Language/Lingala/Grammar/Present-Tense

THE SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE OF FULL VERBS

Full verbs are very different to the verb "to be", the good news is that they are easy to conjugate as well. They all use the suffix "ka" when conjugated.

Lingala subject pronouns

Let's review the Lingala subject pronouns first!

• Ngai > Na/I
• Yo > O/You
• Ye > A/He and She
• Biso > To/We
• Bino > Bo/You(plural)
• Bango> Ba/They

In the infinitive form every lingala verb has got the prefix "ko". To conjugate a full verb in the simple present tense, we replace it with the corresponding pronoun and add the suffix "ka" to the steem of the verb on the right.

Here are some examples.

To speak > Koloba

To speak > Koloba (the steem is 'loba')

• Nalobaka lingala > I speak Lingala.
• Olobaka kikongo na lingala > You speak Kikongo and Lingala.
• Alobaka mingi > He/she speaks too much.
• Tolobaka minoko mingi > We speak many languages.
• Boloboka minoko misato > You speak three languages.
• Balobaka falanse > They speak French.

Practice

Practice the following verbs by following the pattern above:

• Kolia (Eat),
• Komona (See),
• Kokende (go),
• Koya (come),
• Kotanga (Read and Study),
• Koyekola (Learn),
• Koyeba (Know),
• Kopesa (Give),
• Kozua (Take),
• Kobenga (Call).