Consider the distinction between the English words ‘see’ and ‘look’, or ‘hear’ and ‘listen’. In these pairs, the first word merely describes a sensation, whereas the second word indicates a deliberate action. Kardii makes this distinction with all five senses. The involuntay verbs, in their noun function, are the stimulus of the sensation:
The voluntary verbs, in their noun function, are the sensory organ:
Where the names for these organs are different for animals, the sensory verb also differs. These animal verbs, however, tend to generalise to all animals:
These words can be turned into insults by using them to talk about people:
There is another set of sensory verbs used to describe a sensation. In their noun function, these words have the same meaning as the involuntary sensory verbs. In their verb function their meaning is either ‘seem like’ (or sound like, smell like, etc.):
These words, when there is no direct object, mean ‘is able to be sensed’:
| Sense | Involuntary | Voluntary | Animal | Seem like |
| Vision | vifi | chay | vise | deja |
| Sound | paasi, rrinka | rruhi’ii | efila | jeline |
| Touch | l’naal | paach | kada | bara |
| Taste | michiithen | kse | ksetari | chema |
| Smell | kaanpri | sith | diami | kishi |