Language/Southern-sotho/Grammar/Questions

Southern Sotho Grammar - How to Ask Questions

Hi Southern Sotho learners! 😊
In today's lesson, we will be looking at how to ask questions in Southern Sotho. Asking questions is an important part of communication, and it's essential to understand the rules of grammar when forming questions. We'll look at the different types of questions, as well as the different ways to form them.

Types of Questions

There are two main types of questions in Southern Sotho: yes/no questions and wh-questions.

Yes/no questions are used to ask for a simple yes or no answer. They usually start with a verb, such as "Do you..." or "Can you...". For example:

• Do you understand?
• Can you speak Southern Sotho?

Wh-questions are used to ask for more information. They usually start with a question word, such as "What", "Where", "When", "Why", or "How". For example:

• What is your name?
• Where do you live?
• When did you learn Southern Sotho?
• Why do you want to learn Southern Sotho?
• How long have you been learning Southern Sotho?

Forming Questions

In Southern Sotho, there are two ways to form questions: by using intonation or by using a question word.

Intonation is the rise and fall of your voice when speaking. To form a yes/no question, you can raise your voice at the end of the sentence. For example:

• You understand?
• You can speak Southern Sotho?

To form a wh-question, you can use a question word at the beginning of the sentence. For example:

• What is your name?
• Where do you live?

Summary

In this lesson, we looked at how to ask questions in Southern Sotho. We looked at the two main types of questions: yes/no questions and wh-questions. We also looked at the two ways to form questions: by using intonation or by using a question word.

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If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments section below.
Feel free to edit this wiki page if you think it can be improved. 😎

Related Lessons

• Negation
• Conditional Mood
• Adjectives
• Future Tense
• Plurals
• Pronouns