Auxiliary Verbs
Tigrinya has a complex set of possibilities for expressing tense and aspect distinctions . Besides the simple perfect, imperfect, and gerundive, other possibilities consist of combinations of these three with different auxiliary verbs — the copula (እዩ ’ǝyyu, etc.), the present of the verb of existence (ኣሎ ’allo, etc.), the verb ነበረ näbärä 'live, be', the verb ኮነ konä 'become, be', and the verb ጸንሔ s'änḥe 'stay' — and sometimes with particular conjunctive prefixes such as kǝ-. In most cases both the auxiliary verb and the main verb are conjugated. Some of the more common patterns are the following:
- imperfect + copula
- The usual present tense for emotion and sense verbs: እፈትዋ እየ ’ǝfätwa ’ǝyyä 'I like her'.
- imperfect + näbärä
- Corresponds to the English past progressive: ንሰቲ ነበርና nǝsätti näbärna 'we were drinking'.
- gerundive + present of verb of existence or copula
- Corresponds to the English present perfect: መጺኣ ኣላ mäs'i’a ’alla 'she has come'.
- gerundive + näbärä
- Corresponds to the English past perfect: ከይዶም ነበሩ käydom näbäru 'they (m.) had gone'
- imperfect + present verb of existence
- Corresponds to English present progressive: ይጻወታ ኣለዋ yǝs's'awäta ’alläwa 'they (f.) are playing'. (Note how this differs from the corresponding form in Amharic, which is the normal main clause present tense.)
- kǝ- + imperfect + copula
- The usual future tense: ክዕድጎ እየ kǝ‘ǝddǝgo ’ǝyyä 'I'm going to buy it'
Read more about this topic: Tigrinya Verbs
Famous quotes containing the word verbs:
“He crafted his writing and loved listening to those tiny explosions when the active brutality of verbs in revolution raced into sweet established nouns to send marching across the page a newly commissioned army of words-on-maneuvers, all decorated in loops, frets, and arrowlike flourishes.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)