One of the most important things to learn about Alutiiq is that it is a language of suffixation. Suffixes, which are added to the ends of words, create new meanings and allow you to build words into sentences. To make an Alutiiq sentence, you cannot simply look up words in the dictionary and string them together. You must know a whole system of suffixes in order to make a proper Alutiiq sentence. This does not mean however, that the average person cannot become aware of the structure of Alutiiq and begin to understand the basics of the language. In fact, our fluent Elders never took a language lesson; their childhood was simply filled with the sounds of Alutiiq, providing them with volumes of linguistic knowledge.

The first thing to know about Alutiiq is that the ending of a noun will usually designate its number. While in English we can tell that duck refers to one and ducks refers to more than one, Alutiiq is more specific. In our language, one duck is saqul'aq, two ducks are saqul'ak, and three or more ducks are saqul'at. The basic pattern is that a single noun will end in q, a dual, or double noun will end in k, and a plural (three or more) noun will end in t (Leer 1990). This is not a hard and fast rule; the singular of land is nuna, and the singular of fish is iqalluk. These exceptions are rare enough, however, that they can be learned.

Another major rule in Alutiiq is that the verb ending will reference the subject. This is something that does not occur in English. In English, if you state, "sitting," nobody would know if you were talking about yourself, an animal, a person, or even a group of people. In Alutiiq, it would be obvious. The verb will reference with its ending whether the subject is single, dual or plural, and if it is first person (I, we two, we all), second person (you, you two, you all), or third person (he/she/it, them two, them all). If you said "Aqum'auq" it could be considered a complete sentence, because the ending refers to the subject: "He, she or it is sitting." Verbs will also designate the tense you are speaking in. In the discussion about sitting, above, the verb was in the present tense. "Aqum'llria," "he/she/it was sitting," would be the past tense form.

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