Description:

The basic sense of 'u' is movement towards something, and also carries the metaphorical extension of goal or purpose, and of becoming.

The modifier 'u' is a tight binding modifier on its own, where it has a sense of 'become', For example, 'A zoa se an u eotil' means something like 'the sky is getting red', or you could say 'na u eotil zoa', 'the reddening sky'. Forms like this that are commonly used often get fused into a prefix u-' construction, though, as mentioned below - the prefix construction can also be used with terms, especially in a verbal sense.

'U' acts as a loose-binding modifier when it takes an object - the prepositional phrase modifies the head term. It is a much less used form than the corresponding 'to' form in English, because Common tends to use dative expressions without a preposition for destinations, but it might be used to describe the destination of a noun incidental to the purpose of the main verb.

A more common use of 'u' is to introduce the purpose of an action. The purpose is expressed as a dependent clause introduced with 'sin' - these 'u sin' forms mean approximately 'in order to'.

Another important use of u is to introduce the optional patient of a verb in the nominative case in antipassive constructions.

The prefix form u-' is a semi-productive prefix that implies becoming or action towards a goal.