Language/Lingala/Grammar/The-present-tense-To-be

The present tense – Learn the Lingala Language

To conjugate Lingala verbs in the present tense (I am, you are, he/she is, etc.), first drop the ‘ko-’ at the front of the infinitive form.

For kozala (to be), this leaves ‘-zala’.

Next, drop the ‘-a’ at the end.

With kozala, now without the ‘ko-’ or ‘-a’, this leaves ‘-zal-‘

Now add the appropriate pronoun – na-, o-, a-, to-, bo-, ba-, e- – for what you are trying to say. And then add an ‘i’ at the end.

• na+zal +i – nazali – (nah-ZAH-lee) – I am

• o+zal +i – ozali – (oh-ZAH-lee) – you are

• a+zal+i – azali – (ah-ZAH-lee) – he/she is

• to+zal+i – tozali – (toh-ZAH-lee) – we are

• bo+zal+i – bozali – (boh-ZAH-lee) – you are (plural)

• ba+zal+i – bazali – (bah-ZAH-lee) – they are

• e+zal+i – ezali – (eh-ZAH-lee) – it is

Source

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

Related Lessons

• Past progressive tense
• The First 10 Verbs
• Plural forms
• The Imperative Mood
• The first 10 words
• Irregular verbs – kokende – to go
• Simple present tense
• Conjugation To Have
• Prepositions
• The subjunctive
• Irregular verbs – koya – to come
• Using infinitive verb forms
• Verb To Have and To Be
• Plurals