Another extension in Lingala is the –mi– extension, called the Reflexive. This is used for verbs that ‘reflect’ back the action at the one doing it. We do this in English by saying things like: I taught myself, he will see himself, they are helping themselves, etc.
We can do this very simply in Lingala using the reflexive extension. Notice:
| namiteyaki | I taught myself |
| akomimona | he/she will see him/herself |
| bazali komisalisa | they are helping themselves |
You can see that we use the –mi– extension before the root of the verb. This is the only extension that we do this with. All other extensions are placed after the root of the verb. Therefore we write the format of a verb using the reflexive extension this way:
PREFIX + mi + ROOT + SUFFIX
Although we previously spoke (in Lesson 2) about using the a pronoun along with the word moko to create idea of self (so ngai moko means myself), we should not use this to try and replace the reflexive tense in a verb.
Another useful verb that uses the –mi– extension is komipesa, meaning to give yourself, that is to dedicate.