Chapter 4: Talking About the Past
Other Past Tense Markers: Nyocha, A and Yande
Go beyond ne: use nyocha, a and yande to place actions in the recent or more distant past in Dholuo.
📚 Theory: More on Tenses: The Past Tense
There’s other ways to form the past tense using the phrases below.
| Dholuo | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Nyocha | The day before yesterday | |
| A | To come from (doing something) | It’s used for the very immediate past. |
| Yande | Recently |
Grammar note: Let’s see how these words are used in practice.
📚 Other ways to indicate the past.
Here’s how to conjugate verbs in past tense using other past tense markers.
| Dholuo (Past Tense Marker) | English (Past Tense Marker) | Dholuo (Example) | English (Example) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nyocha | The day before yesterday | Nyocha atuo | I was sick the day before yesterday |
| Yande | Recently | Yande atuo | I was sick recently |
| A | To come from | A atuo | I have just come from being sick (but I no longer am) |
🎯 Practice Exercises
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