* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Negative verbs in other tenses
Modern Hebrew grammar wikipedia , lookup
Lexical semantics wikipedia , lookup
Esperanto grammar wikipedia , lookup
Chinese grammar wikipedia , lookup
Malay grammar wikipedia , lookup
Ukrainian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Scottish Gaelic grammar wikipedia , lookup
Portuguese grammar wikipedia , lookup
Old English grammar wikipedia , lookup
English clause syntax wikipedia , lookup
Germanic strong verb wikipedia , lookup
Udmurt grammar wikipedia , lookup
Lithuanian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Georgian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Ancient Greek grammar wikipedia , lookup
Spanish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Zulu grammar wikipedia , lookup
Kannada grammar wikipedia , lookup
Tense–aspect–mood wikipedia , lookup
Latin syntax wikipedia , lookup
Future tense wikipedia , lookup
Macedonian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Icelandic grammar wikipedia , lookup
Serbo-Croatian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Russian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Hungarian verbs wikipedia , lookup
Swedish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Navajo grammar wikipedia , lookup
Yiddish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Chichewa tenses wikipedia , lookup
Spanish verbs wikipedia , lookup
Grammatical tense wikipedia , lookup
Polish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Negative verbs in other tenses Recall how the three constituent parts of Swahili verbs change for present tense negatives (with the exception of 'be' and 'have' which are irregular in the present tense): 1) +ve (positive) verb prefix → -ve (negative) verb prefix 2) -na- disappears, i.e. there is no tense marker 3) if (and only if) the verb stem ends in -a, this changes to -i Recall also that 1) in fact applies to any negative verb of any tense – and even of any noun class (but other noun classes of course use different verb prefixes). 2) and 3) meanwhile are unique to the present tense negative and no other tense sees any change to the verb stem (though some other tenses change the tense marker – see below) (Monosyllabic verb stems do not require the ku- prefix since the negative verb prefixes are permitted to take stress in their place as penultimate syllables.) Future tense For future tense negatives, there is no change to the tense marker – it remains -ta- – so, in fact, the only difference between +ve and -ve is the change in verb prefix: nitapata – I shall get → sitapata – I shan't get utasoma? – will you study? → hutasoma? – will you not study? tutakuja – we will come → hatutakuja – we won't come Notice that, in the last example, kuja retains the ku- prefix since, as we already know, -ta- is not permitted to take stress. (Hataja is therefore not permitted.) Past tense The past tense sees a change in tense marker for negatives, from -li- to -ku-: walishinda – they succeeded → hawakushinda – they didn't succeed (failed, lost) mlitembea (kwa miguu)? – did you (all) walk? → hamkutembea (kwa miguu)? – did you not walk? alikula nyama – he/she ate meat → hakula nyama – he/she didn't eat meat Notice that, in the last example, kula does drop its ku- infinitive prefix in the negative, but it has effectively been replaced by the -ku- tense marker, which is permitted to take stress in the same way. (Hakukula would certainly be incorrect.) Beware of potential confusion between these ku's. You need to recognise that the ku here is indicating past tense and is not part of a present tense form (which would be hali nyama, as we have seen). (Unfortunately, this is not the last of the ku's which can potentially appear in Swahili verbs!) Questions and statements There are some important points to make here about the differences between questions and statements in Swahili. As you will probably know, there is no difference in word order between the two (which is only sometimes the case in English), so the distinction is made through intonation (the tone of voice with which you say it) and/or by adding je to the beginning (or, sometimes, the end) of the sentence. The upshot of this is that, in all examples of Swahili verbs, on paper, either interpretation is possible (although I usually only give you one). Please do be aware of this. Note, however, that, when using the 2nd person, i.e. when talking about a person/people you are addressing directly, you are far more likely to be asking a question than making a statement (as borne out by the examples above), as the latter might well be presumptuous and/or rude! (Think about it....) Finally, notice also the subtle difference in meaning between when questions are asked in +ve form and when in -ve: mlitembea kwa miguu? is a more open question, genuinely seeking information, whereas hamkutembea kwa miguu? implies an initial expectation that the people being addressed would have walked, and surprise that, in fact, perhaps they didn't (and therefore that this expectation has been confounded).