Chapter 5: Doubling, Negation and the Future
Doubled Verbs: The Simple Tense
Dholuo doubles verbs to mean "just doing" something: asomo asoma, abedo abeda. Learn doubling with verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
📚 Theory: More on Tenses: The Simple Tense
Dholuo doubles verbs to express simply doing the verb. For example, the verb ‘somo’ means ‘to read’. To be ‘just reading’ you would say ‘Asomo asoma’. You double the verb and change the beginning prefix and end vowel to use ‘a’.
| Dholuo (Verb) | English (Verb) | Dholuo (Simple Tense) | English (Simple Tense) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bedo | To seat | Abedo abeda | I am just seating. |
| Somo | To read | Gisomo asoma | They are just reading. |
| Ling’ | To be quiet | Ling’ aling’a | Just be quiet! (This is the imperative form when you’re commanding someone to be quiet’). |
| Wuotho | To walk | Wawuotho awuotha | We are just walking. |
| Wero | To sing | Uwero awera | You are just singing. |
📚 Other uses of doubling.
Adjectives and adverbs can also be doubled to change their meaning.
| Dholuo (Base) | English (Base) | Dholuo (Doubled) | English (Doubled) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moro | Other thing | Moro amora | Any thing |
| Ng’ato | A person | Ng’ato ang’ata | Any person (i.e anybody) |
| Moro | Other thing | Moro ka moro | Each thing |
| Ng’ato | A person | Ng’ato ka ng’ato | Each person (i.e everybody) |
💬 Conversation Practice
Yambo
Utimo ang’o ka?
Y’all are doing + what + here?
What are you all doing here?
Akinyi
Wabet abeta
We are just sitting.
Yambo
Mia kom moro.
Give me + chair + other
Give me another chair.
Yambo
Aneno ng’ato ka ng’ato nigi kom.
I see + everybody + is with + a chair
I see everybody has a chair.
Akinyi
Idwaro kom mane?
You want + chair + which one?
Which chair do you want?
Yambo
Mia kom moro amora
Give me + chair + any
Give me any chair.
📚 Vocabulary from the Conversation
| Dholuo | English | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Utimo | You are doing | Verb | Derived from the verb ‘timo’ which means ‘to do’ |
| Wabet abeta | We are just sitting. | Verb | Derived from doubling the verb ‘bet’ which means ‘to sit’. |
| Kom | Chair | Noun |
🎯 Practice Exercises
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