Chapter 4: Talking About the Past
The Past Tense with Ne and Nende
Form the Dholuo past tense with nende and its short form ne: ne andiko (I wrote), ne ondiko (he/she wrote).
📚 Theory: More on Tenses: The Past Tense
The most common way to form the past tense is to add the word ‘ne’ before a verb. It’s derived from the word ‘nende’ which means ‘formerly’.
| Dholuo | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Nende | Formerly | Is usually contracted to ‘Ne’. |
Grammar note: Let’s see how this is used in practice.
📚 Use of ‘Nende’ to indicate the past.
Here’s how to conjugate verbs in past tense using ‘ne’.
| Dholuo (Present Tense) | English (Present Tense) | Dholuo (Past Tense) | English (Past Tense) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andiko | I am writing | Nende andiko | I wrote |
| Indiko | You are writing | Nende indiko | You wrote |
| Ondiko | He/She is writing | Nende ondiko | He/She wrote |
| Wandiko | We are writing | Nende wandiko | We wrote |
| Undiko | You (plural) are writing | Nende undiko | You wrote |
| Gindiko | They are writing | Nende gindiko | They wrote |
Grammar note: When a word ending in a vowel is followed by a word starting with a vowel, the first vowel is dropped. Thus ‘Ne andiko’ is contracted to ‘nandiko’.
📚 Theory: Contractions of the Past Tense
As mentioned earlier, the word ‘nende’ can be contracted to ‘ne’ when used to form the past tense. Here’s how that’d go.
| Dholuo | English |
|---|---|
| Ne andiko | I wrote |
| Ne indiko | You wrote |
| Ne ondiko | He/She wrote |
| Ne wandiko | We wrote |
| Ne undiko | You (plural) wrote |
| Ne gindiko | They wrote |
💬 Conversation Practice
Yambo
Ne idhi kanye?
You went + where?
Where did you go?
Akinyi
Ne adhi skul
I went + school
I went to school.
Yambo
To ne isomo?
And + you read?
And you read?
Akinyi
Ehh, ne asomo buk.
Yes + i read + book
Yes, I read a book.
📚 Vocabulary from the Conversation
| Dholuo | English | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skul | School | Noun | A loan word from English |
| Somo | To read | Verb | A loan word from the Kiswahili word ‘soma’ which means ‘to read’. |
| Buk | A book | Noun | A loan word from English. |
🎯 Practice Exercises
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