Lesson 12

Verb -ri

Vocabulary

ingoma - drum, throne	he? or hehe? - where? (used only in questions)
imbuto - seed, plant, fruit	hano - here
intama - sheep	hariya - over there
hari - there is, there are (like French il y a)

19. Verb -ri. In par. 5 we learned that ni and si are used for “is”, “are” and the negative of these words, but that in certain circumstances these words cannot be used. In many instances (in fact, whenever possible), -ri is used whenever ni and si cannot be, such as with words of place, but not for state of being, in the 3rd person, except in dependent clauses.

Here is the present conjugation of -ri:

ndi - I am (n + ri = ndi)	turi - we are
uri - you are (sing.)	muri - you are (pl.)
ari - he (she) is	bari - they are

The bold portion is the verb prefix. In the third person, you remember that arakora is he is working, and barakora is they are working. These prefixes for the third person will change to agree with the class of the subject of that verb. Here are the forms for the classes studied thus far:

	Sing.	Plur.
Class 1	ari	bari
Class 2	uri	iri
Class 3	iri	ziri

These prefixes are used for all verbs. Be sure you know them. From now on the verb prefixes of each class will be introduced with that class.

: e.g. Imana iravuga - God is speaking
: Ihene ziragenda - the goats are walking
: Ufite imbuto - you have seeds

-ri is a defective verb, that is, it lacks certain parts. It has no infinitive and only a few tenses. The missing forms are provided by the verb kuba - to be, become, live (in a certain place). Hari is a form of -ri.

Note: Observe the sentence order when using he?. It is always at the end of the sentence or clause.

Ihene zawe hiri he?
(goats your are where?)	Where are your goats?

Exercises:

I. Translate into English

: 1. Abahungu bari mu nzu. 2. Umwigisha ari he? 3. Uri he? Ndi hano. 4. Inka zawe ziri hariya. 5. Umwigisha afite ingoma nini nyinshi. 6. Inka n’ihene n’intama ziri mu murima w’umwigisha. 7. Ingoma ziri he? Ziri hairya mu nzu nto. 8. Hari umwotsi hariya ku musozi. 9. Ihene iri mu murima. 10. Imana irakokra mu mitima y’abantu.

II. Translate into Kinyarwanda.

: 1. Where are your (pl.) goats? 2. (the goats) They are at our place. (do not translate “the goats”, it is given to show agreement.) 3, Where are the old man’s gardens? 4, The man’s many sheep are over there. 5. Where is your (s.) new house? It is over there on the hill. 6. Where are you(pl.)? We are here at home. 7. There are many plants in the garden. 8. The child has a goat. 9. The girl has a sack of flour on (her) head. 10. The boys and girls are in the teacher’s house.