Language/Lingala/Grammar/The-Past-Tense-To-Be

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

https://lobalingala.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/23042014-loba-lingala.pdf