One of the most common forms of verbs that are used, especially between parents and children, are those that are commands. Many of these commands are in the imperative form. A parent might say ‘Come here!’ or ‘Listen!’ or ‘Go to your room.’ In Lingala we can do the same. Notice some examples:
| Lingala | English |
|---|---|
| lobá yango | say it |
| teyá bango | teach them |
| pesá ngai yango | give me it |
In these examples we can see simple commands or statements. These contain no subject, that is they have no prefix, and they usually contain an object. In imperative verbs, the subject of the verb is assumed. If mum says, “Give it me!” we assume that it’s the mum speaking to the child.
These imperatives are formed in this way:
ROOT + á
Notice we don’t have a prefix. The final ‘a’ has an accent over it showing that we stress that vowel (that is, the last syllable).
However, the above form works for only imperatives when addressing an individual, not a group of people. In Lingala, groups of people addressed with an imperative command (plural imperatives we could say) contain the prefix that we have learned before:
| Lingala | English |
|---|---|