LESSON 76

Possessive Adjectives

Vocabulary

153. See the tables at the end of the lesson.

In par. 6 you learned that the possessive adjective is made up of two parts: the first part agrees with the thing possessed and the last part with the possessor. However, all the possessive adjectives you have learned thus far have been when the possessor was a person. But other things may possess, e.g. referring to a cow, one might say “its tail” - umurizo wayo. Here, wa agrees with umurizo (thing possessed), and yo agrees with inka (possessor). It is especially important to remember this when speaking of God. The word Imana is third class. Thus, His word would not be ijambo rye, but ijambo ryayo.

154. The vowel in the first part of the word is always a, and in the second part always o, except when the possessor is a person (which forms you have already learned).

155. An easy rule to help you remember these forms is that the first part, agreeing with the object owned, is the possessive particle, and the second part, agreeing with the possessor, is the possessive particle with a changed to o. Do not be frightened by the number of forms given in the accompanying table. If you follow this rule given here it will not be difficult.

For this lesson, study especially the first four columns of the table on the following page (that is, the first four classes) before doing the following exercises.

Exercises:

I. Translate into English:

1. Kabonye ingwe; amenyo yayo ni manini. 2. Hariya hari igiti kirekire; imizi yacyo ni myinshi cyane. 3. Imana ikunda abantu bayo; imbabazi zayo ni nyinshi. 4. Igicucu gifite inkwavu, ariko rumwe mu nkwavu zacyo rurapfuye. 5. Mbona impumyi; numva amajwi yazo. 6. Murumuna wa Petero yaguze intebe nshya. Amaguru yayo arakomeye cyane. 7. Urugi rw’inzu yacu ni ruto, kandi ibyuma byarwo birapfuye. 8. Hari inyamaswa mu ishyamba, twabonye imitwe yazo. 9. Ndababaye kubona igicucu; amagorwa yacyo ni myinshi cyane. 10. Nkunda cyane igihugu cyanyu; imisozi yacyo n’ibiti byacyo ni byiza cyane.

II. Translate into Kinyarwanda:

1. We have many chickens; their legs are short. 2. My older brother (of boy) has a very good cow; its horns are long. 3. God is able to defeat Satan; His strength is very great. (“strength” should be plural, and for “great” use “much”.) 4. The foolish man has very few clothes, and his hair is long. 5. The fire is big (much); its light helps us to see to read. 6. Your rabbit is very nice; its body is big. 7. Did you (pl.) see our big dog? Its tail is short, but its eyes are very big. 8. The young men have their spears because they are going to the forest. 9. John’s father built a new house; its rooms are large and it is very strong. 10. There is a lot of corn in our garden; its roots are very short.

Explanation for use of above table: You will note that there are four forms for each class: for example, in 1st class there are: we, wabo, be, babo. This is because: 1) the thing may be singular and the possessor singular: umwana we; 2) the thing may be singular and the possessor plural: umwana wabo; 3) the thing may be plural and the possessor singular: abana be; 4) the thing may be plural and the possessor plural: abana babo.

Let us take a word of another class, for example, to help you to understand the use of these forms. Suppose we wish to talk about the “roots of trees.” Root - umuzi is second class, while tree - igiti is fourth. Remember the first part of the word agrees with the thing possessed and the last part with the possessor. When we say “its root”, the tree is the possessor and the root the thing possessed. Now note: 1) umuzi wacyo - its root (1 tree and 1 root); 2) umuzi wabyo - their root (trees plural but 1 root); 3) imizi yacyo - its roots (1 tree, but roots plural); 4) imizi yabyo - their roots (trees and roots both plural) .