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Basic Numbers

1 moko1st ya liboso (or ya yambo)
2 mibale2nd ya mibale
3 misato3rd ya misato
4 minei4thya minei
5 mitano5thya mitano
6 motoba6th ya motoba
7 nsambo7th ya nsambo
8 mwambe8th ya mwambe
9 libwa9th ya libwa
10 zomi10thya zomi

We have in the list above the first ten numbers in Lingala. Along with that we also have a list of ordinal numbers. In English ordinal numbers would be first (1st), second (2nd), etc. Notice that Lingala creates ordinal numbers by adding the word ya before the number.

But what about counting higher than ten? Lingala’s way of counting beyond ten is consistent. Notice the next ten numbers, as well as a few sample numbers beyond twenty. Ordinals continue to work exactly the same as they do in the table above, though we won’t list all of them here.

11zomi na moko21ntuku mibale na moko
12zomi na mibale22 ntuku mibale na mibale
13zomi na misato30 ntuku misato
14zomi na minei31ntuku na moko
15zomi na mitano40ntuku minei
16zomi na motoba50ntuku mitano
17zomi na nsambo60ntuku motoba
18 zomi na mwambe70ntuku nsambo
19 zomi na libwa80ntuku mwambe
20 ntuku mibale90ntuku libwa

When counting from eleven to nineteen, we use zomi plus the word na (with) and then one of the numbers from one to nine. For example: eleven is zomi na moko.

When we reach twenty, instead of using the word zomi, we replace it with ntuku. This word means the same as ten, but is then used to help count the higher numbers. We do this by using ntuku and then one of the numbers from one to nine. So twenty is ntuku mibale, thirty is ntuku misato. Numbers beyond twenty are created in the same was as we did earlier with eleven to nineteen. We say ntuku mibale na moko to mean twenty one.

This principle continues onward with higher numbers. More information on this can be found in the Advanced Numbers article.

Note: While Lingala numbers are used, most Lingala speakers will use French numbers once they reach four or five in Lingala. Knowing the Lingala numbers is useful as some written books and magazines use them. However expect most Lingala speakers to use French, so learning French numbers as well is also very useful to a Lingala learner.

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Present ( -i )

Verbs in Lingala fall into two categories. Verbs that describe the state of something, and those that don’t. A verb describing the state of something is describing what it is, rather than what it is doing. In some cases a verb can be used to do both of those things.

For example, notice the following verbs that show the state of something:

kolingato like, wantnalingiI want
komonato seetomoniwe see
kosepelato enjoyosepeliyou enjoy
koyebato knowayebihe/she knows
kozalato be/existbazalithey are

Notice those words describe the state of something right now. For those verbs the present tense is formed by:

PREFIX + ROOT + i

However, the vast majority of verbs in Lingala do not describe the state of something. So how can we create the present tense? In most cases we use the verb –zal– to help us do that. Look at the following examples:

kokufato dienazali kokufaI am to die (dying)
kolobato speak/talktozali kolobawe are speaking
kopesato giveazali kopesahe/she is giving
kosalato do/workbozali kosalayou (plural) are working
kotangato read/countbazali kotangathey are reading
koteyato teachezali koteyait is teaching

Here we are use a form of the verb –zal– along with the infinitive of the verb we are describing to create the sense of something that is happening now. So we can write this structure as:

PREFIX + zal + i ko + ROOT + a

In this way we create most present tenses forms of verbs in Lingala. For the other verbs that express state, many times they can be used in a similar way to express the idea of the verb that is the state of the object or subject while also adding the another verb as the related action. Look at this example:

nalingi kotanga

Here we use –ling– to express the idea that the person wants to do something, and the infinitive verb kotanga tells us what. So we have the idea of I want to read. There are many more ways we can use these words that express state, but we will look at them in a later lesson.

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Infinitive ( ko- )

We learned in previous lessons a number of verbs. So far we have learned how to use a verb to say what something is or is doing now. But verbs can be used to describe a lot more than what is happening now. In this section we will learn about the infinitive form of a verb.

