Language/Lingala/Grammar/Irregular-verbs-–-koya-–-to-come

Irregular verbs – koya – to come – Learn the Lingala Language

And, just like London buses, when one irregular verb arrives, so do several more. Only in this case, you’ll need them all. And they’ll be more reliable. And it won’t involve a jobsworth driver who doesn’t care that you didn’t have time to buy a ticket or that you really can’t move any further down the bus.

Anyway, the next irregular verb you’ll need to know is koya (to come). This is where it gets really minimalist.

For the present tense form of koya, drop the ‘ko-’ at the beginning as normal. And then drop the ‘-a’ at the end. This leaves just ‘-y-‘, which isn’t much. Now add the appropriate subject pronoun – na-, o-, a-, etc. – at the beginning as usual. And then, and here’s the tricky part for koya, you add an ‘-e’ at the end. Crazy, I know.

na+y+e – naye – (nah-YEH-ee) – I come o+y+e – oye – (oh-YEH-ee) – you come a+y+e – aye – (ah-YEH-ee) – he/she comes to+y+e – toye – (toh-YEH-ee) – we come bo+y+e – boye – (boh-YEH-ee) – you come (plural) ba+y+e – baye – (bah-YEH-ee) – they come e+y+e – eye – (eh-YEH-ee) – it comes

Fortunately, the conjugations for the past and future tenses revert back to the regular verb system.

For the past tense, follow the regular approach, dropping the ‘ko-‘ as usual, leaving a root of ‘-ya’. Now add the appropriate subject pronoun and ‘-ki’ at the end.

• na+ya+ki – nayaki – (nah-YAH-kee) – I came
• o+ya+ki – oyaki – (oh-YAH-kee) – you came
• a+ya+ki – ayaki – (ah-YAH-kee) – he/she came
• to+ya+ki – toyaki – (toh-YAH-kee) – we came
• bo+ya-ki – boyaki – (boh-YAH-kee) – you came (plural)
• ba+ya+ki – bayaki – (bah-YAH-kee) – they came
• e+ya+ki – eyaki – (eh-YAH-kee) – it came

For the future, simply add the appropriate subject pronoun to the infinitive.

• na+koya – nakoya – I will come
• o+koya – okoya – you will come
• a+koya – akoya – he/she will come
• to+koya – tokoya – we will come
• bo+koya – bokoya – you will come (plural)
• ba+koya – bakoya – they will come
• e+koya – ekoya – it will come

But koya refuses to come quietly, and it’s the only verb I’ve come across in which the imperative doesn’t follow the usual model. Unlike every other verb, koya receives an ending – ‘-ka’ – that sets it apart. No one has really ever been able to explain it to me, but I suspect it’s to avoid having ya, the imperative, getting mixed up with ya, the conjunction.

So, the imperative form of koya is ko-ya+ka – yaka! (YAH-kah) – come!

Take some time to dive into these other pages after completing this lesson: Present Tense, Verb to be, The first 10 words & Regular Verbs.

Source

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

Other Lessons

• Verb to be
• The Past Tense To Be
• Gender
• Using infinitive verb forms
• Negation
• Verb To Have and To Be
• Questions
• Adjectives
• The Imperative Mood
• Past progressive tense
• Present progressive tense
• Create simple sentences in the negative
• Irregular verbs – kokende – to go
• The First 10 Verbs
• Conditional Mood