bihain, bihainim
English: ‘behind’.
Strictly bihain should be reserved for expressions of time. However, as Mihalic’s original entry shows, it is used by some speakers for ‘at the back of’. This is viewed as incorrect, and expressions like baksait long haus are to be preferred over bihain long haus and the like.
A second oddity of Mihalic’s entry is his note that bihaintaim does not mean ‘the future’ but ‘late’. In modern usage, at least, bihaintaim does mean the ‘the future’.
See first Mihalic entry. See second Mihalic entry.
Modifier forms
afterwards, later, in the future
bihain bai em i kam he will arrive later
taim bihain the future
But note: bihaintaim = late!
after (as a conjunction), when
bihain em i kam, em bai i tokim mipela after he has arrived, he will tell us
to follow, to come after
ol i bihain long em they followed him
Obsolete: late, last ® las2
de bihain tru doomsday, the last day
em i kam bihain long skul he came late to school
man bilong bihain tru the last man
Transitive verb forms
to follow, to pursue
ol raskol bihainim em rascals followed him
to copy, imitate, act like
bihainim aksen bilong to copy the actions of
meri sindaun gut na bihainim gutpela pasin the woman has settled down and is behaving well
no ken bihainim pasin bilong pikinini! don’t act like a child!
to obey, follow instructions etc
bihainim lo bilong gavman to follow the law
bihainim maus bilong mi! do what say!
Verb phrase forms
bihainim lek mak to track
em i bihainim lek mak bilong muruk he tracked the cassowary
© Revising the Mihalic Project, 26 Jan 2005 [Home]