LESSON 25

Prefixless Present Tense

Vocabulary

kugura - to buy n’ingoga - quickly
kugurisha - to sell vuba - quickly, soon, recently
gusenga - to pray, worship buhoro-buhoro - slowly, softly, so-so (sometimes used in the simple form “buhoro”)
kuqona - to see, find, receive, get kuza - to come
urwandiko (inz-) - letter (missile)

44. Prefixless Present. This is another tense used to express present time. It is not truly “prefixless”, for the personal prefixes are used, the same as for the -ra- present. But the -ra- is omitted. Thus:

nkora - I work dukora - we work
ukora - you work mukora - you work
akora - he works bakora - they work

The negative is the same as that of the -ra- present, see par. 28.

45. Uses of the prefixless present tense.

1. It is used to express habitual present: nsenga Imana - I worship God (regularly). When nothing else follows the verb in the clause, except cyane, the -ra- is retained, even to express habitual action.
2. It must be used for present time in. most dependent clauses, which we will study later.
3. There are times when you will hear it used when you would expect the -ra-present. Observe those by listening carefully, but for the most part follow these rules given here, and those in paragraph 26.

Exercises:

I. Translate into English:

1. Ibantu bagura ibitabo hano. 2. Urashaka iki? Ndashaka amata. J. Mbese mugurisha amagi? 4. Murabona iki? Turabona inzu nziza. 5. Abantu benshi basenga Imana mu rusengero (church). 6. Abana baza buhoro-buhoro mu ishuri. 7. Ndashaka kubona ishuri ryanyu rishya. 8. Abagore baza kugura umuti. 9. Jya vuba kugura inyama. 10. Dukunda gusenga Imana; ifite urukundo rwinshi n’imbabazi.

II. Translate into Kinyarwanda:

1. We like to worship God. 2. The boy is coming slowly. 3. Go quickly to school. The teacher is speaking. 4. Put the books on the chair. 5. Where do you (s.) cultivate? I cultivate in my fields. 6. What are you selling? I’m selling chickens and eggs. 7. The pupils walk slowly; they don’t want to go to school. 8. Bring your (s.) books here. I want to see the words. 9. Go to the river quickly. Bring (some) fish. 10. I like to get letters. Do you get letters?