Language/Wolof/Grammar/Word-Order

Wolof → Grammar → Word Order

As a Wolof language teacher with 20 years of experience, I can confidently say that understanding the basic structure of Wolof sentences and the importance of word order is crucial for any student who wants to learn the language. In this lesson, we'll dive into the word order rules and examine examples that will help you gain a better understanding of how to create proper sentences in Wolof.

Don't miss the chance to check out these pages as you wrap up this lesson: Negation & Nouns.

Basic Sentence Structure

To form a Wolof sentence, you need at least a subject, a verb, and an object. The subject is the person or thing that is performing the action, the verb is the action or occurrence, and the object is the person or thing affected by the action. The word order in a Wolof sentence is SVO (Subject-Verb-Object), but it can vary depending on emphasis or the use of prepositions.

Here is an example sentence in the basic word order:

Wolof	Pronunciation	English
Njaay !! n-jaa-y	I
seen !! seen	saw
mbiru !! mbiru	a goat.

Translation: Njaay seen mbiru (I saw a goat)

In the above example, "Njaay" is the subject, "seen" is the verb, and "mbiru" is the object. The sentence follows the basic SVO word order.

Emphasis and Prepositions

In Wolof, you can change the order of the subject, verb, and object to place emphasis on a certain word. Additionally, prepositions can alter word order to show location, direction, and other nuances of sentence structure. Here are a few examples:

Wolof	Pronunciation	English
Mbiru !! mbiru	A goat
njaay !! n-jaa-y	I
seen !! seen	saw

Translation: Mbiru seen njaay (It was a goat that I saw)

In this example, the word order changes to place emphasis on the "mbiru" (goat) instead of the subject "Njaay." By moving "mbiru" to the beginning of the sentence, it becomes the focus of the sentence.

Here's another example:

Wolof	Pronunciation	English
Mbiru !! mbiru	A goat
faw !! faaw	on (prep)
seen !! seen	saw
njaay !! n-jaa-y	I

Translation: Mbiru faw seen njaay (I saw the goat on the road)

In this example, the preposition "faw" (on) moves the object "mbiru" to the beginning of the sentence, but still maintains the SVO word order.

Negation and Questions

In Wolof, negation and questions also affect word order. The negative particle "mën" usually comes before the verb. In questions, the word order can be inverted, but usually only the subject and the verb switch places.

Here's an example:

Wolof	Pronunciation	English
Njaay !! n-jaa-y	I
seen !! seen	saw
dina mën seen !! dee-na men seen	did not see

Translation: Njaay dina mën seen (I did not see)

In the above example, the negative particle "mën" comes before the verb "seen" to form the negative sentence.

Here's an example of a question:

Wolof	Pronunciation	English
Dinaajuu !! dee-naa-juu	Did
njaay !! n-jaa-y	I
seen !! seen	see

Translation: Dinaajuu njaay seen? (Did I see?)

In this example, the subject "Njaay" and the verb "seen" switch places to form the question.

Conclusion

Understanding Wolof word order is essential to building and forming proper sentences. While the basic SVO word order is standard, emphasis, prepositions, negation, and questions can influence sentence structure. As you continue to learn Wolof, it's important to practice constructing sentences and incorporating these different elements of word order.

Upon wrapping up this lesson, take a look at these related pages: Give your Opinion & Verb Conjugation.

Other Lessons

• Alphabet and Pronunciation
• Simple negation
• Am (to have) in the present tense
• How to Use Be
• Negation
• Conditional Mood
• Nouns
• Gender
• Question Formation

Sources

• Wolof Language - Structure, Writing & Alphabet
• Wolof language - Wikipedia
• The Study of the Wolof Verbal System in Modern Grammar ...