Language/Lingala/Grammar/The-Past-Tense-To-Be
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The Past Tense: To Be – Learn the Lingala Language
The past tense As with all the other tense formations, the past tense is formed with a combination of the subject pronoun, the root stem and a consistent ending that signals that it’s a past tense form.
To create the past tense of kozala, first drop the ‘ko-’ from the infinitive form and replace it with the appropriate subject pronoun – again, na-, o-, a-, to-, bo-, ba-, e- – and then add ‘-ki’ to the end of the infinitive root.
Lingala | English | ||
---|---|---|---|
na+zala+ki | nazalaki | (nah-ZAH-lah-kee) | I was |
o+zala+ki | ozalaki | (oh-ZAH-lah-kee) | you were |
a+zala+ki | azalaki | (ah-ZAH-lah-kee) | he/she was |
to+zala+ki | tozalaki | (toh-ZAH-lah-kee) | we were |
bo+zala+ki | bozalaki | (boh-ZAH-lah-kee) | you were (plural) |
ba+zala+ki | bazalaki | (bah-ZAH-lah-kee) | they were |
e+zala+ki | ezalaki | (eh-ZAH-lah-kee) | it was |
Somewhat confusingly, Lingala uses the same word for yesterday and tomorrow – lobi (LOH-bee) – so it is important to listen for (or look for, if you’re reading) the distinctive ‘kee’ sound at the end of every past tense verb form.
Source[edit | edit source]
https://lobalingala.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/23042014-loba-lingala.pdf
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- The Future Tense To Be
- Prepositions
- Subject pronouns
- Questions
- Irregular verbs – koya – to come
- Adjectives
- Past progressive tense
- The subjunctive
- Plural forms
- Nouns
- Verb To Have and To Be
- Simple present tense
- Irregular verbs – kokende – to go
- The Imperative Mood