Lingala

Conjugate Verbs

Facts

  • Language: Lingala
  • Alternate names: Ngala
  • Language code: lin
  • Language family: Niger-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern Bantoid, Bantu, Central-Western Bantu, Greater Bangi-Ntomba, Ngiri, Ngiri Riverain, Ngiri Riverain Ubangi, Ngiri Riverain Ubangi-Ripuaire, Bobangic, Bobangic Riverain, Bobangi-Bangala-Lingala, Lingala-Bangala
  • Number of speakers: 2139202
  • Script: Latin script

More information:

    Introduction

    Lingala is a Bantu language spoken throughout the northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa) and a large part of the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), as well as to some degree in Angola and the Central African Republic.

    Lingala being a tonal language, tone is a distinguishing feature in minimal pairs, e.g.: moto (human being) and motó (head), or kokoma (to write) and kokóma (to arrive). There are two tones possible, the normal one is low and the second one is high.

    Alphabet

    The complete alphabet is as follows:
    a b d e ɛ f g (h) i j k l m n o ɔ p s t u w y

    The accents above vowels indicate the tones :

    The Verb

    Verb tenses consist of a verb radical (R) with prefixes and suffixes. Dictionary lookup form is -R+a.

    Sample verb: -sála

    The numbers below refer to paragraph numbers in the reference cited below. vp indicates pronominal prefix.

    Conjugate other Lingala verbs

    Click verbs to see the tenses above!

    Pronominal prefixes

    Sg.1na-I
    Sg.2o-you
    Sg.3a-he, she
    Sg.3e-it
    Pl.1to-we
    Pl.2bo-you
    Pl.3ba-they (persons)
    Pl.3i-they (things)

    References