IsiZulu Grammar
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Verbs[edit]
- "uyambona"
- "u-ya-m-bon-a"
- he is seeing her
- u - subject morpheme
- ya - tense marker of present tense (the so called "long form")
- m - subject morpheme
- -bona - verb stem consisting of bon - verb root and -a the categorial morpheme[1]
- u-baba u-bon-a um-ntwana
- the father sees the child
- u-baba aka-bon-i um-ntwana
- the father doesn't see the child
- u-baba u-zo-bon-a um-ntwana
- the father will see the child
- zo - nearer future
- u-yo-m-bon-a
- he will see it
- yo - far future
- u-bon-ile
- he saw
- u-m-bon-ile
- he saw it
- wa-bon-a
- he saw it long ago
- aka-m-bon-anga
- he didn't see it
- aka is the negative morpheme for nouns in class 1 (like ubaba)
- aku-zu-m-bon-a
- he will not see it
- ba-ya-bon-ana
- they see each other
- -ana indicates reflexive
Notes[edit]
- ↑ the categorial morpheme is the last part of the verb stem indicating certain grammatical and semantic information
