Paul Ormond
Alternative form for habitual tense: "ga" suffix
If you're a swahili learner like me - you're probably familiar with the "hu" tense for habitual actions.

"mimi huenda kanisa jumapili"

I (usually/habitually) go to church on sunday"

I learned through my Swahili teacher when we were translating a Kenyan TV show (Selina) an alternative to this - you can add "ga" to end of verb. So the above would be:

"mimi endaga kanisa jumapili"

I'm guessing it's not grammatically correct, i've never seen this in any Swahili grammar book - seems like a more informal alternative.

I was curious if others have come across this?

Native speakers - do you also use/hear this alternative? Would you consider it grammatical or "slang"?


9 ก.ค. 2020 เวลา 1:11
ความคิดเห็น · 3
1
Good observation! As you said, it's more colloquial swahili using "ga" especially by Arusha people. We use it alot. Tunakulaga, tunaendaga, tunalalaga, wanaimbaga etc
3 กันยายน 2020
1
The sentence is not gramatically correct because of the word "endaga" this is a slang word for the correct word huenda.
The prefix 'hu' + is added added to the verb 'enda' to show usually
11 กรกฎาคม 2020
Zachariah

Do you hear this slang use often?
17 กรกฎาคม 2020
Paul Ormond
ทักษะด้านภาษา
ภาษาเยอรมันแบบออสเตรีย, ภาษาอังกฤษ, ภาษาสวาฮีลี
ภาษาที่เรียน
ภาษาเยอรมันแบบออสเตรีย, ภาษาอังกฤษ, ภาษาสวาฮีลี