LingalaEnglishLingala ExpressionEnglish Expression
kokufato diempo na kokufafor to die
kolingato like, wantkolinga ngaito like me
kolobato speak/talkkoloba yangoto speak it
komonato seekomona bangoto see them
kopesato givekopesa yoto give you
kosalato do/workkosala yangoto do it
kosepelato enjoykosepela yangoto enjoy it
kotangato read/countkotanga mpo na binoto read for you (plural)
koteyato teachkoteya yo mokoto teach yourself
koyebato knowkoyeba bisoto know us
kozalato be/existkozala teto not exist

We can see that the middle of the words contains the root of the verbs we’ve learned. We also see that each one is translated as to do something. In short, an infinitive verb is to do the action of the verb, but is not confined to a specific time, such as the past or future. Therefore we cannot say that the verb acts as a present continuous tense, i.e. I am doing.

An infinitive verb is formed by using the prefix ko– in the following way:

ko + ROOT + a

We also can use the infinitive of the verb to help construct the present tense for most verbs as we will now discuss.

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The Verb ‘to have’

LingalaEnglish
nazali naI have
ozali nayou have (singular)
azali nahe/she has

In Lingala the idea of having something is constructed slightly different to English. Notice that we have the word
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na added to the three words we learned in part a. This small word in Lingala can have many meanings or uses. Notice what some of those are:

of
from
to
between
in
with

This means that we can use the word na in place of so many of the prepositions we use in English. However, the absolute meaning of na is with. Understanding that can help us to see some of the character of Lingala as we progress in learning the language.

So, in the three words we had at the start of this part, we really can translate the na as with, meaning that nazali na literally means I am with. So as an example if we were with a pen, then we would in effect have or possess the pen. So the word na implies ownership or control of something.

LingalaEnglish
ezali na it has
tozali na we have
bozali na you have (plural)
bazali na they have (people)
ezali na they have (objects)

We complete the word list for to have, adding the inanimate it and the plural forms as well. Remember that we really can translate the na as with, so that tozali na literally means we are with.

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Basic Questions

In Lingala questions are created by slightly raising the intonation, or sound, at the end of the sentence. For yes/no type questions, sentence structure doesn’t change in comparison to a statement. So:

azali mobali te

translates into English as he is not a man (literally: he is man not). Whereas:

azali mobali te?

translates into English as is he not a man? (literally: he is man not?). This makes asking a yes/no type question a lot easier in Lingala. Think of the statement you want to know, then raise the intonation to make it a question.

Lingala does have some words that help with questions, two of which are in our vocabulary for this lesson: nani and nini. Nani means who and nini means what. These are used by placing them at the end of a sentence in the following way:

mobali nini?what man?man what?
ozali nani?who are you?you are who?
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The little word ‘te’

In English to say something isn’t something else we use the word not. We do something similar in Lingala. The word te means no and is used like the word not to negate something. In contrast to English, it is always placed after the word or phrase it is negating, or at the end of the sentence or phrase. So:

azali mobali kitoko te

In this example the sentence literally reads as he is man beautiful not, or as we translate it into English he is not a handsome man.

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Introduction to Verbs

LingalaEnglish
nazali I am
ozali you are (singular)
azali he/she is

From the above three words, you can see that Lingala works very differently to English in its word structure. In English we might expect that the start of the word would remain the same, whereas we can see that in Lingala the start, or prefix, of a word changes depending on who is doing the action of the verb.

In the words above we can see what the verb is by looking for the root of the verb. In the words above that root is
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zala. This is in effect the ‘word’ that we are here learning.

You can also see that the word azali can mean both he is and she is.  Lingala does not have a feminine or masculine structure to words. We will learn more about this in a later lesson.

LingalaEnglish
ezali it is
tozali we are
bozali you are (plural)
bazali they are (people)
ezali they are (objects)

We have now listed five other prefixes that help us identify the subject of the verb. You can see that tozali , bozali and bazali are plural versions of the verb
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zala. Interestingly, in Lingala there is a difference between you as a singular and you as a plural. This can be a little confusing for English speakers when learning Lingala, but you will find it helps be more specific when speaking in Lingala.

