At times we may want to apply a verb to someone or something. In English we often say that something happens to or for the person. In Lingala we have the applicative extension –el– that allows us to do this.
Notice some ways we can use this extension:
| nazali kosalela yo | I am serving/doing to you | I am working to you |
| abatelaka bino nyonso | he/she always protects you all | he/she always protects you all |
| ondimelaki Nzambe | you believed in God | you believed to God |
Many verbs can use this applicative extension, and some words in Lingala, like –batel– do not have a form without the applicative extension.
The verb –salel– is derived from –sal– and is used very often in Lingala as it carries the idea of serving someone, as well as working for somebody, or doing something for someone, or doing something to someone.
At times the –el– extension is used to reinforce or emphasize what the verb is doing. For example:
azali kotalela buku
Where –tal– normally means to look, here the –talel– means to look at, or even to examine. This is more than simply looking, but looking to understand. Here the –el– extension helps apply the action to the book.
Look at another use:
Ida ayokelaki mwasi esengo
Here we are saying not that Ida heard or listened to the woman, but with esengo being added at the end (or other similar words) we are showing that Ida felt (another of the meanings of –yok-) towards the woman joy. She could have felt anger or sadness in the same way.
So here the Lingala structure is that first the subject (Ida) takes the action (feel) to the object (woman) and then we describe what that action was. This is common in Lingala and fits with the practice of placing descriptive words after the noun or verb.
In a similar way we could say:
Luis asalelaki bango mabe
Here we mean that Luis did to them bad. We can do this in many other ways using the applicative extension.