In terms of morphology, two verb classes can be distinguished for Kham, the transitive and the intransitive. Other sub-classes also exist, like the ditransitive, and two intransitive types – the agentive and patientive – but for which the evidence is mostly syntactic. As such, I will reserve my discussion of syntactically defined classes for chapter 11. Here I will be concerned primarily with the morphology of verbs and any matters of grammar that are directly coded in verbal morphology. This will include person–number agreement, tense–aspect–modality markers, valency increasing–decreasing operators, verb serialization, and dependency markers.

Also included in this chapter will be a discussion of two mutually exclusive arrangements of inflection markers for every verb in Kham. This division of finite verbs into two paradigmatic configurations is a major feature of the language and cuts across every speech act – declarative, imperative, and interrogative. Historically, one of the paradigms is a continuation of the regular, finite paradigm, and the other can be linked to a nominalization. Though the latter form is still used as a nominalization, it also functions as a fully finite, main verb of a clause. The speaker's choice of one paradigmatic form over the other has to do with the pragmatic notions of foregrounding/backgrounding, relative involvement in the speech act, and manipulative strength. Such issues will be discussed in their appropriate chapters, some in chapter 14, and others in chapter 16.