Hmong (L1)

English (L2)

Word order

Subject—Verb—Object

But the word order can be moved without case marker

Subject—Verb—Object

Case marker

No

No

Contextual cues

Relies on the cues beyond the word/sentence level

Relies on  the cues within the word and the sentence levels

Agreement

No (e.g., subject-verb agreement)

Subject verb agreement

(e.g., I am xx)

Classifiers

> 50 classifiers

No classifier

Personal pronouns

· Single, Dual, & Plural forms

· The same forms for subjective, objective, and possessive pronouns

· No gender differences

· Single & Plural forms (e.g., I, we)

· Subjective and Objective case (e.g., I, me)

· Gender (he or she for the third person single)

Tense markers

No

Contextual cues (e.g., a word indicating the time and/or an aspect marker, such as lawm [completeness]) are used to indicate when the actions occur.

Yes

(e.g., -ed, or irregular form [e.g., ran])

Aspect markers

Yes

(e.g., tseem indicating ongoing)

Yes

(e.g., -ing attached to the verb indicating the ongoing of the action)

Intensifiers

Yes

(e.g., kiag intensifies an action)

No