Let's have a look at all the verbs we learned so far:
| Regular Verbs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Kupenda | to love / like | ||
| Kuogopa | to be afraid | ||
| Kutembea | to walk | ||
| Kuruka | to fly / to jump | ||
| Kuogelea | to swim | ||
| Kuishi | to live | ||
| Kuwinda | to hunt |
| Irregular Verbs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kula | to eat | + ku - for positive present tense | ||
| Kunywa | to drink | + ku - for positive present tense | ||
| Kuwa | to be(come) | special forms | ||
| Kuwa na | to have | special forms |
Let's start with the regular conjugation for present tense. This is just a repetition of things you already know...
Ku-penda = to love
Ku- is the infinitive marker. For the regular verbs we take the 'ku-' of and replace it with the Person marker.
What remains of our verb, if we take the 'ku-' of is the root ( here: -penda). It is the part which carries the actual meaning of the verb.
| Person | Person marker | Time marker | Root | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First person | Ni - | - na - | - penda | I love |
| Second person | U - | - na - | - penda | You love |
| Third person | A - | - na - | - penda | He / She loves |
| First person pl | Tu - | - na - | - penda | We love |
| Second person pl | M - | - na - | - penda | You love |
| Third person pl | Wa - | - na - | - penda | They love |
to switch to another verb we simply have to replace the root part.
Let's say 'to swim': kuogelea
ku- is the infinitive marker; -ogelea is the root:
So in the table above we simply replace '-penda' with '-ogelea'
- Nina - penda - I love
- Nina - ogelea - I swim
and so on...
We have encountered the Future Tense as well in the last lesson.
To form the Future Tense we simply exchange the present tense marker -na- with the future tense marker -ta-.
- Ni - na - penda - I love
- Ni - ta - penda - I will love
- A - na - tembea - He walks
- A - ta - tembea - He will walk
- M - na - ogelea - You (pl) swim
- M - ta - ogelea - You (pl) will swim
We also saw the if / when - clause .
Again we replace the time marker with a different syllable: - ki -
- Ni - na - tembea - I walk
- Ni - ki - tembea - If I walk / When I walk
- Wa - na - ogelea - They swim
- Wa - ki - ogelea - If they swim / when they swim
So far so good, but now let's get into a negative mood. :)
Present Tense:
- The person marker changes :
- The present tense marker disappears.
- If the last letter of the root is 'a' it changes to 'i'.
- * before a vowel 'ham' takes an additional 'w' → 'hamw-' e.g. hamwogopi
| mi | → si | |
| u | add 'h' | → hu |
| a | add 'h' | → ha |
| tu | add 'ha' | → hatu |
| m | add 'ha' | → ham* |
| wa | add 'ha' | → hawa |
| Ni - | - na - | - pend - a |
| ↓ | X | - pend - ↓ |
| si - | - pend - i |
| U - | - na - | - ogele - a |
| ↓ | X | - ogele - ↓ |
| Hu - | - ogele - i |
| M - | - na - | - ish - i |
| ↓ | X | - ish - i |
| Ham +w- | - ish - i |
Now just remain the irregular verbs.
Kula and kunywa keep the infinitive marker 'ku-' in the positive presentm however they drop it for the negation. Otherwise they follow the same pattern as above.
| Nina-ku-la I eat | Si-li I don't eat |
| Nina-ku-nywa I drink | Si-nywi I don't drink |
| Future tense | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ni-ta-kula | I will eat | ||
| U-ta-kula | You will eat | ||
| A-ta-kunywa | He will drink | ||
| Tu-ta-kunywa | We will drink |
| if / when | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ni-ki-la | if I eat | ||
| u-ki-la | if you eat | ||
| M-ki- nywa | if you (pl) drink | ||
| Wa-ki-nywa | if they drink |
'kuwa - to be(come)' and 'kuwa na - to have' have theit oz forms.
'kuwa' just uses to forms for the present tense:
- ni - am / is / are
- si - am not / is not / are not
'kuwa na' uses the person markers followed by 'na' for the present tense:
| Person marker | root | |
|---|---|---|
| I have | Ni- | -na |
| You have | U- | -na |
| He has | A- | -na |
| We have | Tu- | -na |
| You have | M- | -na |
| They have | Wa- | -na |
The future tense forms are very similar for both verbs:
| kuna - to be | Person marker | time marker | root | kuna na - to have | Person marker | time marker | root |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I will be | Ni- | -ta- | -kuna | I will have | Ni- | -ta- | -kuna na |
| You will be | U- | -ta- | -kuna | You will have | U- | -ta- | -kuna na |
| He will be | A- | -ta- | -kuna | He will have | A- | -ta- | -kuna na |
| We will be | Tu- | -ta- | -kuna | We will have | Tu- | -ta- | -kuna na |
| You will be | M- | -ta- | -kuna | You will have | M- | -ta- | -kuna na |
| They will be | Wa- | -ta- | -kuna | They will have | Wa- | -ta- | -kuna na |
And finally our if - forms
| Person marker | mood marker | root | |
|---|---|---|---|
| If I am | Ni- | -ki- | -wa |
| If you are | U- | -ki- | -wa |
| If he is | A- | -ki- | -wa |
| If we are | Tu- | -ki- | -wa |
| If you are | M- | -ki- | -wa |
| If they are | Wa- | -ki- | -wa |
| Person marker | mood marker | root | |
|---|---|---|---|
| If I have | Ni- | -ki- | -wa na |
| If you have | U- | -ki- | -wa na |
| If he has | A- | -ki- | -wa na |
| If we have | Tu- | -ki- | -wa na |
| If you have | M- | -ki- | -wa na |
| If they have | Wa- | -ki- | -wa na |
Ufffh ! I promise we are done:) Let's have some sentences:
Oooooh, one last thing: Did you notice the pattern: 'if tense → future tense' - (if... → then...) ?
Nikila, nitakunywa pia. - If I eat I, I will drink, too.
Nikila samaki, nitakunywa maji. - If I eat fish, I will drink water.
kwenda - to go ( the 'w' works the same way as the 'u' in 'ku-')
Ukienda baharini, utatembea juu ya mchanga. - When you go to the sea, you will walk on the sand.
Tukienda baharini, tutaogelea. - When we go to the sea, we will swim.
Ukiogelea baharini, utaogopa papa. - When you swim in the sea, you will be afraid of sharks.
Akiwinda papa, atakula papa huyu. - If he hunts a shark, he will eat this shark.
kila kitu - everything
Wakipenda kambakoche, watakula kila kitu. - If they like lobster, they will eat everything.
Shakwe wakiruka juu ya bahari, watawinda samaki na kaa. - When the seagulls fly over the sea they will hunt for fish and crabs.
Pomboo anaruka nje ya maji. - The dolphin jumps out of the water.
pia - also / too
Pomboo wakiogelea baharini, pia wataruka nje ya maji. - When the dolphins swim in the sea, they also jump out of the water.
Shakwe wakiwinda kaa, pia watawinda konokono wa baharini. - When the seagulls hunt for crabs, they also hunt for sea snails.
Watu wakikula kambakoche, pia watapenda chaza. - If people eat lobsters, they also like oysters.