LESSON 47

Word Order

Vocabulary

When kure and hafi are followed by a pronoun, the possessive adjective is used e.g., hafi yanjye - near me. With a noun: hafi y’inzu - near the house.

98. Order of adjectives.

1) You have already learned that the possessive adjective must follow immediately the noun it modifies, no matter how many other adjectives there may be.

2) Also, you have learned that -ndi - other, must precede the noun it modifies, and it removes the initial vowel of the noun. e.g. abandi bantu benshi - many other people.

3) The adjective -ngahe - how many? follows all other adjectives. e.g. abandi bahungu banini bangahe? - how many other big boys?

4) If several descriptive adjectives modify one noun, the order is not important, although in some localities it seems to be preferred that adjectives of quantity, such as -inshi and -ke (keya) come after the other descriptive adjectives. e.g. inka zacu nini nyinshi - our many big cows.

5) The adjective -ose - all, preferably follows other adjectives. e.g. ibiti bye binini byose - all his big trees

6) The numeral adjectives usually follow any other descriptive adjectives, though it is not absolutely essential that they do, e.g. abana be bato babiri - his two small children.

99. A further note about some adjectives. -inshi and -ke (-keya) mean “many” and “few”, but in their singular forms they are used of things which are uncountable or abstract, e.g. ifu nyinshi - much flour; umuyaga myinshi - a strong wind (never say umuyaga munini or mutoya); umunyu mufe - a little salt; kwizera guke - a little faith.

100. Position of adverbs. Most adverbs follow the word they modify, though some prefer to put cyane at the end of the sentence if there are not too many words between it and the verb it modifies. e.g. A good man works hard - Umugabo mwiza arakora cyane. A very good man works - Umugabo mwiza cyane arakora.

Exercises:

I. Translate into English:

1. Kibuye ni kure cyane; banguka kugenda. 2. Izindi mbwa zacu nini ebyiri ziri hafi y’inzu. 3. Umuzungu muremure arabanguka rwose. 4. Tuzajya vuba mu gihugu cya kure cyane. 5. Abahungu beza bose bakora neza mu mirima yabo minini. 6. Umuzungu afite abana bato bangahe? Ni batanu, kandi bose ni beza. 7. Umugabo azana amata meza menshi cyane iminsi yose. 8. Umugabo wanjye aragaruka nimugoroba guhemba abakozi be bose. 9. Abakozi barubaka neza cyane inzu nini y’umwigisha wacu. 10. Dufite udusandugu tunzinya dutanu.

II. Translate into Kinyarwanda:

1. The rich man has very many nice large cows. 2. Put the chair on the floor near my small table. 3. Hurry to go to school; the other boys are there (aho). 4. Perhaps we will receive three other good books soon. 5. Your three little children are over there near the school. 6. Where are all my nice new clothes? They are in your box. 7. There is another long, wide river near our hill. 8. The girls are cooking a few small fish on the stove. 9. Minani’s child has a few more jiggers in his feet. 10. Our wonderful living Savior has much love and mercy.