[Conjugation] Present Tense I

In this post, we’re gonna see how to conjugate in Ciluba. I chose here a few common verbs.

Kwikala être/to be	Kunwà boire/to drink	Kudyà manger/to eat	Kulààla dormir/to sleep
ndi je suis udi tu es ùdi il/elle/on est kudi nous sommes nudi vous êtes badi ils/elles sont	ndi nwà je bois udi unwà tu bois ùdi unwà il/elle/on boit tudi tunwà nous buvons nudi nunwà vous buvez badi badwà ils/elles boivent	ndi ndyà je mange udi udyà tu manges ùdi udyà il/elle/on mange tudi tudyà nous mangeons nudi nudyà vous mangez badi badyà ils/elles mangent	ndi ndààla je dors udi ulààla tu dors ùdi ulààla il/elle/on dort tudi tulààla nous dormons nudi nulààla vous dormez badi balààla ils/elles dorment

I am not gonna show the verb “to have” as it is the same as “to be”. In Ciluba, “to have” is translated as “to be with”, therefore, all you have to do is add the preposition “with”  or “nè” in Ciluba to transform “to be”, kwikala, into “to have”, kwikala ne.

Mema ndi mukaji: I am a woman
Ndi nè mukanda: I have a book
Ndi nè mutu: I have a headache

As a general rule, when you have the infinitive form of a verb, for examples kudyà, kunwà, all you have to do to conjugate it is to drop the infinitive prefix ku- and keep the verb stem -dyà, -nwà, then add the personal pronoun according to want you want to say:

n- => ndi = I (am)
u- => udi = you (are)
u- => ùdi = she/he (is)
tu- => tudi = we (are)
nu- => nudi = you (are)
ba- => badi = they (are)

Of course, it wouldn’t be fun if there wasn’t any exceptions. Kwikala is one (it is a special verb that is also used as auxiliary and its conjugated form is also used as personal pronouns). We’ll check them out as we go. Note that in the dictionaries you will often find the verb stem as the entry. It makes sense, I believe, otherwise there would be thousands of words under “ku-” and nothing in the other sections… 🙂

N.B.: verbs of which stem starts with L transform NL into ND at the first person of singular, to ease pronunciation.

-lààla -> ndi ndààla -> I sleep
-lela -> ndi ndela -> I give birth
-lekela -> ndi ndekela -> I leave

Check out the second part

Post a comment if you have any question…

Part II | Part III