Language/Lingala/Grammar/Create-your-first-simple-sentences-in-the-affirmative

Create your first simple sentences in the affirmative – Learn the Lingala Language

By now you should be starting to see and feel a rhythm to basic conjugation patterns. As you continue to practice, and to add more verbs and vocabulary as we’ll do later in this section, you’ll become increasingly comfortable with creating the simple sentences necessary to start speaking Lingala in more and more situations.

Using the verb structures of the 10 starter verbs outlined above, we’ll now combine them with the 10 starter words from the first section.

Again, by way of review, here are the 10 starter verbs:

10 starter verbs

• kozala – to be

• kozala na – to have

• kolinga – to want, to like

• kosala – to work, to make

• kosomba – to buy

• kokanisa – to think, to hope

• koloba – to speak

• koyeba – to know

• kokoka – to be able to

• kosengela – to have to

10 starter words

And here are the 10 starter words:

• mwasi – wife/woman

• mobali – husband/man

• ndeko – brother/sister

• ndako – house

• mosala – work

• mbuma – fruit

• ndunda – vegetables

• mayi – water

• malamu – good

• mabe – bad

Subject pronouns

And, because you’ll need to use the subject and personal pronouns and prepositions to tie everything together, here they are again:

The subject pronouns:

• na – (nah) – I

• o – (oh) – you

• a – (ah) – he/she

• to – (toh) – we

• bo – (boh) – you (plural)

• ba – (bah) – they

• e – (eh) – it

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns:

• ngai – me, mine

• yo – you, yours

• ye – him/her, his/hers

• biso – we, ours

• bino – you, yours (plural)

• bango – them, their

Prepositions

And the prepositions:

• na – and, on, in, of

• ya – of

Helper words

And, finally, the helper words:

• boye – (BOY-eh) – so, thus

• ebele – (eh-BEL-eh) – many, a lot

• eh – (eh) – yes

• kasi – (KAH-see) – but

• moke – (moh-KAY) – few, little

• pe – (peh) – and

• po na nini – (poh nah NEE-nee) – why

• soki – (SOH-kee) – if

• tango mosusu – (TANG-goh moh-SOO-soo) – maybe

• te – (teh) – no

• to – (toh) – or

• po – (poh) – because

Put things together

Let’s start putting things together. To say ‘I speak Lingala’, you’ll need ‘I speak’ from the correctly conjugated form of the verb koloba – which is nalobi. And, of course, the word ‘Lingala’. In this case, the sentence structure is very straightforward and the same as the English construction:

• Nalobi Lingala. – I speak Lingala.

To say ‘I spoke Lingala’, simply change the present form of koloba for the past tense:

• Nalobaki Lingala. – I spoke Lingala.

To say ‘I will speak Lingala,’ switch from the past to the future tense:

• Nakoloba Lingala. – I will speak Lingala.

And, for the imperative:

• Loba Lingala! – Speak Lingala!

Let’s try another. To say ‘I buy vegetables’, you’ll need ‘I buy’ from the conjugated form of the verb kosomba, in this case nasombi. And the word for vegetables, which is ndunda. Again, the sentence structure is very straightforward and the same as the English construction:

• Nasombi ndunda. – I buy vegetables.

To say, ‘I bought vegetables’, you simply change the present for the past tense of kosomba: Nasombaki ndunda. – I bought vegetables. And similarly, to say that you are going to buy vegetables, switch the past for the future tense:

• Nakosomba ndunda. – I will buy vegetables.

If you want to be really pushy about, you can use the imperative to demand that someone buy vegetables:

• Somba ndunda! – Buy vegetables!

Source

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