Chapter 5: Doubling, Negation and the Future
The Future Tense with Biro
Form the Dholuo future tense with biro and its short forms before the verb: wabiro ndiko, ibondiko.
📚 Theory: More on Tenses: The Future Tense
The most common way to form the future tense is to add the word ‘biro’ before a verb. It’s oddly similar to how English uses the word ‘go’ to form the future tense, eg. I am going to eat. Dholuo sort of does the opposite instead, using the word ‘biro’ which means ‘to come’. ‘Biro’ can sometimes be contracted to ‘bo’ when .
| Dholuo | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Biro | To come | Is usually contracted to ‘Bo’. |
📚 Use of ‘biro’ to indicate the future.
Here’s how to conjugate verbs in the future tense using ‘biro’.
| English (Present Tense) | Dholuo (Present Tense) | English (Future Tense) | Dholuo (Future Tense) | Dholuo (Future Tense Contracted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I am writing | Andiko | I will write (literally ‘I am coming to write’) | Abiro ndiko | Abondiko |
| You are writing | Indiko | You will write | Ibiro ndiko | Ibondiko |
| He/She is writing | Ondiko | He/She will write | Obiro ndiko | Obondiko |
| We are writing | Wandiko | We will write | Wabiro ndiko | Wabondiko |
| You (plural) are writing | Undiko | You will write | Ubiro ndiko | Ubondiko |
| They are writing | Gindiko | They will write | Gibiro ndiko | Gibondiko |
🎯 Practice Exercises
Practice is free: just sign in
Create a free account to unlock the interactive exercises for this lesson and track your progress. The lessons stay free to read, always.
Create free accountSpeak on Echo
Answer the daily Dholuo prompt or post your own recording on Echo. Other learners listen, and a native Luo speaker reviews how you sound.
Practice speaking on Echo