Language/Lingala/Grammar/Personal-pronouns
There are six personal pronouns in Lingala, and they’re used very, very often, so it also helps to learn them.
ngai – (n-GUY) – me, mine
yo – (yoh) – you, yours
ye – (yeah) – him, her, his, hers
biso – (BEE-sew) – we, ours
bino – (BEE-noh) – you, yours (plural)
bango – (BANG-oh) – them, their
The personal pronouns are an important part of most conversations in Lingala, particularly with its streamlined, article-free construction. Unlike subject pronouns, personal pronouns are often used by themselves and you will hear them in almost every sentence.
Personal pronouns usually appear after the subject they refer to. For example, ‘our house’ is ndako na biso – ndako (house) and biso (our). And ‘my fruit’ is mbuma na ngai – mbuma (fruit) and ngai (mine).
You’ll no doubt notice that there is a ‘na’ in each of these sentences. Be patient. We’ll get to that next. For the moment, focus on the order and the rhythm of each of the sentences. It’s a very common construction, and one that you’ll hear over and over.
Here are a few more examples:
mwasi na ngai – mwasi (wife) na ngai (mine) – my wife
mobali na yo – mobali (husband) na yo (you) – your husband
ndeko na ye – ndeko (brother or sister) na ye (his/her) – his or her brother or sister
mosala na biso – mosala (work) na biso (ours) – our work
ndako na bino – ndako (house) na bino (you – plural) – your house
ndunda na bango – ndunda (vegetables) na bango (their) – their vegetables
Consider exploring these related pages after completing this lesson: Present Tense, Verb to be, Regular Verbs & Prepositions.
Source[edit | edit source]
https://lobalingala.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/23042014-loba-lingala.pdf
Videos[edit | edit source]
Lingala in 10 minutes: Personal pronouns and the verb TO BE ...[edit | edit source]
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Create your first simple sentences in the affirmative
- Adjectives
- Verb To Have and To Be
- Conjugation To Have
- Plurals
- The Future Tense To Be
- The Imperative Mood
- Negation
- Irregular verbs – koya – to come
- Present progressive tense
- Past progressive tense
- The subjunctive
- Plural forms
- The Past Tense To Be
- Using infinitive verb forms