 Instead, they must be preceded by the Nawat verb "-chiwa" 'make, do' to form compound expressions, e.g., from Spanish "escribir" 'write' we have Nawat "nikchiwa escribir" (contracted to "nikcha escribir") 'I write' (literally 'I do "escribir' "), "tikchiwket" or "tikchijket escribir" 'we wrote' (lit.