Your Very First steps in Chichewa - Combination of subject (personal pronoun or noun) and verb in the sentence |
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a) personal pronoun and verb
Personal pronouns proper are: ine, iwe, iye, ife, inu, iwo. In combination with verbs they become pre-fixes that look differently.
ndikupita (I am going) ukuyimba (you are singing) akusewera (he/she is playing) mukuyankhula (you are talking) tikuba (we are stealing) akumanga (they are building)
personal pronouns proper can be added for emphasis.
Ine ndikupita Iwo akumanga
b) noun and verb
The noun and the verb are coordinated: the prefix belonging to the noun is repeated as prefix of the verb.
Amuna akuyimba (The men are singing) Chipatso chikugwa (The fruit is falling)
How do we know the prefix that should be used?
In all Bantu languages, including Chichewa (or Chinyanja) the nouns are divided into a number of classes. Each class has its own rule for making a noun plural, which means that the nouns of each class have their own distinctive prefix. Here are some examples:
class of persons etc. mwamuna - amuna (man - men) mwamuna akuyimba - amuna akuyimba mnyamata - anyamata (boy - boys) mnyamata akuyimba - anyamata akuyimba mtsikana - atsikana (girl - girls) mtsikana akuyimba - atsikana akuyimba munthu - anthu (person - persons)
chi-zi class chipatso - zipatso (fruit - fruits) chipatso chikugwa - zipatso zikugwa chithunzi - zithunzi (photo - photo's) chithunzi chikugwa - zithunzi zikugwa
i-zi class ng'ombe - ng'ombe (cow-cows) ng'ombe ikuyenda - ng'ombe zikuyenda nyumba - nyumba (house-houses) nyumba ikugwa - nyumba zikugwa nyimbo - nyimbo (song-songs) nyimbo ikuyimbidwa - nyimbo zikuyimbidwa (-yimbidwa = to be sung) nkhuku - nkhuku (hen-hens) nkhuku ikukonda mpunga - nkhuku zikukonda mpunga (-konda = to love; mpunga = rice) ndime - ndime (verse-verses) njinga - njinga (bicycle-bicycles)
li-ma class tsiku- masiku (day-days) tsiku ikuyamba - masiku akuyamba (-yamba = to begin) galimoto - magalimoto (car-cars) dziko - maiko (country-countries)
u-i class mpando - mipando (chair-chairs) mpando ukugwa - mipando ikugwa mpingo - mipingo (church-churches) mwendo - miyendo (leg-legs) moyo - miyoyo (life - lives)
ku-class kuyimba (singing) kuyimba kukuyamba
Assignment: This is a text from the Bible, John 3: 16. Look at every word, write down its meaning and grammatical definition:
‘Mulungu amakonda dziko la pansi kotero, kuti anapatsa Mwana wake wobadwa yekha, kuti yense wakhulupirira Iye asatayike, koma akhale nao moyo wosatha’.
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