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class="post-22199 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-lessons category-numbers">
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.
11
zomi na moko
21
ntuku mibale na moko
12
zomi na mibale
22
ntuku mibale na mibale
13
zomi na misato
30
ntuku misato
14
zomi na minei
31
ntuku na moko
15
zomi na mitano
40
ntuku minei
16
zomi na motoba
50
ntuku mitano
17
zomi na nsambo
60
ntuku motoba
18
zomi na mwambe
70
ntuku nsambo
19
zomi na libwa
80
ntuku mwambe
20
ntuku mibale
90
ntuku libwa
When counting from eleven to nineteen, we use zomiplus the word na(with) and then one of the numbers from one to nine. For example: elevenis 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 ntukuand then one of the numbers from one to nine. So twentyis ntuku mibale, thirtyis 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.
Verbs in Lingala fall into twocategories. 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:
kolinga
to like, want
nalingi
I want
komona
to see
tomoni
we see
kosepela
to enjoy
osepeli
you enjoy
koyeba
to know
ayebi
he/she knows
kozala
to be/exist
bazali
they 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:
kokufa
to die
nazali kokufa
I am to die (dying)
koloba
to speak/talk
tozali koloba
we are speaking
kopesa
to give
azali kopesa
he/she is giving
kosala
to do/work
bozali kosala
you (plural) are working
kotanga
to read/count
bazali kotanga
they are reading
koteya
to teach
ezali koteya
it 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+ iko+ 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 kotangatells 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.
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.
Lingala
English
Lingala Expression
English Expression
kokufa
to die
mpo na kokufa
for to die
kolinga
to like, want
kolinga ngai
to like me
koloba
to speak/talk
koloba yango
to speak it
komona
to see
komona bango
to see them
kopesa
to give
kopesa yo
to give you
kosala
to do/work
kosala yango
to do it
kosepela
to enjoy
kosepela yango
to enjoy it
kotanga
to read/count
kotanga mpo na bino
to read for you (plural)
koteya
to teach
koteya yo moko
to teach yourself
koyeba
to know
koyeba biso
to know us
kozala
to be/exist
kozala te
to 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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