Category: Lessons

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.

A second verb extension that we will learn in this lesson is the passive –am-.

In English (as in many languages) there are times when we talk about the action of a verb being doing to us. We call this the passive tense. As an example, we could say I was seen which expresses the same idea as they saw me. We can do the same in Lingala:

namonamaki	I was seen
bamonaki ngai	they saw me

It is also possible to use passive along with the causative extension:

okosalisama	you (singular) will be helped
bakosalisa yo	They will help you (singular)

So we can write format of the passive tense in the following way:

PREFIX + ROOT + [EXTENSIONS] + am + SUFFIX

We can make any verb passive in Lingala. Though this is possible, you will notice many native Lingala speakers don’t use the passive tense very much at all, often choosing to say someone did the verbs action to something or someone. It is very common for them to choose to use the ba– prefix (they) even if it was just one person that did the verbs action.

In our previous lessons we have learned how to use verbs in Lingala, including looking at how they have prefixes or suffixes that change to reflect different tenses or persons.

Verbs in Lingala can also gain additional meaning by the use of extensions that are added to the root but before any suffixes or prefixes. Sometimes these are called infixes. Let’s look at one example we have already seen:

kokanisa

We learned previously (in Vocabulary – Part 4) that this word means to think. However this word contains an extension: –is-. This extension is causative, that the verb is forcing or causing something or that it is caused or forced. In kokanisa the real root of the word is –kan– which means to purpose or will something or even the sense of plan. In using the extension –is– we see that the verb is causing to plan, that is planning or as we better understand that meaning thinking.

Take a look at some other words that are derived from verbs in this lesson or previous lessons. Notice what the root means, and then how it changes when we add the causative –is– extension.

kozala	to be	kozalisa	to cause to be, to create
komona	to see	komonisa	to make see, to show
kosala	to do	kosalisa	to make work, to help
koyeba	to know	koyebisa	to make know, to inform
koyoka	to hear, to feel, to smell	koyokisa	to cause to hear, to make feel, to make smell

Many words in Lingala can have or use this causative extension. As you can see above some of the words that are created can take on a more expanded meaning than simply to cause this action. Notice kosalisa is used to help us create the idea of not just causing work to be done but also the sense of helping.

We can format causative verbs in this way:

PREFIX + ROOT + is + SUFFIX

If other extensions are used along with –is-, then –is– always comes first in the verb. Notice a few examples of these causative words in action.

nasalisaki yo	I helped you (singular)	I made do you
bakomonisa biso makambo nyonso basalaki	they will show us every thing that they did	they will show us things all they did
tozali koyebisa bato nsango malamu	we are informing people good news	we are making know people news good