LESSON 52
Rules for Past Endings
Vocabulary
| umusore - young man (unmarried) |
inkumi - young lady (unmarried) |
| ingurube - pig |
kuvura (ye) - to treat (sickness), to doctor |
| umuganga - doctor |
kwa - to (before name of person as doctor, teacher, etc.) |
105. In forming the past stems there are certain rules to go by, but
as stated before, there are many irregularities.
Here in the first column are the final syllables of present stems;
in the second column are the forms to which these stems regularly change
for the past; in the third column are examples.
| -ba |
-bye |
guhemba -hembye, kureba -rebye |
| -da, ga |
-ze |
gukunda -kunze, kuvuga -vuze |
| -ha |
-shye |
kwubaha -ubashye |
| -ka |
-tse |
guteka -tetse |
| -ma |
-mye |
gusoma -somye |
| -na |
-nye, nnye |
kubona -bonye, gukena -kennye |
| -nya |
-ntje (sometimes -nye) |
kugabanya -gabanije, kumenya -menye |
| -ra |
(see note par. 106) |
|
| -sa |
-she |
kumesa -meshe |
| -ta |
-se (sometimes -she) |
gukubita -kubise, gufata -fashe |
| -sha |
-shije, -sheje, -hije,-heje |
kwigisha -igishije, kunesha -nesheje |
| -shya |
-shije, -sheje, -hije,-heje |
gushyushya -shyuhije, kureshya -resheje |
| -za |
-je, -jije, -jeje |
kuza -je, gukiza -kijije, kweza -ejeje |
Note: A clue to determine whether the past suffix will contain i
or e can be found in the A I U rule, paragraph 157.
106. There are several things that may happen to the suffix -ra.
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1. In stems of two syllatles, when the first of these is long, the
-ra changes to -rye. e.g. rutera -teye
kuvura -vuye
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2. In stems of two syllables, when the first of these is short, the
-ra changes to -ze. e.g. kugura -guze kurira -rize gushyira
-shyize
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3. In stems of more than two syllables the -ra changes to -ye,
if, the preceding syllable is short. e.g. kwinjira -injiye, kubabarira
-babariye
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4. Words of more than two syllables which end in -ora or -era
(a long vowel) often have their past stem in -iriye or -ereye.
gusinzira -sinziriye, kurorera -rorereye. However, the
vowel that is long in the present stem becomes short in the past.
Note: Verbs of one syllable stem follow no regular rule. All present
stems end in a, except those of defective verbs, and all past
stems end in e.
Exercises:
I. Translate into English:
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1. Abakobwa bashatse kujya kwa muganga kuko azi kuvura. 2. Twabaze
abasore n’inkumi; hari abasore cumi na batatu n’inkumi
cumi n’ebyiri. 3. Abasore banyoye amazi mu ruzi. 4. Abakobwa
babangutse cyane kugera hano uyu munsi. 5. Umujura yafashe intama eshatu.
6. Abantu benshi baje ku muganga kuko avura indwara nyinshi. 7. Umwana
yarize kuko umubyeyi we yamushutse (mu = him). 8. Mbese mwageze mu
rusengero ryari? Twageze mu rusengero mu gitondo. 9. Abana basinziriye
neza mu ijoro ryose. 10. Abigisha bafashije abana gukora iki? Bafashije
abana gusoma.
II. Translate into Kinyarwanda: (Do not try to find a word for “did”
- that is just the English way of making a question past.)
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1. The doctor treated many people today; he knows much wisdom. (This
soUnds queer in English, but is the way it is expressed in Kinyarwanda.)
2. I put the seeds in the box. Where are they now? 3. Did you (pl.)
see the teacher’s books? 4. Did you (s.) read the whole book
of John today? 5. Jesus saved many people because they prayed (to)
God. 6. We knew that you (pl.) came because we saw the children. 7.
The thief deceived the rich man and took his things at (in) night.
8. The young man wanted to go with his friend. 9. The girls washed
their clothes in the river. 10. The women cooked a lot of (many) corn
and sweet potatoes.