Thursday, January 3, 2013

Verbs in Present Tense, 1st & 2nd Person

These are the first four (and most complete) columns of a much larger table of verb conjugations, here listing the present tense, 1st and 2nd person forms.  As you can see, for many verbs, these conjugations follow a pattern, adding "ura" and "nda" on the imperative (infinitive minus the "ku" or "gu" prefix) for "I" and "you" respectively.  Many verbs also have a "reduced" form -- either "u" or "n" -- which requires an object, whereas the full form can stand alone.  For example, to announce "I love to play" you could say either "ndakunda gukina" or "nkunda gukina" but only by the extended form ("ndakunda" alone) could you make the rather ambiguous statement "I love."

A dash indicates that I have been explicitly told by my teacher that the reduced form does not exist for this verb, typically because the reduced form would be the same as the imperative.   A question mark indicates that I do not know or am not sure what this form would be and need to ask. In the case of "ndatora/?" for example, the reduced form might be "ntora," but I am wary of consonant combinations without the explicit guidance of a native speaker.  Likewise if there is a "w" towards the beginning of the infinitive I'm leaving that alone.  These things tend to confound my English monoglot instincts...



infinitive you (present) I (pres.)
to have kugira urafise/ufise ndafise/mfise
to come kuza uraza/uraje ndaza/--
to go kugenda uragenda/ugenda ndagenda/ngenda
to like gukunda urakunda/ukunda ndakunda/nkunda
to be cold gukanya urakanye/ukanye ndakanye/nkanye
to be hot gushuha urashushe/ushushe ndashushe/nshushe
to want gushaka urashaka/ushaka ndashaka/nshaka
to need ? urakeneye/ukeneye ndakeneye/nkeneye
to say ? uravuze/uvuze ndavuze/nvuze
to work for ? urakorera/ukorera ndakorera/nkorera
to work gukora urakora/ukora ndakora/nkora
to eat kurya urarya/urya ndarya/--
to cook guteka urateka/uteka ndateka/nteka
to sit kwicara uricara/-- ndicara/--
to stand guhaguruka urahaguruka/? ndahaguruka/mhaguruka(?)
to carry / take away / lead gutwara uratwara/utwara ndatwara/ntwara
to be / reside kuba uraba/uba ndaba/nba
to lose / throw away guta urata/uta ndata/nta
to find / pick up gutora uratora/utora ndatora/?
to get lost kuzimira urazimira/uzimira ndazimira/?
to fill up / fill out kwuzuza uruzuza/-- nduzuza/--
to move other kwimura urimura/-- ndimura/--
to move self kwimuka urimuka/-- ndimuka/--
to dress kwambara urambara/? ndambara
to undress kuwambura ? ?
to close kwugara urugara/-- ndugara/--
to bring kuzana ? ?
to write kwandika ? ?
to play gukina ? ?
to do ? ? ?
to carry ? ? ?


No comments:

Post a Comment