An important part to learning any language is the ability to learn what new words mean. For Lingala this can be a challenge, as there are few published dictionaries, and many that are fall into two categories: old or incomplete.
As you will have already seen, we have an online dictionary available on this website, which is being updated continually. Understanding how it and other dictionaries work is important for us to make good use of them.
In a Lingala dictionary, it is normal for words to be listed in their singular form. The exception to this is verbs which are normally listed by their root, often with an ‘a’ placed on the end. They often have a hyphen (-) placed before the root.
Let’s demonstrate some examples of this:
| Word to Define | Word to Search |
|---|---|
| nalingi | –linga |
| bato | moto |
| kokufa | –kufa |
| minene | monene |
| moke | moke |
In some electronic dictionaries (online or electronic files) it is possible to search. Using the search feature is the quickest way of finding the word you want to learn.
On this site, you can search for both English and Lingala words, and the system will also try and help with plural forms of words, as well as handle verbs where possible.
Practice using it to help you get more familiar with what it contains.