LESSON 45

Verb -zi - to know

Vocabulary

impumyi - blind person	inyota - thirst
umurizo - tail	kumenya - to know, know how
ihembe (5th cl.) - horn (animal)	ko - that (conjunction introducing dependent clause) (see par. 54)

94. Verb -zi, to know, know how. This is another defective verb. It has only present forms, and no infinitive. For its missing parts use kumenya.

Here is the -ra- present of -zi:

Affirmative		Negative
ndazi - I know	turazi - we know	sinzi - I don’t know	ntituzi- we don’t know
urazi - you know	murazi - you know	ntuzi - you don’t know	ntimuzi - you don’t know
arazi - he knows	barazi - they know	ntazi - he doesn’t know	ntibazi - they don’t know

The prefixless present also exists: nzi, uzi, azi, tuzi, muzi, bazi .

95. Now you have learned the three most important defective verbs: -ri, -fite, -zi. Remember to use these whenever possible. Their substitutes: kuba, kugira, kumenya, are to be used only when no suitable form exists of the defective verb.

96. One often hears: ndabizi (I know) or sindabizi (simbizi)- (I don’t know). The “bi” in this word is an object pronoun meaning “it” or”them”, which you will learn later.

Exercises:

I. Translate into English:

: 1. Mbese impumyi izi kugenda mu nzira? 2. Mfite inyota nyinshi, ndashaka amazi meza. 3. Mbese uzi umusaza? 4. Umurizo w’inka ni mugufi nyamara amahembe ni maremare. 5. Umubyeyi we afite inzara n’inyota mu mutima kuko ashaka kumenya Yesu. 6. Ibitabo by’indirimbo biri he? Simbizi. Ahari biri mu ishuli. 7. Subira ku ruzi kuzana amazi menshi. Twese dufite ibyota. 8. Impumyi ifite amaso, nyamara ntibona. 9. Nzi ko Yesu azagaruka. 10. Abana bazamenya gusoma neza yuba.

II. Translate into Kinyarwanda:

: 1. Put all the dishes on the table. 2. The children don’t know the path. J. The blind man cannot see the Word of God, but he can hear and he can know the love of Jesus. 4. I don’t know your name. 5. The blind man feels the tail and horns of the cow. 6. Do you (s.) know how to cook fish? No, I don’t know, but I’ll ask my parent. 7. The teacher is teaching the children a new song. He knows how to sing very well. 8. The goat’s tail and horns are short. 9. Do you (s.) know our hill? It is very high. 10. Our teacher knows many languages.