Tenses 1: na

Today, we are going to learn how to include tenses with our verbs - to talk about things that happened in the past, are currently happening, or will happen in the future, as well as things that usually happen.

Revision

First, translate the following words into English:

udza
hudima
niona
mugula
ashoma
mashoma
fuenda
nidima
ugula
aenda

If you struggled, go back to subject concords and revise before carrying on.

Tenses in Giriama

To express tense or aspect (roughly, time and completeness) of actions in Giriama, you use a tense marker in between the subject and the verb. This is the same as in Swahili.

This is similar to English:

I have read

I am reading

I will read

Today, we will look at the tense marker -na-.

Na - Present continuous tense

Read the following aloud:

ni-na-gula	I am buying
ni-na-shoma	I am reading
ni-na-ona	I am seeing
ni-na-dza	I am coming

Look again at the examples for ni- in subject concords. Compare the English translations. What does adding -na- give us?

Consider it, and read the following aloud:

a-na-dza	he is coming
ma-na-gula	they are buying
a-na-shoma	she is reading
ma-na-ona	they are seeing

-na- is the present continuous.
The simple tenseless verb we've used before expresses habitual actions, as it does in English: I go (usually), I buy bananas (often), I read (on Mondays)...
The present continuous expresses a current, ongoing action: I am going (as we speak), I am buying bananas (at the moment), I am reading an interesting book (but haven't yet finished it).

-enda, go

For the verb ku-enda, to go, the continuous prefix becomes n-:

ninenda
unenda
anenda
funenda
hunenda
munenda
manenda

kuenda is the only verb which I have seen examples of like this. In Tenses 2, we will see that it is part of a set of verbs which do not like preceding vowels - perhaps they all do this. But it is a small set! So for now, just remember ninenda is I am going.

Examples with fu and hu

Read the following aloud. Which examples include the person you are speaking to?

fu-na-dza	we are coming
hu-na-ona	we are seeing
fu-n-enda	we are going
fu-na-shoma	we are reading
hu-na-gula	we are buying

1, 3 and 4 did not include the listener: fu is exclusive. 2 and 4 did include the listener: hu is inclusive.

Examples with Swahili translations

For the final set of examples, I have included a Swahili translation. What similarities can you see between Swahili and Giriama? Which parts are completely different?

anenda	she is going	anakwenda
anadza	he is coming	anakuja
managula	they are buying	wananunua
anashoma	she is reading	anasoma
manaona	they are seeing	wanaona