Copula 1: being at

In this post, we look at how to say "I am at home" and "You are at school".

Copula

To be is a copula. You can think of a copula as basically being an equals sign:

I = at the house
We = at church

In English, to be behaves exactly like a verb. In Giriama, it does not.

I am a... or I am at ...

There is not just one way of saying I am in Giriama. In today's post, we will learn how to say I am at ..., and we will come back to I am a ... in the future.

Here are the copulas. Do they look familiar?

ni	sikulini	I am at school.
u	mundani	You(sg) are at a farm
a	muhoni	He/she is at a river
fu	nyumbani	We(excl) are at home
hu	baharini	We(incl) are at the sea
mu	kanisani	You(pl) are at church
ma	mudzini	They are at the village

These copulas are exactly the same as the subject concords.

Exercises

Read the following sentences aloud, then translate them into English:

Ni baharini.
Mu duk'ani.
Fu sikulini.
A mundani.
Ma muhoni.

Translate the following into Giriama:

You are at the river.
They are at work.
We are at church.
She is at the farm.
I am at the house.
He's at school.