Lesson 62

Months, Days of Week, Telling Time.

Vocabulary

125. Months. This is formed by the word for “month” with the ordinal numeral.

There are other Kinyarwanda names for the months, which you can find in a dictionary or on a calendar. You should try to learn them as well, as they are used a great deal. Dates are usually given like this:

itariki ya makumyabiri na gatatu y’ukwezi kwa kane - April 23 or, ku itariki ya … (on such and such a date).

126. The days of the week are formed in the same way, using the agreement for “day”,. Note that Sunday is different:

ku cyumweru - Sunday

ku wa mbere - Monday

ku wa kabiri - Tuesday

ku wa gatatu - Wednesday etc.

127. Telling Time. In Kinyarwanda they have names for the various times of the day; such as, “the time when the birds begin to sing,” “the time when the cows go to pasture,” etc. But for common use the Swahili word for “hour” (saa, or,isaa) is used. However, it is to be remembered that the day begins with daylight, rather than at midnight. Also, usually the Swahili numerals are used as well. A helpful clue to figuring the hour is that if by English time the number of the hour is 6 or less, add 6 to it; if the number is 7 or more, subtract 6 from it, Thus, 6:00 (English) (6 + 6 = 12) is: saa cumi n’ebyiri. 4:00 (English) (4 + 6 = 10) saa kumi.

In some areas they prefer the Kinyarwanda form to the Swahili, thus: 7:00 - isha imwe 8:00 - isaha ebyiri

Observe that in those cases the agreement of the numeral is 3rd cl. plural.

When the word isaha is used for”hours” (duration) or for “clocks”, the regular Kinyarwanda words are used, with 3rd class singular, 5th plural. 9:00 - saa tatu, three hours - amasaha atatu, three clocks - amasaha atatu

If you wish to indicate that the time is at night, you could say: saa ine za nijoro - 10:00 at night (or, saa ine ya nijoro).

For the fractions of hours, see the following:

9:10 - saa tatu n’iminota cumi, 9:10 - saa tatu n’igice

9:50 - saa ine ibuze iminota cumi (i.e. 10:00 lacking ten minutes).

Exercises:

I. Translate into English:

1. Abashyitsi bazaza ino mu kwezi k’umunani. 2. Waraye he ku wa kane? 3. Nari ahandi ibyumweru bitatu, nyamara nagarutse ku wa mbere. 4. Wasibye mu ishuri ku wa kabiri. Wari he? 5. Abandi bazungu bazaza mu Rwanda mu kwezi kwa gatandatu. 6. Ku itariki ya makumyabiri na karindwi y’ukwezi kwa cyenda tuzasubira mu ishuri. 7. Muzatangira imirimo saa mbili ibuze iminota cumi n’itanu. 8. Abashyitsi bacu bamaze ino igice cy’ukwezi. 9. Abakozi batashye saa kumi n’ebyiri za nimugoroba. 10. Abajura batwibye ku itariki ya cumi n’icyenda mu kwezi kwa karindwi. Hari ku munsi wa gatandatu.

II. Translate into Kinyarwanda:

1. Did you come to church Sunday? I didn’t see you. 2. The pupils will return to school in October. 3. Four guests came Thursday and stayed five days. 4. On the 14th day of January we went to see the doctor, but he was not at home. 5. We wanted to go to Butare Wednesday, but rain fell the whole day. We will go tomorrow at 8:00. 6. On Sunday they start to sing at 9:30. 7. My friends are coming at 10:00 at night. 8. You (pl.) were absent a whole week in March. How many days did you spend at Kigali? 9. It is 2:15. Go to school quickly. 10. The masons worked six hours on Friday.