see. |
In the above word, tautuk- describes the action of seeing and the verb ending ÷tuŋa describes who is seeing.
By using different verb endings we can talk about different people doing the same action:
| Niġiruŋa. | I am eating. |
| Niġirutin. | You are eating. |
| Niġiruq. | He / she is eating. |
| Niġiruguk. | The two of us are eating. |
| Niġirugut. | We (3+) eating. |
| Niġirusik. | The two of you are eating. |
| Niġirusi. | You (3+) are eating. |
| Niġiruk. | The two of them are eating. |
| Niġirut. | They (3+) are eating. |
The verb endings highlighted above in blue can be added to any stem that ends in a vowel. Remember that Iñupiaq has three vowels i, u and a.
If the stem ends in a consonant sound, we change the r that begins each of these verb endings to t:
| Taiguaqtuŋa. | I am reading. |
| Siñiktuq. | He/she is sleeping. |
| Savaktugut. | We (3+) are working. |
Following some stems that end in iq or ik, the t becomes s. (This is because it follows what is called a 'strong i'):
| Qanniksuq. | It is snowing. |
| Aġnaġiksuq. | She is a beautiful woman. |
Following some stems that end in it,the t becomes ch. (This is also because of 'strong i'):
| Maniitchunga. | I have no money. |
| Pigiitchuq. | S/he is evil. |