The semivowel [w] is devoiced (IPA symbol [ʍ]) if the tone rises and the following vowel is [i], [ĩ], [ɨ].

With some infixes or prefixes, /ʔ/ is replaced by /n/ when it is followed by any vowel or /h/ or in nasal [n] suffixes.

The nuclear vowels of nouns, verbs, and adjectives bear tone.

Nukak has two tonemes (minimal pairs exist between them): high (H) and rising (LH).

The high and rising tones occur only in monosyllabic, monomorphemic lexemes.

Adjectives, which are not inflected for grammatical gender, usually follow their head noun.

Case markers include the following: Depending on the noun lexeme, the vocative case is expressed by a tone change; by the suffix -a; or by duplicating the nuclear vowel after the root final consonant.

The connective formative -tɨ expresses either coordination with another noun, i.e., "also", or the clause conjunction, "and".

are expressed with prefixes on the possessed noun: wa "my", ma "your singular", a, "his", mi "her", hi "our", ñi "your plural", i "their".

They combine with various other markers, e.g., case suffixes: the allative de' yúkú "towards where?

Interrogatives combine with tense markers as in jáu' ra' ("due to what?"

Verbs are conjugated with a subject prefix and with suffixes and infixes expressing aspect (continuous, immediate); tense (past, present, future) and mood (imperative, desiderative, interrogative).

For example: The imperative mood is formed by duplicating the last vowel of the verb stem, after the root final consonant or semivowel.

Verbs are nominalized with the suffixes -hát, the abstract idea of the action, -pe' , the affected object, participle.

The verbal link tɨtíma'hî "after" can occur between the subject and the object and verb.

Morphologically, some adverbs are independent words; these can follow nouns, like hattí' "also", "neither", "yet".