Now notice that ezali appears twice, both as a singular and a plural form when referring to an inanimate item, such as a box or tool. This is the opposite of what we find with it in English where we also use the word them to refer to more than one inanimate item.

Note: In older Lingala (something we will discuss in another article) an inanimate plural is izali. This is rarely used by modern Lingala speakers.

So, the complete list of prefixes used by lingala is as follows:

SingularPlural
na-Ito-we
o–you (singular)bo-you (plural)
a-he/sheba-they (people)
e- it ise-they (objects)
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Using ‘moko’ and ‘liboso’

In other lessons we will discuss in more depth how to count in Lingala. However here it would be good to look at the number one: moko.

This word is special in that it is also used to convey the idea of self. When used with a personal pronoun:

Mpo na ngai moko

This means for myself (literally: for me self). This works with any and all personal pronouns:

ngai mokomyself
biso mokoourself
ye moko himself/herself
bango mokothemself
yo moko yourself (singular)
bino moko yourselves (plural)
yango moko itself or themselves (inanimate)

Connected to the word moko is the word liboso. This word means before. However when used with the word ya notice:

moto ya liboso

This means the first person (literally: person of before/first). It conveys the idea of the first, that is it is the one before anything else.

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More Questions

There are more words we have included in this lesson that can be used for questions. Let’s look at some.

First we have the word ntango which means time. This is in the sense of the time of something, not the amount of times we have done something. When used with the word nini we can use it for asking questions about when something would happen. Notice:

ntango nini osali yango?

This means when did you do it? (literally: time what you did it?). A reply to a question would be as follows:

ntango amoni yango

Here we mean when he saw it (literally: time he saw it).

Another small word that is used a lot in Lingala is mpo which means for. When used in the expression mpo na nini it means why, or literally for what. For example:

mpo na nini basali yango?

Here the sentence means why did they do it? (literally: for what they did it?). Our response would be:

mpo na yango

Or as it is in English for that. Here yango means that.

Another word in Lingala that is used for questions is ndenge which means way in the sense of the way to do something or the way something works. Along with the word nini we can use it to ask questions where we use the word how in English. Notice:

ndenge nini osali yango?

This means how did you do it? (literally: way what you did it?) We can also use the expression ndenge nini to ask the question how somebody is:

ozali ndenge nini?

In this example notice that ndenge nini is placed after the verb ozali (you are). Sometimes in Lingala ndenge nini is placed at the front of the phrase or sentence, other times at the end. This can be true of the other question words and phrases such as ntango nini, etc.

Another similar word is boni. It is used to ask the quantity or how many there is of something, and can also be used to ask how a person is. For example:

boni bino?how are you (plural)how/quantity you (plural)?
bato boni?how many peoplepeople quantity?
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Pronouns

In Lingala, as in English, we can substitute any noun (whether an inanimate thing, or a human or animal) with a relevant personal pronoun. For example:

bana ya Jean

Could be written as:

bana na ye

Notice that the person Jean was replaced by the pronoun ye which means he/she. The complete list of personal pronouns is:

ngai I/mena ngai mine (with me)
biso usna biso our (with us)
ye he/shena ye his/her (with him/her)
bangothemna bangotheir (with them)
yo you (singular)na yo your (singular) (with you (singular))
bino you (plural)na bino your (plural) (with you (plural))
yango it or them (inanimate)na yango its or their (inanimate) (with it or them (inanimate))

Notice that yango is used for both singular and plural of inanimate objects, whereas in English we would use it and them to mean the same thing. It also is a word that is used as that when referring to something, usually physical. Notice too that yo is the singular form of you and that bino is the plural form of you.

Also, we use the word na to show possession, meaning that when something is mine, in Lingala we are saying it is with me (na ngai). Some Lingala speakers will choose to use ya instead of na. This word (ya ) has the meaning of of and indicates possession in a similar way to na. So we could say na ngai or ya ngai to mean mine.